The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth

The year was 1977 and the world was hit with a tsunami of mania never seen before, Star Wars - A New Hope. An unknown bearded guy completely transformed the landscape in Hollywood with the advent of technology and CGI. George Lucas was sticking it to the big boys and helping him in the crusade was technology. Not too far and not long after in another city of the same state something similar was brewing. The Jobbs and Gates were getting busy in showing the middle finger to tech behemoths IBM. Truly the era of the Geeks were just starting.

For years, across school grounds and classrooms, the little bespectacled guys were getting picked on, getting wedged and all sorts of nightmares common in a teenager's life. Stereotypically physically inferior but intellectually superior than the jocks and would be suits, the geeks were biding their time and brewing up a revolution to right all the wrongs of bygone years and change the world for better.

Enter the newest and most unconventional superheroes, the techie geeks. The rise of Apple, Microsoft and later on Google and Facebook. The Internet was a game changer and these modern day tech leaders, geeks in their hey days, were put on the pedestal of Gods something which evaded more deserving candidates like Tesla and Einstein. There was a new hope of sorts, finally the underdogs and the bullied in yesterday's school grounds were going to right all that is wrong. Stick it to the "Man" and give power back to the people, or so everyone thought and wished including yours truly.

Geek was the new sexy or black, take your pick of phrases. Technology was supposed to be th weapon that would level the playing field which was tilted towards the elite and the ruling classes. The evil Merchants of Venice aka Bankers, Industrialists and those in power will finally answer for years of injustice. The Geeks were the new billionaires often forming the majority of the top 10 of Forbes list. With cool and hip mission statements like "Don't Be Evil", there was hope for the have-nots. No longer kids only strived to be like the demi-gods and goddesss of the sporst and entertainment industry. The Tech Nerd/Geek was born challenging the system and thinking outside of the box.

Like most things, power corrupts people. The harder the geeks tried to change the system, the more entrenched they became intonthe system. The rebel was the leader now, the Jobbs and Gates were powerful enough to control economies of nations. Gone were the Rockfellers and Rothschilds, now replaced by the Zuckerbergs, Bezos and Pages of today. Take a look around and it is hard not to notice, how the very technology that was to liberate us are enslaving us more and more. Smart phones aren't assisting us but making us dependent on them and more dumb. We have swapped one master for another., where once the people with money and power were at the top, in today's crazy digital world people with technology and information rule the world as exemplified by the russian fake news and bots aiding in the election of He Who Must Not Be Mentioned.

Sci-fi noir shows like Black Mirror and to an extent Mr Robot are giving us a peak at a dystopian future not too far away from now. As someone working in tech, these rapid developments are slowly turning many Technophiles like myself to Technophobes. This will be more prevalent with the rise of AI and Machine Learning and the impending job apocalypse of the work force. We can only hope, the tech leaders can only go back to the time they had a desire and determination to change the world for the better. Unfortunately, given the current state of affairs it reminds me of the famous french saying "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".