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General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: Sionyn on November 26, 2015, 11:53:07 am

Title: Lack of Opertunity Turns Engineers Into Terrorists
Post by: Sionyn on November 26, 2015, 11:53:07 am
I can hear Trump already: Build a wall and keep those engineers out! Close all the engineering schools!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/11/17/this-is-the-group-thats-surprisingly-prone-to-violent-extremism/ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/11/17/this-is-the-group-thats-surprisingly-prone-to-violent-extremism/)
Title: Re: Lack of Opertunity Turns Engineers Into Terrorists
Post by: Marco on November 26, 2015, 12:09:35 pm
They're oriented towards problem solving, any observant Muslim will have to recognize a whole world not submitting yet as a problem. So you need to keep them distracted.

As for engineers being more prone to fundamentalism in religion period, I've always thought it's because of an over reliance on rationalism. Some of them recoil from nihilism, but they don't want to embrace the fuzziness of humanism/romanticism. So they turn to system which allows to hide almost all the irrationality behind one single choice and then proceed mostly rationally from there. Some find this in libertarianism and NAP, some in other religions.
Title: Re: Lack of Opertunity Turns Engineers Into Terrorists
Post by: EEVblog on November 26, 2015, 12:43:00 pm
Interesting if their data is correct.
Title: Re: Lack of Opertunity Turns Engineers Into Terrorists
Post by: krivx on November 26, 2015, 01:19:14 pm
Quote from: EEVblog on November 26, 2015, 12:43:00 pm
Interesting if their data is correct.

The author has been tracking this for some time: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/magazine/12FOB-IdeaLab-t.html?_r=0 (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/magazine/12FOB-IdeaLab-t.html?_r=0)
Title: Re: Lack of Opertunity Turns Engineers Into Terrorists
Post by: tggzzz on November 26, 2015, 01:42:19 pm
Quote from: EEVblog on November 26, 2015, 12:43:00 pm
Interesting if their data is correct.

It certainly isn't a new claim; I've been aware of this for several years. That doesn't make the claims more or less true, but biasses me towards believing there is something to the concept.
Title: Re: Lack of Opertunity Turns Engineers Into Terrorists
Post by: JoeO on November 26, 2015, 03:28:53 pm
In the rest of the world there are very few people who have the money or time to spend getting a degree in an area in which there are no jobs.  Such as:

15th Century English Literature
Philosophy
Psychology
Music
African Studies
Womyn's Studies

or the myriad of other fields.

For those of us in the US, how many students from other countries major in this stuff???  Very few.
The vast majority of foreign students are in STEM.