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A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

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Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#61

Post by asphyxiac »

jhardy54 wrote: post #27
thomasqbrady wrote: post #5

The Screeps detail seems like something that could be fairly easily pursued... there can't have been that many players of that game to begin with, let alone those that would care so much about it that they would journal their thoughts about it. A quick check of the GitHub repo doesn't show he contributed code, but might he have opened an issue, contributed to docs? Might there be someone who was active in the communi…

Required reading, IMO: https://screeps.com/forum/topic/2937/a-strange-request-for-h... I've spent a few days looking into this and haven't been able to find anything. There's also a big thing about "algae pools" "stock markets", etc, which didn't seem to be about Screeps. I tried to find games that had these mechanics, and ended up spending a bunch of time looking through Spacestation 13 forums, but I'm leaning towar…

OP, based on the Screeps thread, we have a purported Steam profile for MH. Did that yield anything?

Edit: I know that folks thought this was a red herring. Checked the steam profile, power player badge was unlocked on 10/23 but Recently Played shows nothing (might be privacy settings) and last review was 3 years ago. Do badges ever auto-unlock, or could this person have shared a steam account?

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#62

Post by asphyxiac »

Jtsummers wrote: post #52
jariel wrote: post #34

Young men don't die for 'no reason'. It's odd that they couldn't find some cause of death, I assumed that in 2020 we'd be able to make a rough estimate. If there's no obvious foul play then statistically the obvious one would be suicide, but that should narrow only to a few specific things. How many ways are there for one to 'just die' while lying in a tent.

Aneurisms, strokes, toxins (spider/snake bites). The first is pretty quick, but the latter two could leave someone sufficiently weak or incapacitated to move and care for themselves, but still survive long enough to become emaciated.

Aneurism would show up in the autopsy, right? And snake bite in the toxo report?

Not sure about stroke.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#64

Post by ballenf »

mjsir911 wrote: post #49
ballenf wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He posed for a number of photographs and videos. He interacted with many people. He never expressed the desire to remain anonymous that you intuit. If someone wants to slip away quietly into the void, there are much better ways to do it than this path. I'd argue it's honoring him and the honorable life he seems to have led to pursue this investigation. Not to mention there may be a number people who will get peace fr…

The article at least hints to the fact that MH was weary about digital evidence: "He asked Mostly Harmless if he could take a picture. Mostly Harmless hesitated but then agreed" Are there better ways to slip into the void than going into the wilderness without even a phone?

He didn't go into any wilderness. He traveled one of the most popular hiking trails in the country. Went into stores. Stayed in campgrounds. Let himself be photographed a bunch of times. Why he hesitated that once, I don't know, but I seriously doubt anyone would have pressed him if he'd just declined.

Better ways? A boat out into the ocean. Hiking out West or in Alaska. Or South America. Going deep into an unpopular cave. Hiking in a desert.

There are many, many places more "wild" than the popular hiking trail in Florida where he passed. If he'd wanted to slip away quietly, he seems like he had the means and the intelligence to have figured out how to do that successfully.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#65

Post by kodah »

dheera wrote: post #36
paxys wrote: post #35

I wonder how long it will be before someone truly cannot be anonymous in this country (or the world). Whenever I come across a book/movie about someone traveling to the future and trying to blend in, my immediate thought is that they will instantly be flagged as suspicious by a hundred different automated systems (where is your advertising profile, credit history, location history, iris scan, microchip??) There proba…

I'm slightly less concerned about being anonymous from the government and far more concerned about being anonymous from businesses . How is it that every time I move, they still figure out where I live and continue to send me junk mail? I'm extremely concerned about the ease of arbitrary businesses finding out where some person lives. I want this to be unethical to the point that whoever leaked my address without my…

You're getting downvoted and I'm not sure why, but I'd like a moment to share my story and why I believe in what you believe:

My mom called me the other week and told me that a recruiter was looking for me. She gave me their name and number, but I was stumped. How the hell did: 1. They know that was my mother 2. How did they know her number 3. How did they know she would be able to reach me?

I've subsequently determined that my ICE information was leaked somehow. This is the only piece of information, other than life insurance, where my mother and I would be positioned as related. I do not have a Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit. I have this profile, which is my average online profile, and I have a professional one. Neither has ties back to my family, much less phone numbers. We also live in totally different states and they were calling her about a job for me in my current state and city.

I would say it is already unethical to dox someone, just if you do it in the name of sales or "connecting people" Americans somehow sweep it under the rug.

This is just a matter of correcting societal expectations.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#66

Post by chaostheory »

asphyxiac wrote: post #61
jhardy54 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Required reading, IMO: https://screeps.com/forum/topic/2937/a-strange-request-for-h... I've spent a few days looking into this and haven't been able to find anything. There's also a big thing about "algae pools" "stock markets", etc, which didn't seem to be about Screeps. I tried to find games that had these mechanics, and ended up spending a bunch of time looking through Spacestation 13 forums, but I'm leaning towar…

OP, based on the Screeps thread, we have a purported Steam profile for MH. Did that yield anything? Edit: I know that folks thought this was a red herring. Checked the steam profile, power player badge was unlocked on 10/23 but Recently Played shows nothing (might be privacy settings) and last review was 3 years ago. Do badges ever auto-unlock, or could this person have shared a steam account?

With an all time peak of 357 players playing at a time, Screeps is still the best lead especially when you link it to a Steam account.

https://steamcharts.com/app/464350

Hopefully, the developer still has logs and data for 2018 and earlier

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#67

Post by 0x1F8B »

> IN APRIL 2017, a man started hiking in a state park just north of New York City. He wanted to get away, maybe from something and maybe from everything.

> Everyone who goes into the woods is trying to get away from something.

> Everyone, at some point, has wanted to put their phone in a garbage can and head off with a fake name and a wad of cash.

Since you are here I want to mention how off-putting this rhetoric is to me, a person who likes being outdoors, who doesn't have problems around spend all day refreshing the NYT or twitter or instagram, a person who genuinely likes solitude. It's almost as if urbanity is now synonymous with a neurotic steady state of over-exposure and any act of finding a moment of peace in the outdoors is itself a futile act of desperation -- an attempt to flee modernity. It just doesn't ring true to me.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#68

Post by manicorganic »

ColanR wrote: post #60
victor9000 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article says he weighed 86 lbs, so it sounds like he died of starvation or malnutrition.

Which again is strange, since he was found with $3500 on him.

And there was food nearby.

On the other hand, on the show Alone a few seasons back the medical staff had to pull someone who had weeks worth of smoked fish saved up yet was risking serious organ damaging due to malnutrition. Even though he had plenty of food he was simply rationing too strictly and had lost over 20% of his bodyweight in a matter of weeks. Point being, it's possible to put oneself in danger despite having the resources to avoid the risks.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#70

Post by anonAndOn »

jariel wrote: post #34

Young men don't die for 'no reason'. It's odd that they couldn't find some cause of death, I assumed that in 2020 we'd be able to make a rough estimate. If there's no obvious foul play then statistically the obvious one would be suicide, but that should narrow only to a few specific things. How many ways are there for one to 'just die' while lying in a tent.

Foraging in the wild for food or water can have deadly consequences. For example, McCandless ate the wrong kind of berries.[0] Or the time when three campers scooped up more than just water in their coffee pot.[1] And don't underestimate the effects of Giardia.[2] That ubiquitous parasite could easily weaken and lead to the demise of a solo-hiker.

[0]https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccand... [1]http://www.realclear.com/discovery/2014/06/27/tiny_newt_pois... [2]https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/giardia/index.html

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