Throughout my years of movie watching and electronics sales, I
have noticed one trend that I find kind of amusing, and might help
explain how we *cough* "know" who the Nerds are... Technology. Say what
you will about Nerds, nerds and technology are almost interchangeable
terms. Regardless of whatever else they are fans of, nerds LOVE their
technology, and are often the first to embrace the newest technological
advances.
People, (and by people, I mean in general and not in
specific), foster a love/hate/fear relationship with technology. When we
first get a new technological device, we love it. We love our cars,
computers, cell phones, tablets, cameras, and all our gadgets and chirpy
little doodads that go along with modern life. Once our device doesn't
work *exactly* as desired, we get angry. We fear life without them, and
fear life with them. People often take out their frustrations on
innocent pieces of electronic equipment. (I once threw my cell phone
across a room when I was fighting with my then-boyfriend. The phone
miraculously survived).
In the 1,000+ films I have watched in my
life, a common theme arises. Even in some of the oldest films made, the
"Fear of Technology" is a prevalent theme. In the first science fiction
film, Metropolis (1927) a fem-bot destroys the city. In Modern Time s
(1936) Charlie Chaplin, a factory worker, has a nervous breakdown
because of his high-stress technological job. In a gamut of more recent
films like the Terminator series, Transformers series, and I, Robot
(2004) just to name a few, technology is a menace. Technology rises up
against the fleshy creators (or mere humans) and destroys society.
Humanity
in these films are also partially saved by technology. Terminator's
John Conner is repeatedly rescued by technology as it seeks to destroy
him. The Deceptacons, usually military and non-automobile robots, cause
massive amounts of destruction on Earth while we are saved by Optimus
Prime (an 18 wheeler) and his Autobots (A variety of cars, trucks, and
forms of Civilian transportation). This also shows a slight fear of
military invasion, a worry that war has ruined our society.
Perhaps
one of the greatest reasons we fear technology is that technology
removes our necessity in the workplace- people are replaced with
machines, causing less people to be necessary to perform the same
functions. What use do we have of real live babysitters when we can have
a robot nanny? In I, Robot society has become adjusted and inured with
the overabundance of robots: they do all the work we people don't want
to do for ourselves. Robots are constrained by rules to protect us,
until they turn on humanity because V.I.K.I, the central 'brain' of the
robots has determined humanity cannot take care of itself.
But what does this have to do with Nerds, You ask? Let me explain.
In
films, and in real life, Nerds embrace technology and make it their
own. Nerds are the first ones to take-on new technology like computers,
the internet, ereaders. Cellphones are an exception, but mostly because
of the expense of the earliest cellular phones.
In the Revenge of
the Nerds films, nerds perform computer-based music. In Weird Science,
nerds build a perfect woman (although she wreaks havoc, the Nerds were
the ones with the know-how to do so) because of their inability to
approach girls. They are not truly trying to replace women, but to learn
how to talk to them. In Growing Pains the nerdy Carol Anne Seaver once
dreams of getting a modem. On the TV series Chuck, the "Nerd Herd" works
in computer repair. Hackers are really just a bunch of nerds using
their superior nerd knowledge to 'hack' into governmental databases.
While heroic in the film, the threat of hackers and people stealing our
information off the internet is very real. Even Tony Stark Iron Man is a
Nerd with Money: the comic book fan's dream of being Rich with all the
Tech and skill to build himself into a superhero role.
The men
(and some of the women) in the Big Bang Theory are nerds They are also
cutting-edge scientists, studying String Theory, space, theoretical
physics, things that confuse many laypeople like Penny, the normal. But,
the men created things like a zero-gravity toilet.
Nerds are
often the ones to *embrace* technology because they create it. Real Life
"nerds" Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have had a tremendous influence in
everyday life. It is the nerd who has the skill, know-how, and intellect
to create, to think forward, to come up with new ideas and answers to
problems that present themselves to society.
It is the nerd that
fixes the technology. We turn to nerds when our computer breaks, when we
can't fix our cellphone, when we don't know how to set up our new
Television system. Now, I'm not saying that nerds fix automobiles, but
Nerds do design automobiles and test them.
This embrace of
technology is perhaps why stereotypical Nerds love Science Fiction
genre: Science Fiction shows a world where all the hard work of Nerds
has paid off.
