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Internet as a whole. It is a subject only alluded to in the
pages of this book, but deserves detailed study. While men still dominate politics
and the economy the world over, this domination is extreme when it
comes to new technology. There are, of course, many very dynamic
women engaged in new technology and new media, but statistically
they comprise a tiny percentage: according to Chiesa, just 5 per cent.
Hackers are almost invariably men.

A second finding in Chiesa's study is that the average hacker is
either smart or very smart. Furthermore he has noted that there is a
high incidence, close to 100 per cent, among hackers of advanced
ability in science - physics, maths and chemisty. This is combined with
a relatively low level of ability in the humanities.

Finally, there is the critical issue of hackers' relationships. Most - but
not all - hackers find it much easier to form relationships in the
impersonal environment of the Internet than they do in real life. The
interesting question is why.

Hackers usually enter the fray as adolescents, exactly at the time
when a great majority find it difficult to establish relationships, espe-
cially with the opposite sex. So, at least in part, their difficulties in this
area are entirely natural. But Chiesa has also identified that an abnor-
mally high number of hackers have described problems in communi-
cating with family, above all with their parents.

Reading Chiesa's research and having spent a great deal of time
interviewing different types of hackers put me in mind of the work of
Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at
Cambridge University. His pioneering work on autism has led to a
deeper understanding of the spectrum of male/female behavioural
patterns. In essence, typical males show an enhanced ability to 'system-
atise' the external world, whereas typical females show a greater skill
at 'empathising'. This is not to say that all women are poor map-readers
and that all men are hopeless listeners, merely that there is a pronounced
tendency in each gender towards either 'systematising' among men or
'empathising' among women.

Baron-Cohen's subsequent research led to him uncovering a link
between the extreme male mind, which in certain circumstances could
be described as 'autistic', and high levels of testosterone to which a
foetus may be exposed in the womb. His thesis is controversial, but
in many respects convincing, and without question of value when