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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4642076" data-attributes="member: 54707">That's why I said this Umbran, though maybe I didn't make the point strongly enough:By the way FL, although I like your recommendations about how to go about analyzing anything (the best analysis comes from analyzing all possible factors and influences, though not necessarily by assigning equal value to all elements) I'm not really talking about Scientist versus Poet, or Science versus Romance (as an ideal) or Religion or Art, for that matter. I'm splitting or dividing what might be considered modern "Brainiac interests" into two divergent sub-groups. I wanted to make the clear exactly what I'm saying.And saying that over time, whereas Nerd used to be considered the "smart guy" and a person whose interest was science, technical matters, etc, now that's not the real case anymore. Geeks have become the technical masters of Nerdom, and Nerds are becoming, more and more, for a lack of a better term, the Romantics among smart guys.  (I'd say Scientific Romantics, Smart Romantics, or even possibly Technical Romantics, but I think you probably get my point.)Now I'm not really one of those people who think either Nerds or Geeks are that much brighter (if at all), and certainly not that much wiser (if ever), than any other non-Nerd, non-Geek variety of individual. So I use smart-guy as a sort of linguistic short-hand for a particular cultural stereotype and assumption about smart-guys.But I am saying that as society becomes more complicated and much more heavily reliant upon technology, in advanced societies anyways, two things are happening simultaneously. Most everyone is developing a certain degree of either "Nerdom," or "Geekage" (or maybe both) as a matter of merely being able to function in a technologically advanced society, and secondly that the Nerd, who used to represent the technically proficient "smart-guy" is now becoming the Romantic (as an ideal) among Brainiacs.That Nerdom is splitting into two camps, or divisions (far more actually, but that's all I'm talking about), and that the Geek is assuming the technical role, or the "Mr. Wizard role" that the Nerd once had, and the Nerd is becoming less the technician and more the idealist. That as time goes along the split becomes ever more apparent, and you can tell this even on boards like this, covering gaming discussions. You have your technicians and your romantics and yet from the point of most outside observers, as S'mon pointed out, they would usually be considered the same sub-culture. But they are not, not really, and not anymore. That as time progresses they are splitting and fracturing, as will happen with any group of people once the population gets high enough, or the possible divergents of interests complicated enough.So I'm not saying Poet versus Scientist, I'm saying Brainiacs (as the old term was once used) are fracturing into separate camps, and that the Geek is assuming the role of Mr. Wizard (whereas that term used to be used to generally describe most Nerds). By the way when I use the term Wizard I'm using it in three different ways. I'm using it to mean technical-wizard, like in "Mr. Wizard," to mean a kid or young person, like in "Wiz-Kid," and like in "Face me Wizard, and taste my wrath!" As Thundarr would shout. Sorry - I couldn't resist the Thundarr reference.I'm saying the Nerd ain't the Mr. Wizard anymore, he's more the Merlin.He's the Old Order now, and often defends Old Order values and ideals and ways of looking at even matters like gaming.</blockquote>

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