Now, information technology is a legitimate field of science, although I would call it more a specialized branch of mathematics and management than a discipline of its own. Most people who study "computer science," however, absorb only shreds of the actual mathematical discipline. Most merely learn to program in a few trendy languages.

Those objections aside, one must now turn to g**ks and math. Most engineers and computer scientists have a very shallow understanding of the field of mathematics in general. For instance, number theory is rarely a required subject - g**ks merely take arithmetic's functionality as an assumption! Engineers and CS'ers usually learn some calculus, analysis, linear algebra, and vector calc. Not many study ring theory, topology, or even advanced applied concepts like M-theory. They learn the workaday computational tools of a scientist, perhaps, which is fine for limited purposes; but g**k pretensions to really superior mathematical aptitude are best appreciated as informed by a very impoverished understanding of what sophisticated math really is. They're so impressed they can integrate functions that they don't realize that we're no longer in the XVIIIth century.

Now, g**ks must be g**ks. There has to be a class of specialized peons to operated and design the advanced machinery of our society, and g**ks are an economically efficient way of doing it. Throw them some Doritos and some Star Trek, and they'll happily churn out workmanlike code, then go home (eventually) to amuse themselves with harmless video-game diversions. I think even a little h4x0r terrorism is a cheap price for us to pay.

But, for pity's sake, people, don't start thinking g**ks are exceptional thinkers because of a petty knack for numbers. We really must demand a higher standard than that to allow admission into the pantheon.