Famous science-fiction author Neal Stephenson, in a recent Slashdot interview,
comes up with a line that perfectly captures the lack of awareness of
the outside world that is frequent in the rarefied atmosphere of academia.
Stephenson tells of an encounter during a writers' conference with a critically acclaimed literary
novelist who taught at a university and had
no idea who he was.
"I had to let her know that the reason she'd never heard of me
was because I was famous."
The usual reason why many academics or elites in general do not make a
point of keeping up with the wider culture is the perception that the
events and decisions that "really matter" happen in their small
province. Right now, however, changes that really matter are underway
in popular, youth, and hacker cultures, and I've seen instances where
the manifest disconnect would have been outright embarrassing to
academics, had they been presenting their creations to a wider
community. Many a famous new development is hiding in plain view, which
the ivory tower has yet to hear about.
