I think it's awesome that Wil Wheaton has made a name for himself outside Star Trek, as the Patron Saint of Geeks. I don't know if he knows it, but he's fulfilling a time-honored tradition born out of human need: He's become the popular embodiment of a young, ascendant generation finding its voice. He can be a little dramatic at times, and occasionally the language and the ethos wear thin, but whenever those things happen I just step away for a few weeks. He's always there when I come back, a Beacon of Wheaton.
The popular Internet is new. Humanity is interacting in ways never before possible. Not many generations can say that. Wil is one of many who have found their home here. It's so natural for him, and he's such a decent fellow, that it's simply a matter of course for him to become this unifying, motivating symbol in our movement.
Our generation--which, curiously, excludes most of you reading this--has a healthy sense of perspective. Dominated by geeks who have become the admirals of cyberspace, we all implicitly understand that we were never "cool" by the old standards. But we grew up nevertheless, found our place in the real world and built a totally new world on top of it. Many of us have realized, at some point or another, that "cool" is great, but, like a first crush, probably wouldn't have been all it was cracked up to be. I imagine that to have been a humbling and enlightening experience for many.
The next generation--that's most of you--will probably be more assertive, and aggressive. You'll achieve it on the backs of the social tolerance and integration we're building today. (Or maybe you'll be a washed up generation of pill-popping ADHDers who can't lure yourselves away from the iPhone long enough to calculate 2 and 2 the old-fashioned way, in which case it'll be the legacy of the generation after yours to reintroduce high ambition to the world.)
In all of this, I like my own position. As the ambitious, aggressive type who is nevertheless a geek and who grew up in this fantastically welcoming climate, I feel like I have the best of both worlds: My own people are building up the nation's spirits, and behind them is a horde of hungry achievers who will need strong Imperial leadership.
The same thing happened to me with my book. Harry Potter came along and created a generation of people who, by the time my book comes out, are going to be ready for the Real Thing. What timing!
Edit: Removed accidental reference.
