Slashdot Log In
Engineers Make Good Terrorists?
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Apr 03, 2008 04:11 PM
from the what's-wrong-with-an-engineering-degree dept.
from the what's-wrong-with-an-engineering-degree dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Engineers' focus and attention to details, along with their perceived lack of social skills, make them ideal targets to be recruited as terrorists, according to EETimes. Planning skills make engineers good 'field operatives' was written up by Raphael Perl, who heads the Action against Terrorism Unit of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He offers that 'Engineers ideally make excellent strategic planners, and they make excellent field operatives. They think differently from how other people think.' That may sound like a stereotype, but Perl claims that 'because of those traits, terrorist groups actively recruit engineers.' He says that Al-Qaeda has widely acknowledged that a significant number of the group's top leadership had engineering backgrounds." This is the second time in just a few months that engineers have been likened to terrorists.
Related Stories
[+]
Engineers Have a Terrorist Mindset? 837 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Do engineers have a way of looking at the world not all that different from terrorists? According to an article in the EE Times, they do. The story cites 'Engineers of Jihad,' a paper (pdf download) by two Oxford University sociologists, who found that graduates in science, engineering, and medicine are strongly overrepresented among Islamist movements. The paper also found that engineers are 'over-represented' among graduates who gravitate to violent groups. Authors Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog chalk this all up to what they call the 'engineering mindset,' which they define as 'a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme conservative and religious positions.' Is this just pop psychology masquerading as science?"
Firehose:Engineers Make Good Terrorists by Anonymous Coward
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Old news (Score:5, Funny)
Then answer this... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Then answer this... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
This makes me so ANGRY! (Score:5, Funny)
THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY I WANT TO BLOW SOMETHING UP!
And yeah, C&C had Engineers. You could take over buildings with them, as long as the building health was below 50%. Otherwise, they would damage the building.
Parent
Re:This makes me so ANGRY! (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
I'm thinking defamation suit... (Score:5, Funny)
Lack of social skills? (Score:5, Funny)
We were supposed to go out on a second date, but she got the flu, and then her mother was sick, after that her grandma died and her father had a heart attack and she couldn't make it.
I figured I was better off anyway. With that many people sick in her family, she must have had horrible genes.
Parent
Engineering Improvements: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Engineering Improvements: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
What about the managers (Score:5, Funny)
Aptly named (Score:5, Funny)
Also, if you read TFA, he goes on to state that "laziness, impatience, and hubris" are the three virtues of a good terrorist.
P.S. Christ, what has happened to Slashdot's page layout today?? The goggles do nothing!
Blah blah. (Score:5, Insightful)
Basically anyone who is methodical and knowledgeable would make a good X, where X is something that needs a methodical knowledgeable person. Engineers are required to be methodical and knowledgeable, so QED.
I don't know why they're so damn fixated on engineers though. Doesn't take an engineer to slam a plane into a building, and that's about the most successful piece of terrorism to date.
Engineer Joke (Score:5, Funny)
How do you tell if an engineer is an introvert or an extrovert?
The extrovert looks at your shoes.
Parent
Re:Blah blah. (Score:5, Funny)
Engineers will be better than scientists or academics, despite similarly high intelligence levels, because engineers actually have to show results with their projects.
Instead of profiling and waging wars, though, America's efforts to stop terrorism would best be served by a policy aimed at getting everyone on the planet a good fuck and some cold beer.
Parent
Wargames... (Score:5, Interesting)
Engineers go to school to learn how to plan. (Score:5, Insightful)
That both the terrorists and those fighting the terrorists would want chemical, electrical, structural, and electronics engineers for their specific areas of expertise alone should come as no surprise. That they're also found to be good planners in general is only slightly less obvious.
The assumption that all engineers are similar to terrorists I think is a stretch.
More appropriate (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree and take no offense (Score:5, Interesting)
I frankly find the analysis to be flattering. I don't have to agree with who I am being compared with to appreciate the comparison.. only the qualities being compared are important.
So, thanks for the complement
Yup, so let's not piss 'em off, OK? (Score:5, Insightful)
Overall, it's hard to disagree with the article. Heck, a guy who has the persistence and brains to go through the gruesome class schedules of an Engineering school will not be easily deterred by obstacles. And he is inventive by training if not nature.
An engineer could easily turn bad... And he'd be very good at being bad, if he has the motivation. So the conclusion should be obvious: don't alienate engineers.
That said, I recently met a very nice and competent guy from Pakistan who is in the USA on an H1B visa. He is a PHP developer, and he is quite good. We discussed finances, and to my horror, I found out that he is making $1100/month. His employer houses him in an appartment along with six other H1Bs, so he prolly saves $1000/month in rent, but still, this is an insultingly low pay rate for such a qualified guy, but a factor 4 at least.
Now, this guy is very nice, and way too busy to even think about trouble. But I can't help thinking my reaction if I was dropped into a country where I would make less than your average waiter, after years of hard schooling. I'd harbor a grudge, that's for sure.
So a piece of advice for Execs and VPs: don't be too stingy with your folks. Them techie weirdos can turn into rampaging monster at the drop of a hat. Heck, I'll give them free espressos and decent raisses if I were you. :-)
Not very competent engineers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ecelctic Recluses Maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
You see... that is the problem. The term "Terrorist" has been so deluded that most people will fall into that category anymore. Smoke pot? Terrorist. Downloaded a song? Terrorist. Using SSH? Terrorist.
And it is thrown around even more, if you show an average intelligence larger than those who would label you a terrorist... and how many people do you think fall into that category?
Parent
Re:Ecelctic Recluses Maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure the thought police would have a field day with me for saying this, but I think about committing crimes now and then. Not that I would do such thing, I enjoy my life outside of prison. But just as a type of mental exercise it's interesting to me while standing in line at a store, noticing where cameras are located, determining blind spots, exit strategies, exposed wiring that could be cut, etc. I then think about how I would improve the system.
My point is that engineering is about designing stability. You can't produce stability if you aren't able to see the possibility of destruction, so the same qualities that make one a good engineer are the qualities that make them a potential terrorist in the eyes of a paranoid politician.
Parent
They have the skills, but the desire, maybe not (Score:5, Insightful)
The question is where you'd fine such an engineer. Unless he/she is already a bit of a nutjob, an engineering background should come with decent employment options and intelligence that would somewhat contrast with the somewhat brainwashed or easily overwhelmed variety of terrorist-recruit that tends to be more readily available.
Recruiting engineers to be terrorists, likely not. Training terrorists to be engineers would be more likely.
Parent
Re:Likened to terrorists? (Score:5, Funny)
Why would I want to make a terrorist? Aren't there enough?
Parent
Re:New Display System (Score:5, Funny)
Parent