The Salem Hypothesis

by **West Failure** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:24 am

The Salem Hypothesis (as rephrased by PZ Myers) states "Creationists with advanced degrees are often engineers". Recent research by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog has also shown that engineers may be at greater risk of being recruited by extremist Islamic groups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_hypothesis

Does this match people's experience? Is Dilbert really a member of Al Queda?

by **The Kropotkinite Union** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:29 am

West Failure wrote:The Salem Hypothesis (as rephrased by PZ Myers) states "Creationists with advanced degrees are often engineers". Recent research by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog has also shown that engineers may be at greater risk of being recruited by extremist Islamic groups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_hypothesis

Does this match people's experience? Is Dilbert really a member of Al Queda?

No, no, no. Dilbert is a member of Aum Shinrikyo.

by **Skibereen** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:48 am

The Kropotkinite Union wrote:
West Failure wrote:The Salem Hypothesis (as rephrased by PZ Myers) states "Creationists with advanced degrees are often engineers". Recent research by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog has also shown that engineers may be at greater risk of being recruited by extremist Islamic groups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_hypothesis

Does this match people's experience? Is Dilbert really a member of Al Queda?

No, no, no. Dilbert is a member of Aum Shinrikyo.

Does anyone know where they got the sarin from? Sorry for the serious question.

by **Lackadaisical2** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:53 am

Not a surprise, a lot of the engineers I know are conservatives, and theres a large number of foreigners, especially from Pakistan in my particular field.

by **West Failure** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:47 am

Skibereen wrote:Does anyone know where they got the sarin from? Sorry for the serious question.

I believe they made it themselves as a member was a chemist.

by **Risottia** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:17 am

West Failure wrote:The Salem Hypothesis (as rephrased by PZ Myers) states "Creationists with advanced degrees are often engineers". Recent research by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog has also shown that engineers may be at greater risk of being recruited by extremist Islamic groups.

There's also the Physicists' hypotesis. That is, "engineers are stupid".

Is Dilbert really a member of Al Queda?

No, he's just a radical Godbertarian.
Or Dogbertarian.
No big difference, anyway.

by **Hamilay** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:50 am

I don't see how it's surprising that extremist groups might want to recruit engineers...

by **Greed and Death** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:52 am

Not surprising.
When I was in the army I ended up in charge of a solider with a master's in engineering.
He was a bone head.

by **Central Slavia** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:58 am

I would propose that it is because intelligent religious nuts are against pure science since they see it as an attack on religious authority, and instead focus on technology as means to improve life.

by **Pevisopolis** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:04 am

West Failure wrote:Is Dilbert really a member of Al Queda?

No, but the Engy here's a member of a corporate mercenary army. Close enough.

by **H N Fiddlebottoms VIII** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:52 am

Engineers hate biology, because it has very few right angles. Everything is all curves and bumps and the only penis-shaped items are actual penises.

by **UnhealthyTruthseeker** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 12:10 pm

LOL.

I think the most likely exlanation of this is that, of all technically oriented degrees, engineering has one of the least science focused curricula. Engineers are much more like applied mathematicians.

by **Fredrikshamn** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 12:16 pm

My roommate in college was an engineer working on his Doctorate of Eng. and he was a staunch liberal...

by **JarVik** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:10 pm

I think my personal experience would agree that Engineering tends to have more conservative oriented people than other science disciplines. I'm also good friends with an Engineer who sits on the NDP to Liberal spectrum of Canuck politics so it is by no means absolute. I would say Chemists and Geologists seem to be less conservative than Engineers but more so than biologists and physicists on average as an aside.

by **Diseased Imaginings** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:13 pm

my brother is a mechanical engineer, he's a devout catholic.

so... anecdotally, I suppose I agree with the hypothesis.

by **Buffett and Colbert** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:14 pm

Dilbert is too inverted to join any social group such as al Qaeda.

by **JarVik** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:17 pm

Fredrikshamn wrote:My roommate in college was an engineer working on his Doctorate of Eng. and he was a staunch liberal...

Just a rough expectation, but I bet there are less conservative minded Engineers as you go from undergrade to Masters to PhD levels.

by **The Kropotkinite Union** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:18 pm

H N Fiddlebottoms VIII wrote:Engineers hate biology, because it has very few right angles. Everything is all curves and bumps and the only penis-shaped items are actual penises.

This.
Same goes for "hard" scientists hating the "soft" sciences in general, esp. social sciences.

by **DogDoo 7** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:58 pm

H N Fiddlebottoms VIII wrote:Engineers hate biology, because it has very few right angles. Everything is all curves and bumps and the only penis-shaped items are actual penises.

I mean, you don't see right angles in fluid mechanics either. A more apt statement would be to say that biology has very few shapes that can be modeled as a continuously differentiable function.

by **UnhealthyTruthseeker** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:42 pm

DogDoo 7 wrote:I mean, you don't see right angles in fluid mechanics either. A more apt statement would be to say that biology has very few shapes that can be modeled as a continuously differentiable function.

Meh, continuosly differentiable functions are a broad class. That being said, you can model much of life (and diffusion problems, which are a big part of life, incidently) with fractals.

by **Unidox** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:58 pm

West Failure wrote:The Salem Hypothesis (as rephrased by PZ Myers) states "Creationists with advanced degrees are often engineers". Recent research by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog has also shown that engineers may be at greater risk of being recruited by extremist Islamic groups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_hypothesis

Does this match people's experience? Is Dilbert really a member of Al Queda?

Heres my hypothesis:
Engineers are lonely, isolated individuals who let bad ideas fester in their heads. To counter this I suggest this motto: If you see an engineer, hug an engineer.

by **Lunatic Goofballs** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:07 pm

H N Fiddlebottoms VIII wrote:Engineers hate biology, because it has very few right angles. Everything is all curves and bumps and the only penis-shaped items are actual penises.

Or can be used like one.

by **Teh ebil mozlemz** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:41 pm

West Failure wrote:Does this match people's experience?

Yes.

The Salem Hypothesis

The Salem Hypothesis

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