Nerds Strike Again

In my last post I mentioned The Spiritual Age of Machines by Ray Kurzweil, which I have now given up on. This is only the second of many thousands of books I've read (I stopped counting at 6,000) that I won't finish. (The other one was about magic cats, yes I said magic cats.)

Now maybe I'm just in the wrong mood to finish it, but his nerdiness knows no bounds. He wants everyone to think that he is smart but then he talks down to his readers. He takes three paragraphs to explain what DNA is. If you didn't learn about DNA in ninth grade biology then turn on the TV, almost every show has it in there somewhere.

He takes literally chapters to explain a simple concept that could be condensed to a few paragraphs. I haven't seen this much padding since girls bras in middle school.

And then to add insult to injury he makes up this really stupid idea of having a fake conversation with a so called reader. Later on you can tell he thinks it's stupid too since he breaks down and gives this fantasy reader a name, Molly, but he's in too deep and beats it to a bloody stump all the way to the end. (It's probably some girl he fantasized about in high school.)

Like most nerds, he thinks this makes it easier to understand, but all it does is get in the way. And then he attempts nerd humor in the conversation. Like this "gem":

"The subjective experience, however, is the experience of the process itself, assuming, of course, that the process is conscious. Which in your case, it is. At least, I assume that's the case."

Hardy Har Har!

They should make a monument to this guy as the king of the nerds.