Oliver Atkinson

I’ve been considering the likelihood of finding people with the same interests as myself.

It’s not hard to find someone who likes Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or Minecraft. But to find someone who is interested in tech the way I am is a formidable challenge. I’ve noticed that many friends don’t necessarily share interests in everything, that’s to be expected. But in the realm of tech (perhaps all of STEM) it seems to be a greater divide. You have the one friend that has their job or hobby in something incredible technical and the the other who doesn’t know the first thing about the subject, except that their friend spends an awful amount of time with it.

Now that we have the abstract out of the way we can use more specific examples.

Incase you don’t know much about me, I’m currently (as of Q1 2023) in college for software development, getting my associates (NOT bachelors, see why). And during any givin class I’m sitting in I already know as much or more about the subject than the teacher, or at least could figure it out on my own faster than they can teach it (or at least do teach it).

Seeing as I have lots of (perhaps niche) knowledge about computers, it isolates me from other people. I have lots of knowledge and no one to share it with. That perhaps sounds dramatic and arrogant saying “I’m know so much more than everyone else, woe is me!” but it’s actually kind of a problem. Now, the counter argument is that I can’t really be “smarter than everyone else” because I learned from someone.

Yes, that is true.

Q: But who did I learn it from?

A: People on the internet.

And where are all the people who wrote the Arch Wiki pages? Nowhere near me, I can just about guarantee you that! So it’s not so much an issue of me being smarter than everyone (or anyone) but just an issue of my knowledge not coming from a local source. If we took my Linux knowledge as an example; is average if looked at, gauging against the internet’s perspective. But if gauged from the perspective of anyone I personally know, I am eons ahead of them. Especially considering most people barely know the difference between PC / Mac! Totally unaware that a third major operating system exists (Yes, BSD and others also exist but they have a very small market share, so not knowing about them is a little more understandable.) (Just to note: my professors do know what Linux is etc, etc, they just have little experience with it.) Therefor I’m in an isolated bubble; me and my knowledge, but no one to share it with.

This is generally the part where the person falls into a para-social relationship with some internet personality who said person relates with.

But that’s actually not where this story is going to go. I’m aware of the issues arising from para-social relationships so I try to spend less and less time on YouTube, as well as other social media. (You should too!) Thus, I feel more and more isolated, as if I am the only one with my knowledge and no one who wants to learn. Who am I suppose to share it with? The instant you mention computers most people’s eyes glaze over, let alone nerd operating systems like Linux¹.

This, interestingly, leads us to Ted Kaczynski, and his work: INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE. Specifically in paragraph 87, where he is talking about how science and technology are what he denotes “surrogate activities.” These are activities which we do, but are not required for our survival. In this paragraph he mentions a scientist that is researching isopropyltrimethylmethane and how the scientist “wouldn’t give a damn about isopropyltrimethylmethane” if he had to (actually) work to find food every day. And I would imagine that said scientist may feel out of place when in a conversation where he wishes to talk about this cool chemical he’s researching, but he also knows that if he starts mentioning nerdy science stuff all the conversation participants will quickly loose interest and try to divert the conversation. (And he would also wish to do that. As talking to a bunch of blank stares is quite awkward! (I know!)) However, if this scientist and all these friends still had to go about their farming / ranching / fishing / etc jobs everyday, they would still want to talk about their work, but the aforementioned jobs are easier to talk about with other people who are unacquainted with the job, as they are easier to understand².

So now when the Fisherman, the Rancher, and the Farmer all come together at some social event, they can easily talk about their jobs, and no one feels excluded or isolated. But now lets say myself, and two other STEM majors come together at a social event. All of our areas of interest are similar right? Not really, while all stem, we might have a Electrical Engineer, a Computer Scientist (myself), and a Chemist. The Electrical Engineer might find the resonance of circuits and components fascinating, the Chemist and I have either no - or very little knowledge on the subject. The Chemist them tries to mention what they’ve been working on (maybe isopropyltrimethylmethane). Then the blank stares start again. So I figure I might try and share my cool findings as of late. I begin to explain Ones’ Complement and how they are important to checksums and addition in computers. But before I can explain the first bit (get it?) I’m talking at two blank stares. Now all three of us “smart” and “educated” people have to resort to talking about the weather or some equally useless topic as all this “getting smart” that the new world allows us to do, really has only forced our conversation to regress.