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Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

nytimes.com

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Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#411

Post by throwaway2048 »

totalZero wrote: post #246
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #186

More and more problems seem to be linked to provenance of money. Money Laundering of dirty cash is one major obvious example (see impact on everything from London house prices to international banking) and yet just being able to trace / label money coming out of Epstein and into MIT lab would have raised this issue a decade ago Imagine somehow being able to tag bitcoin address / transactions with "this money came fro…

That's such a bizarre concept. Morality isn't something that can be inherited by accepting research contributions, in my book. Why taint the money, when it can help us learn, build, heal, and grow? Epstein, not the money he donated, is responsible for bad things he did. As an alum, I'm not surprised at the Institute's cowardice, but I'd like to see MIT stand up for someone, ANYONE in its community when under fire pub…

So what happens when Epstein wants special access? His entire trade was influence peddling (usually by means of inducing people to commit sex crimes), the dude is going to want access to people.

He donates 2 million dollars, threatens to pull the funding when you don't let him visit.

What happens? If you think its anything besides "welcome with full access" I don't what to tell you, because that's whats going to happen in 999/1000 cases.

He was already on the MIT donation blacklist for this very reason.

This is way beyond "the dude is evil, but his money isn't"

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#412

Post by joewee »

freyr wrote: post #367
nickpinkston wrote: post #10

I'm not sure if this is self-aware or not, but Ito's fund is called:"Neoteny", meaning "the retention of child-like attributes through adulthood". Apparently, Epstein's funds / projects were named with innuendos. (edited) https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/neoteny#section-over...

Ito reminds me of Epstein in that I have no idea how either got their money. Wikipedia must be skipping over some important details, but it describes him as a two-time college dropout, a nightclub manager in Japan, (EDIT: nevermind, mystery solved! His MIT bio says he was the founder of Japan's Digital Garage and CEO of its first ISP [1]), then he's the president of MIT Media Lab, visiting Harvard Law School professo…

Aside from this MIT issue, Joi is a very impressive person who earned his money honestly against great odds. Joi was treated as an outsider in Japan and still managed to become successful. I’ve known him personally and found his story to be inspirational. Not defending any of the behavior at MIT but it would be sad if this is how he’s remembered.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#413

Post by gojomo »

pmoriarty wrote: post #393
akhilcacharya wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember articles from when he was hired about how his last big leadership role was running a World of Warcraft guild

In my own memory, at the time Ito was best known for having a gee-whiz style tech blog. Then for some reason he got hired to manage MIT's Media Lab -- a real head scratcher.

Among other things, before joining the Media Lab, Ito had served on the boards of the Mozilla Foundation and Creative Commons (where he was also Chairman of the Board).

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#414

Post by ohnope »

rhizome wrote: post #400
freyr wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ito reminds me of Epstein in that I have no idea how either got their money. Wikipedia must be skipping over some important details, but it describes him as a two-time college dropout, a nightclub manager in Japan, (EDIT: nevermind, mystery solved! His MIT bio says he was the founder of Japan's Digital Garage and CEO of its first ISP [1]), then he's the president of MIT Media Lab, visiting Harvard Law School professo…

Beyond the business stuff, he was basically Japan's first Western-style (Wired, Mondo 2000, etc.) New Media personality. Back in the early 90s he also took form as an action sports impresario, techno culture maven, and theorizing gadabout.

>Back in the early 90s he also took form as an action sports impresario

Could you elaborate here / further reading? That aspect of Joi’s background interests me.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#415

Post by selimthegrim »

AndrewBissell wrote: post #332
coldtea wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the critical thinking mentioned, is: 1) If a powerful man who has been accused of sex trafficking 2) shows up with two girls less than half his age, 3) who are from eastern europe (while he is an American, not exactly where he'd get girlfriends or assistants), 4) he passes them of like his "assistants", 5) while they look like models, 6) and they make everybody uncomfortable to the point of telling them to signal…

This thread is amazing . Epstein could have confessed to personally trafficking children from the former Yugoslavia (an actual thing that Blackwater was involved in, btw), and if he showed up 5 years later with a couple of barely legal Eastern Europeans in tow, there'd be commenters ready to insist you never can tell for sure !

His associate who was convicted was indeed from former Yugoslavia

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#416

Post by throwaway2048 »

m0zg wrote: post #398

Contrarian view: as long as the person in question was not compromised by e.g. flights to the pedo island (like Bubba Clinton, who took dozens of flights, dismissing USSS on a number of them for some reason, hmm), and as long as the integrity of the lab was not affected by Epstein's involvement, I see nothing wrong with taking his money. He's despicable, sure, but if he's not buying influence, I'm OK with him support…

Buying influence is exactly what Epstein did his whole life, somebody like that doesn't donate money because hes a swell guy after all.

He donated for access to famous and future famous people, so he could implicate them in sexual crimes and compromising relationships and extract money and favors from them.

That's what the guy did, its not some kind of secret now, or then.

And you can bet your top dollar Joi Ito was compromised too, which is exactly why he broke the rules around the MIT blacklist banning Epstein's donations and kept everything secret.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#417

Post by tomjakubowski »

m0zg wrote: post #398

Contrarian view: as long as the person in question was not compromised by e.g. flights to the pedo island (like Bubba Clinton, who took dozens of flights, dismissing USSS on a number of them for some reason, hmm), and as long as the integrity of the lab was not affected by Epstein's involvement, I see nothing wrong with taking his money. He's despicable, sure, but if he's not buying influence, I'm OK with him support…

"The departure of Mr. Ito from the media lab came after he spent days trying to make amends. At Wednesday’s meeting, which was organized by professors at the program, he reiterated his apology. He described for the first time the amount of money he had received from Mr. Epstein, and said he had twice traveled to Mr. Epstein’s island home in the Caribbean to seek donations."

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#418

Post by burtonator »

cg46 wrote: post #324
currymj wrote: post #237

the HN comments on all the recent Epstein stories have been very strange. I have to assume at least some of the more contrarian views are coming from people who haven't been following the full story in the US news, and so don't quite grasp the nature of the allegations. The case is far from just "some rich guy turned out to be an abuser". If you can't understand why the reaction is so strong against those who maintai…

I think it's reasonable to agree that Epstein is a despicable person who should be maligned, ostracized, and punished for his misdeeds… while simultaneously believing that it's possible for there to exist a situation in which the good done by "maintaining ties" with this person could outweigh the bad. Of course, this depends on the nature of those ties: How much good are they doing, versus how much bad? If it's possi…

I think this is a good analysis.

Makes me think that in the future these organizations are still going to accept the money but bring in a "fall guy" to accept the blame when the anonymous donor is found out.

I don't think Joi would have done this personally. He's a smart guy.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#419

Post by InitialLastName »

joering2 wrote: post #351
ritchiea wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are there inevitably people who want to do the mental gymnastics of assuming innocence for a man convicted of sex trafficking? I understand assuming innocence the first time someone is accused of anything unsavory because mistakes happen. But once you are convicted, serve jail time and are suspiciously behaving in the same manner... Who are we serving by assuming innocence? And let me remind you that in society w…

> Why are there inevitably people who want to do the mental gymnastics of assuming innocence for a man convicted of sex trafficking? This is extremely good question that I continue to be unable to find an answer. Much bigger case than Epstein would be that of Donald Trump. Everyone knew he is a six-time bankruptee, posted record $1B (billion) dollar loss with IRS and haven't made any of his many business ventures suc…

> Yet the consensus of 2016 was that he is the only man capable of steering forward a budget of the most valuable country on the face of planet Earth.

To be fair, more people who voted didn't think he was the best choice of a person "capable of ..." than thought he was. He only won thanks to a) a quirk of the American electoral system and b) his opponent also being historically unpopular, by nature of having been in the public eye on one side of the US political system for 25 years.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#420

Post by joewee »

pmoriarty wrote: post #393
akhilcacharya wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember articles from when he was hired about how his last big leadership role was running a World of Warcraft guild

In my own memory, at the time Ito was best known for having a gee-whiz style tech blog. Then for some reason he got hired to manage MIT's Media Lab -- a real head scratcher.

Joi was a behind the scenes player in a lot of successful Valley startups. Once someone reaches investor level it’s impossible to fully understand where their wealth is generated because it tends to be diversified. But he was a very well connected and respected technologist and investor who pretty much pursued whatever his interest were at any given moment, read his blog and you’ll see that it was pretty diverse.
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