In 1951 Newsweek reported that the word nerd was a new way by which a person could refer to a “drip” or a “square” in the city of Detroit, Michigan.  An alternative spelling was used by the famous science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, using the word nurd in a story he wrote in 1973. There is anecdotal evidence that the alternative spelling of nurd is a shortening of the word “knurd” which is “drunk” spelled backwards, since a nurd is the opposite of a “partier,” shunning the wild parties characteristic of college campus life for the life of a “knurd,” studious and socially awkward.

Believe it or not, due to a lot of bad publicity, many people seem to think that being a nerd is a negative thing. Well I think all of us reading “Nerd Universe” would beg to differ. In case you have been feeling a need to get up and do something about the bad press we’ve gotten, don’t bother. Its been done already. Back in 1993 Gerald Sussman made it his business to help nerds feel proud about themselves, instilling nerd pride in nerds whenever he was given the opportunity.  For instance, in an interview he gave to Katie Hafner of the New York Times on August 29, 1993 Gerald Sussman said,

“My idea is to present an image to children that it is good to be intellectual, and not to care about the peer pressures to be anti-intellectual. I want every child to turn into a nerd – where that means someone who prefers studying and learning to competing for social dominance, which can unfortunately cause the downward spiral into social rejection.”

So nerds, unite. You gave the world just about every electronic device, computer technology, search engines and anything else that distinguishes the 21st century as the “Age of Information.” Oh and fun electronic gadgets, too.

But sometimes us nerds stop for two seconds and think about this fast-paced, constantly changing world that we live in and wonder if everything is really so good. For instance, I was talking to one of my neighbors today, telling her that I was going to buy a new microwave oven for my newly married daughter and son-in-law. Although we both agreed that it is hard to imagine living today without a microwave, it is certainly possible to live without one, as the both of us have proved since we both grew up without one and have lived to tell the tale. Then my friend continued to bemoan at least two ways that microwaves may actually harm our lives rather than help.

For one thing, in the old days, if you wanted a baked potato for lunch, you would say to yourself, “In about one hour or so I want to eat lunch. Therefore I should put my potato in the oven NOW so it will be ready to be eaten in about 1 hour.” Then we can wash the potato, put it in the (conventional) oven, set a timer, and come back in one hour to eat. Then we were free to get back to whatever it was we had been doing before. Very little time was wasted. Today, since the potato takes about five minutes, we just hang around next to the microwave until the potato is ready. This waiting around wastes time.

The larger problem with the microwave is how it affects the family structure, and how families don’t spend their meals together. My friend said that without a microwave, the children were forced to come home for dinner when Father came home, and everyone ate their evening meal together. This was a time to share the events of the day, ideas, dreams and whatever else people in the same family want to talk about together. Now, because the microwave has made it so easy, family members eat separately when they get back from school, work, play, etc, and don’t really share the evening meal together. A great loss, both my neighbor and I believe.

Of course if the two younger brothers don’t have to eat together, perhaps there will be less fighting between them. That’s hard to know for sure. But what can be known is that technologies such as microwaves, which have had such a profound effect on our  modern way of life, might not only improve the quality our lives, but if we are not careful, can perhaps harm it, too.

Then there are the slower-paced nerds; those who are kind of wannabe super -nerds. They want to be at the top of the new gadget list, but simply neither have the capital nor the guts to go out and purchase all the latest toys. Or perhaps their significant others are stopping them from doing so. Either way, they buy what they need, or what has been out for some time and has thus come down in price.

Finally there are the lowest-tier nerds. They just can’t keep up with their counterpart nerds. They are left way behind. They might vaguely hear about the latest gadget and think that the iPad sounds cool, but they just haven’t gotten their act together to make the purchase. They will say to themselves in some kind of justification, well, perhaps it is worth waiting for the next model, but that means that they will miss the super- or even slower-paced nerd boat. They might have other priorities and just once, many years ago, used to be a really top supe- nerd, when they had more time, money and less things to spend their money on.

So what should I do? I’ve decided to stop worrying about it and start enjoying my inner nerd, and sharing that special part of me with you, without regrets. So, for one thing, we all know that nerds love electronic gadgets and brain exercise. So maybe we should start with something electronic that also gives your brain some exercise.

A researcher for Hitachi Ltd is working on a device that translates brain activity into real world motion. At Hitachi’s research lab outside of Tokyo “the brain-machine interface” device, which fits on your head, analyzes tiny changes in blood flow in the brain, detecting brain motion and changing that into electronic signals which can then be transmitted to electronic devices to control them, without ever having to lift a finger. In the demonstration which was conducted by Akiko Obata at the lab in Hatoyama, the device was used to start and stop a toy electric train. Very interesting.

What was the name of that movie again? Oh yea. Wally. Hmmm. Well at least with this spiffy device your brain won’t get fat.

Maybe I’m not the nerd I thought I was after all. Thank goodness.