Austrian artist and filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner tries to answer this question in his documentary Traceroute. It is a journey back in time (to the 1970s and 1980s) – and a trek across the USA, featuring interviews with many dedicated geeks about their worldview(s).

I would summarize Traceroute as a funny road movie and insightful commentary about covert culture, subversive science and fringe art.

You want to understand what's going on our planet? Nerds are the key...

A geeky nostalgic road movie (get it? traceroute? trace/route? get it? hop hop? nudge nudge?) that follows a pretty crazy dude across a pretty crazy country.

'The United States' were really important to young Johannes when growing up in 1980s Krautlandia, so he pays a visit as a pop culture pilgrim. And while Johannes is covering a topic that has been covered a million times before, he brings originality to the film...lots of.

You will either really like this doc, or you will be cursing me for wasting 2 hours of your life. Oh well. I'm just sad that he didn't make it to Oklahoma City.

Traceroute is an autobiographical film. You might even call it a cinematic essay. Johannes talks about his own past and future, but also the past and future of a class that is now dominating the globe: the nerds. There are many films for (and about) nerds out there, but this one is not about Superman and Star Wars and Donkey Kong, but science, politics, even sex. It is wonderful to see how candid the film approaches the subject matter. Being a nerd means: creativity, visions, openness to experimentation, subversion - and not only regarding program code and video games, but regarding society, values and ideologies.