
Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists - dvt
http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/11/25/1326242/engineers-nine-times-more-likely-than-expected-to-become-terrorists
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api
Terrorist ideologies are absolutist and fundamentalist. The mental habits that
engineering cultivates are unfortunately compatible with this way of thinking
in political and spiritual/religious realms. There is an absolute truth and an
absolute right and wrong, etc.

I've never met a "terrorist" but I have known a surprising number of engineers
who subscribe to totalitarian politics and/or religious fundamentalism. At
first I found this shocking and confusing.

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ThrustVectoring
One of the skills that engineering teaches and/or selects for is something
like "taking ideas seriously."

If you take chemistry and conservation of linear momentum seriously, you get
rocketry. If you take "America is the Great Satan" seriously, you get
terrorism. There's a fundamental similarity between the processes.

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icanhackit
_One of the skills that engineering teaches and /or selects for is something
like "taking ideas seriously."_

I respect what you're saying but I think there's room for nuance. They tend to
be competitive and driven. In a sense you can't become an engineer without
those traits because engineering, or the application of scientific principles
in design, is hard. You have to work hard to become an engineer.

Engineers are highly capable of implementing plans because of their method of
thinking and acting. Daydreaming about something is different to actual
implementation. It's why the phrase _Ideas are cheap, execution is everything_
is a common refrain in these parts.

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ethanbond
What about the social components? It seems too obvious a stereotype not to at
least investigate whether or not the "lonely nerds" are seeking social
identity and belonging in groups like these.

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itgoon
There will be harmony among the engineers as soon as we all agree on the best
text editor.

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alexandrerond
If anyone knows the API endpoint to consult membership details of terrorist
organizations, including level of studies of their members, I'd like check
myself that we are really "9 times" more likely, and not 8.4 or 11.3.

