electric-sympathy:

I have no fuckin idea dude. I was on the robotics team in high school and we had shitloads of help from a bunch of professional engineers, and that was just making robots with basic sensory cameras that could kick a ball…

I mean, he built it out of a fucking Walkman. You know how many parts and factory functions a Walkman has that can be used for measuring environmental information and outputting that data in a usable fashion? Basically none.

Some people just take to this engineering/programming shit like fish to water. They just get it somehow. I bet Dean is one of them. He just doesn’t happen to really need computers for his life’s work so he isn’t putting it to any disciplined use. You know, the kind of person that’s a genius at shit to the point where they have so many talents that some of them just have to fall by the wayside in terms of developing potential.

I mean. Look at this. Look at this definition of EMF from the official website:

Electromagnetic field meters (also called EMF detectors). Meters that measure the derivative (rate of change) of the surrounding magnetic field; thus, these meters are sensitive to changing magnetic fields (fields with a frequency above 0 hertz). Most EMF meters are most sensitive to frequencies of about 30-10,000 hertz, while some have a wider response. Paranormal investigators and ghost hunters use EMF meters while conducting investigations. Unusual activity in the form of high readings on these meters signifies that there is some type of paranormal activity, such as the presence of a ghost or other supernatural creature.

Forget just the programming and engineering. This is actual, hard science. Dean knows enough about fucking magnetic fields to create devices that not only measure them but that are tuned to tell the difference between regular and supernatural occurrences. He’s clearly created prototypes and gone through testing to figure out what works and what doesn’t. It doesn’t just beep when it hits a certain level, he has a sliding scale that he can use for analysis.

This means that this isn’t just about “Dean being good with his hands” like people dismissively claim, Dean is a regular Science Man™. Dean’s superior ability for pattern recognition isn’t some kind of one-use talent, it’s evident of an analytical mind that can put together abstract data with ease.

Maybe it doesn’t sound like a huge deal at first, but you’re right that Dean had no formal education in this crap. High schools don’t teach this. Average kids don’t just figure this shit out on their own no matter how many books they have at their disposal, and I’m willing to bet Dean didn’t have any kind of mentor in the field. An EMF meter is not a baby’s first. Like… At all.

Hell, the wiki says he’s still using that thing all the way up in S7. Shit wasn’t a cute little science project, it was built to last, not just in how sturdy it’s built but in how accurate it is. You would usually expect things built by characters back in S1 to be completely obsolete by S7, but that’s not the case here. It’s just that good.

It’s also proof that we aren’t blowing smoke. If something happens in the first season and is never mentioned again, it might be dismissible, but when it’s still brought back 7 seasons later what you have is authorial intent.