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A GeekNation?
Imagine that in our time there was a nation where geek culture was dominant, with all of the strengths (Logical Thinkers, Frequent Spenders) and drawbacks (Obsessive Personalities, Eccentric and Diverse Behaviors).
Could such a homogeneous nation survive? Would they be able to unite and dominate the world? Could the Congress get anything done without a flamewar erupting?
Post your own predictions. This has been on my mind quite a bit lately.
Could such a homogeneous nation survive? Would they be able to unite and dominate the world? Could the Congress get anything done without a flamewar erupting?
Post your own predictions. This has been on my mind quite a bit lately.
Comments
If you need a benchmark, anyone who feels strong enough about their hobby to attend a convention. I'm not saying geeks would be considered the elite. I'm saying the culture would be dominant: animation would be more common in theaters, science and learning in general would be valued, and everyone would understand things like internet culture and conventions.
When you say 'geek' I assume you mean Geeks like yourself, Rym, Scott and probably myself. Internet monkeys who watch Japanese animation, play video games (PC or otherwise) and know something technical about computers. Whilst we are generally considered 'geeks', this is internet culture you're talking about since anyone can be a geek in any unspecified field, such as 1980's rock music or American Football.
With science the learning valued, who would run the farms? I understand that running a farm requires a wealth of knowledge, but probably not the type that people within geek culture strike for. Unless we have a mass transition to hydroponic farming, this just wouldn't work, probably.
There are a lot of problems with Internet Culture being the dominate. If we were to say 'Internet Culture Lite' were the dominate culture, such as people loving animation, conventions and the internet you could argue that places like Otacon or Dracon wouldn't be even more popular, but they wouldn't exist at all! Since conventions usually only fit a small niche of people who aren't surrounded by their desired culture, such as anime now. If anime were to become the most popular genre in movies, there would be cons for actions films or real-life actors instead =P Maybe not.
They're already claiming the tubes of the internet are already clogged up, with 250+ million people using the internet like you or I would, the tubes would burst... or they would find a reason to charge even more money for it.
Enjoy your growing but still less populated culture whilst it lasts, I guess.
I think it would be able to survive, if the majority of people are logical thinkers, they would most logically vote for those who are best suited for governmental tasks, who in turn would make the proper and smart decisions. I think it could survive.
After reading this thread I decided to do some research. I'm in a random small city in Germany called Kiel, so wondered what brands of geekery I could find without even trying hard. I looked in a bookshop for some new science fiction novels and found a large selection (maybe 3 blocks of shelves) of manga and other comics. A lot was translated into Germany, other into English. This wasn't a comic book store, just a mainstream bookshop. Next I looked in a large department store and found a whole load of boardgames that I consider real geeky. Torrus was 50 euro, so I didn't buy it in the end. Then, right in the city center, was a huge fantasy and science fiction store with 3 floors of novels, board games, role playing games, miniatures, etc, etc, etc. All this was pretty much within 200 meters of each other. Now I'm sitting in an internet cafe and maybe 20 people are playing World of Warcraft style games and Counterstrike games.
I'd say geeknights style geekery is pretty much mainstream here in Germany. Not as big as F1 or rock music, but mainstream none the less. Even juggling (my favourite geekery) is pretty mainstream in Germany.
It would be super awesome if it could be done. Imagine an over 55 condo type place, but instead of the clubhouse having shuffleboard courts, it has lasertag. Instead of card tables, it has tabletop gaming tables. Instead of a swimming pool, it has, uh, a lake with awesome boats!
(Shotty druid)
Also, I played Guitar Hero for the first time. I found it not quite as interesting as actually playing a guitar but still a lot of fun.