Debating Myself

To kill is not to be a geek, but to be a geek is to kill. This Washington Post story discusses an Oakland, CA trial that has to rank as one of the more bizarre murder trials in recent memory. Some major figures in this drama:

• A mail-order bride gone missing
• An extremely successful asocial computer programmer indicted for homicide (Mr. Hans Reiser)
• Family von-Weirdo
  • The brother contends that he and his brother drive without front seats
  • The parents make obscure references to their son’s undergraduate thesis on reality and perception
• A cross-dressing/bondage enthusiast best friend (Sean Sturgeon… really, that’s his name)
  • Who also proclaimed he killed several people years ago
  • Who had an affair with the mail-order bride
  • Who was the “maid of honor” in the wedding
• And of course, Dungeons and Dragons

If all of this seems weird, that is because it is. You have to read the whole story to believe it, but here are a few choice quotes summing up the legal defense that the attorney for the alleged murder, a Mr. Hans Reiser, has developed:

“Being too intelligent can be a sort of curse,” defense counsel William Du Bois said. “All this weird conduct can be explained by him, but he’s the only one who can do it. People who are commonly known as computer geeks are so into the field.”

Of course it can! Computer geeks are silent killers waiting to be unleashed. Every one of them. It is definitely not more likely that sociopaths come from all walks of life (though perhaps disproportionately from Berkley, like Mr. Reiser), and it was only a matter of time that a computer program joined their ranks…

At least the judge in the trial seems reasonable:

The thesis [Han’s undergraduate thesis at Berkley] might apply to the evidence, which the judge in the preliminary hearing termed thin.

I guess I should be careful what I put in my undergraduate thesis as well. Seems to be a trend… (more…)