"Now in many other mythologies you can find gods that have parallels with Athena,” Enoch says. “The Sumerians had Enki, the Norse had Loki. Loki was an inventor god, but psychologically he had more in common with Ares…Native Americans had tricksters — creatures full of cunning like Coyote and Raven — in their mythologies, but they didn't have technology yet, and so they hadn't coupled the Trickster with Crafts to generate this hybrid Technologist god…Cunning people tend to attain power that uncunning people don't. And all cultures are fascinated by this. Some of them admire it… Others, like the Norse, hate it and identify it with the Devil." "Hence the strange love-hate relationship that Americans have with hackers," Randy says. "That's right. But something different happened with the Greeks. The Greeks liked their geeks. That's how we get Athena."
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Chapter 88, "Metis"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon
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Cryptonomicon
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