Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers?
 

As a follow up to their September 2008 article, IEEE Spectrum revisits the question of why a disproportionate number of terrorists have engineering degrees. According to the IEEE summary of the interview with political scientist Steffen Hertog, 'nearly half of [individuals involved in political violence] with degrees have been engineers.' The interview makes some interesting points (lack of job opportunities for engineers despite a relatively high social status) and some suspect ones (e.g. framing Islamic culture into the western left vs. right politics).

well umm...engineers are the ones smart enuff to learn how to fly on their own. whereas all the rest of the public are still wonder how 18 yr old barefoot Colton could steal a plane.

i bet any of the engineers on the forum here could devise a plan to cause major systematic damage to our country.....we just wouldn't think about executing such plans

Because we're just plain honery. That's why ;)

Engineers think they are smart enough to run the company, but generally they don't.

Years of being managed by folks who partied through college and got business degrees can make one angry.

Half of the engineers went insane in college.

The other half go insane later, and become terrorist.

I do believe that Shakespeare mentioned kill all engineers first...

Shakespeare was obviously a liberal arts major.
What he really said was "do you want to super-size that?"

We just like to build shyte then blow it up.

My dad was an explosives R&D engineer for Hercules for many years and then moved into rocket engines, and he never blew up anything he wasn't supposed to.

I work in refineries and they blow up sometimes, but you can't pin that on me. Nobody saw nuthin!

Ditto. They obviously work the same place I do.

If you got paid to blow Schit up, wouldn't you?

Oh that's easy. They spent 4 - 5 years of their life in classrooms with no girls...

So...he's probably the BOSS of some engineers?

Watch the movie "Falling Down"...

Civil Engineers build targets.
Mechanical Engineers build weapons.

+1.0e^+0

Nope. yer thinking of people with MBAs AND engineering degrees.

A lot of insight in these posts.:D

I think a lot of it has to do with binary view vs. shades of gray.

Most talented technical people see the world in a binary context. This is good for the skill sets that they pursue but make many "life Issues" difficult to deal with.

The classic profile of a successful CIO was one who could make the transition form the technical side (binary) to the business side (gray) and function in both worlds, but more than that translate between the two.

Nice unsupportable generalization and example of binary thinking.

Having lived in that world for 30+ years it is not an unsupportable generalization, also note use of the term "most". So Jim point made.:cool:

I think "most" is unsupportable, based on my living in that world for a similar time frame. We can do this all night. ;)

Or deodorant.

Wait a minute. The article frames this as involving Islamic engineers (ie framing Islamic culture...) Drawing conclusions that engineers in general have a tendency to terror is a big jump and in fact stupid. I worked with engineers for many(40) years and cannot recall one that was a terrorist or had any such ideals. Straight arrows and serious people. I was on the "grey" side, and they mostly were black and white thinkers. Sure we had fun with them, but I'm sure they had fun with us too. But no terrorists.

I agree we could. :D

I would like to make the point that those that can thrive in both a binary and gray world can rise to the top using that skill set. That is not to say that those that only live in a binary world cannot be equally successful and rise to the top in their discipline. Those that are binary and dolts are found at the bottom of the pile as are those that have abstract skills and are also dolts.

The question was why so many technical types 'go over the edge' ideology wise and my point was that these people tend to be wired in a more binary nature so they tend to see all things in a more or less black and white, good / evil context.

I agree with your observations within our society.

I think this is more a view of an ideology, Islam, and the effect of binary thought within that framework vs the ability to deal in abstracts within that framework.

And the creators of the Pinto weren't?

:D

I highlighted a portion of your quote which reads like a perfect descriptor for our more strident PARF denizens.

No, what Shakespeare really said was:

"For 'Tis the sport to have the engineer hoisted with his own petard."

Translated today, that would be: "It's fun to see the engineer blown up
with his own bomb."

Even the Bard knew back in the 16th century that engineers were terrorists.

In your case, I wonder how Shakespeare might write: "Now make me a sandwich, beeyotch!"

Jim - I resemble that remark....

Boba - You're on the right track.

One thing I do want to point out is that many engineers are SUCCESSFUL terrorists or terrorist leaders. Our training shows us how to analyze things, break them down into solvable chunks, then go and solve them. The training could be helpful to understand the weak point of a vehicle, a bridge, etc, to do maximum damage. We LOOK FOR weakness. Our intention is to FIX it. But a terrorist with the same skills will use that knowlege for evil.

Remember, for the first 150+ years of our country, our military leaders all had to get Engineering degrees. Anyone who went to West Point or Annapolis, was an Engineer.

We're the closest thing to a robot without all that silly programming. Just give us a task and we solve it.

There are always a few engineers who are a little unbalanced and possibly fanatical.

You combine engineer and fanatic and you have a chance of a terrorist (or PARF Pelican!)

I am a retired Engineer---are we sure they didnt mean "Tourist"?

I think people who want to blow things up cover the whole spectrum of skills and education. It's only the engineers who actually know how to do it.

Ok. I am going to really piss off some of you. I think that there are two important issues already addressed. First is that engineers are in fact smart enough to properly execute a plan. Second, I think the binary thinking is somewhat relevant. Third, (and I qualify this as someone who has virtually all my and my inlaws family with engineers and actuaries) engineers are often less polished socially.

What do you get? An angry,disconnected competent person. My father is a perfect example. He is too mild mannered to be a terrorist but he has all the qualities.

Sorry to drop the bomb, but I share an office with an engineering firm. They live up to the stereotype daily.

Larry

PS - I think this is fascinating by the way.

Nonsense! I'm studying to be a pharmacist and we know how to blow some schit up too!

an interesting set of response - I just figured it was because they were still angry from college at having to take the water-down dumb-azz physics for engineers courses, instead of being allowed to take the real physics courses.

Try taking the watered down physics for Pharmacists... Mein Gott! So boring

Heck, I'd blow stuff up free. Getting paid would just be the icing on the cake.

Physic snob! :p

How do you know when an engineer is an extrovert?






He looks at your shoes instead of his own when you speak to him......

Make haste, ming-ed vixen, get off thy @ss,

And maketh meager repast, bonnie lass.


Zounds ! What mounds ! ;)

Zoinkies!

- Shaggy