Berserk people are not crazy; they're rational.
In my first weeks in graduate school, I was
summoned to a meeting with the highest authority at the Institute: the
administrative secretary. She offered me a fellowship nomination, which struck
me as strange, since I already had one from the NSF. But this one paid more. A
lot more. So what was the catch? "You have to be willing to call yourself an
applied mathematician." Having gotten into mathematics by way of physics, that
didn't seem like a terrible stretch, so I agreed to the terms. It turns out,
however, that there was another catch. I had to also be willing to come to the
aid of my country in time of crisis, whatever that meant. "The barbarians are at
the gates! Quick, calculate something!"
I was reminded of all this
recently, when I heard about the shootings at Virginia Tech. You see, a couple
of years ago, that same Hertz foundation that paid my way through graduate
school hosted a symposium in San Jose, which seemed, at the time, to be in a
very deep post-tech-crash, post-9/11 funk. Terrorism figured prominently in the
discussions, with presentations from some Very Bright People. Curiously, none of
them seemed to know about the biology—more precisely, the naturally
selective function—of berserk behavior. There are crazy people, and there
are berserk people. But berserk people are not crazy; they're rational.
The precise description of the phenomenon is a tad too tedious to go into
here, but in essence, the only effective deterrent to cheating is a response
that is disproportionate and unpredictable. Berserk responses are what maintain
an equilibrium of fair dealing. They also function as social "canaries in the
mine." That's why, when someone asked, "What can we learn from countries that
have been dealing with terrorism for years?" it seemed clear that the right
question was probably "What can we learn from countries that don't have a
terrorism problem?"
Fast forward to recent weeks. The gashes are perhaps
too fresh still, and the stories are still being formed. History, as always, is
forging the future by forging the past. But to write about anything else at the
moment would be too trivial. National emergency: Start calculating.
The
first storyline to emerge was "picked-on-misfit goes berserk in the engineering
building." Then it turned out to be an English major. Go figure. The timing also
evoked Columbine, with the prominent politician of the day intoning, "Violence
never solves anything" and then ordering missile strikes. Let's not let
the gross irony distract us from the subtle irony. (Isn't it ironic that the
kids most in love with the word "ironic" think it means something else?)
Politics is violence, and schools have become very violent places. One example
will suffice: At our local elementary school, the powers that be have painted a
red square that the kids must stand in while waiting to be picked up after
school. Never mind that the square is too small to physically hold all the
kids. Never mind the delicious image of turning an elementary school into
Red Square. The point here is that the only way you can get kids to stand like a
herd of cows in an impossibly crowded square is to threaten them with violence.
And violence does beget violence. The prescription we hear is more repression,
more violence.
The curious thing, today, is the technology of violence.
If you can brew beer, you can have a great time. You can also brew a truly nasty
vengeance on a grand scale. We have become a profoundly deadly species, as
individuals. Panthers and wolves and vipers, we're told, have elaborate
courtesies designed to keep them from killing each other.
Back to the
symposium. Because I had raised the topic of these behaviors, a bright young
graduate student approached me to comment that it wasn't that these deadly
animals had set out to develop those behaviors so much as that all the other
deadly animals that lacked that capacity for treating each other with care and
respect had all gone extinct. "That," I replied, "is exactly the
point."
Andrew Winkler, PhD., the former
Columbia University Professor, has been creating IT and data storage
architectures for the last 30 years, notably at Columbia University and Bell
Labs. His first real job was with the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Lab. Since
then, he has launched several successful businesses and is currently chairman of
Data Risk Management
Inc., which brings
to market his new technologies for solving the business problems created by the
risks of data loss. In his spare time, he invented a novel system that makes
learning to read dramatically easier at www.soundplayground.org.
You can reach him at
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.
Going Crazy (or Just Berserk)? May 07 2007 10:19:00
When the terrorists come to your door, you go ahead and treat them with care and respect. <p>I'll take my chances with my gene pool with guns, missiles and other violent means, used with care and respect of course. <p>Craig
Going Crazy (or Just Berserk)? May 04 2007 18:26:00
I live in Australia so it is Saturday morning and I really enjoyed getting a cup of coffee and generally having a laugh reading Joel Klebanoff's tirade. <p>Bring back Joel ... please!!!
Going Crazy (or Just Berserk)? May 04 2007 17:07:00
Reading the article reminds me of a quote by George Bush: <p>"<em>In some cases, the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic world ruled by force.</em>" <p>The irony gets lost on some people. <p>Have a nice weekend!
Going Crazy (or Just Berserk)? May 04 2007 10:34:00
This is the most rambling confused article I have ever read on MC PRess. I guess he was trying to make a point but he did an excellent job of obscuring it. <p>maj
Going Crazy (or Just Berserk)? May 07 2007 10:19:00
This is a discussion about <B>Going Crazy (or Just Berserk)?</b>.<p align='center'><a href=http://www.mcpressonline.com/mc?1@232.1KNKfHX1eQT.17@.6b4f33f2>Click here for the article</a>.</p>
