Live data from Hacker News

Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

twitter.com

171–180 of 180 posts

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#171
post #128
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it has failed, but succeeded. The framing of the "marketplace of ideas" has really always been about paving over power dynamics and justify continuing harm by appealing to something external. In your marketplace of ideas, the hundreds of abstract individuals that are hararassers are equally as valid as one abstract individual just trying to live their life. It's working as intended.

It might be more accurate to say that the marketplace of ideas isn't all it's cracked up to be. It has failed to be the utopian dream some hoped it would.

That is the exact opposite of what I'm saying. Saying the market place of ideas was an utopian dream that failed is like saying the divine right of kings was an utopian idea that failed. At best, it is something people were conned into agreeing with.

These ideas weren't invented out of thin air, but to defend things that are hard to defend on their own merits. And just as the devinity of kings mysteriously only brought rights and no responsibilities, it is equally telling that the only time the "marketplace of ideas" is ever brought is in the context of why we shouldn't be doing anything about all of the hate speech.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#172

This is the second loss to the emulation scene by the hands of these people. The incredibly talented author of pcemu - probably the best classic Pc platform emulators, was subjected to a similar campaign of anti trans abuse and harassment (most of it can still be found online) and called it quits. https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/

There's at least one more: Rachel Bryk, a developer working on the Dolphin GameCube/Wii emulator [1], was driven to suicide back in 2015, likely in part due to transphobia and harassment [2].

[1]: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/04/25/commemoration-rachel... [2]: https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2015/04/post_18.html

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there's a lot of eccentrics whose life is the internet. To disconnect for them is essentially the same as solitary confinement. Insofar as privacy, compartmentalization, and good opsec, near did all of that, doesn't help when the mob goes after friends and family.

Did he, though? He was famous for being an incredible hacker, and then he conflated this profile with his furry persona and used it to talk about LGBT stuff. It saddens me so much that things have to be this way, that people can't put themselves out there without being (literally) bullied to death, but being pragmatic he could have separated those two "personalities", especially considering one of those is extremely…

I don't entirely agree with this premise.

I do agree on the furry + anime vices stuff that mixing that in with the legendary byuu was silly and wouldn't surprise me if it was unfortunately due to their autism (they they have it in the twitter thread).

However I don't think LGBT + incredible hacker is a huge blunder IF and only IF, you can be assertive about it, which is much easier said than done when:

A: Most people just want to live their lives without none-sense

B: LGBT people are far more likely to be brought up either through parents or environment to feel the need to be introverted about themselves to protect themselves from harm.

But say someone like say Rupaul, even if they get hate, they simply would never take it.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Twitter thread strongly suggests the motivation was largely due to bullying from the Kiwi Farms forum, in addition to the owner’s refusal to do anything about the thread. https://mobile.twitter.com/near_koukai/status/14089400572353... I was arguing that the event could be considered more than nothing, possibly something like manslaughter due to possibly analogous events being considered as such. Not that the act…

>>I was arguing that the event could be considered more than nothing, possibly something like manslaughter due to possibly analogous events being considered as such. If you're arguing that casework from manslaughter-at-a-distance exists in the United States and that such case work would be applicable to KiwiFarms, I'd disagree with both points. The first point has already been explained. As to the second point, such…

I clearly state this is not what I’m arguing.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#177
post #171
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be more accurate to say that the marketplace of ideas isn't all it's cracked up to be. It has failed to be the utopian dream some hoped it would.

That is the exact opposite of what I'm saying. Saying the market place of ideas was an utopian dream that failed is like saying the divine right of kings was an utopian idea that failed. At best, it is something people were conned into agreeing with. These ideas weren't invented out of thin air, but to defend things that are hard to defend on their own merits. And just as the devinity of kings mysteriously only broug…

> These ideas weren't invented out of thin air, but to defend things that are hard to defend on their own merits.

No, they were invented to provide air for all things to be considered on their merits, and to defeat dogma and traditionalism. That it also allows bad ideas to get some air is not the purpose, but a necessary feature to allow the good but discriminated against ideas surface.

> And just as the devinity of kings mysteriously only brought rights and no responsibilities

Making nonsensical allusions between dissimilar things doesn't mean they are similar. A marketplace of ideas is exactly the kind of thing that allows the divinity of kings to be questioned and reconsidered in the first place, so equating them is particularly odd.

> it is equally telling that the only time the "marketplace of ideas" is ever brought is in the context of why we shouldn't be doing anything about all of the hate speech.

That the things that are considered but wrong generate a lot of noise continuously as they keep being wrong is not unexpected. The correct and or good things that eventually supplant the prior things stop making noise by nature of be accepted. Equality of races and sexes is something you get out of the marketplace of ideas, as well as race and gender superiority. Once upon a time, race and gender superiority was the accepted norm, and calls for equality were the loud complaints that people had to hear and decide whether to agree with. Eventually equality supplanted the prior norm, and we hear some noisy ideas about superiority. I doubt that will supplant the norm in the majority though, it's an obviously inferior situation for the majority than equality, because everyone is a minority depending on how you slice it.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#178
post #57
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a feeling moderating online speech is a losing game. There will always be platforms such as 4chan and KF willing to provide a space to any kind of speech. Maybe I've become too cynical, but I've come to accept that the only way to not be bullied or harassed online is to not expose yourself too much online, such as through compartmentalizing different aspects of your online social life through different social…

> but I've come to accept that the only way to not be bullied or harassed online is to not expose yourself too much online I've been on the internet for almost 30 years. This is something that we've lost in the last decade of people dying to tie their real identity to everything. The wild west internet was actively hostile and you had to be smart about not only what you said, but who you were associating with. This f…

The problem is that now people dedicate time and effort to "doxing" people so there's no real way to ensure that you're safely anonymous for any extended set of interaction as a persona. Unless you're for some 4chan like system where everyone is anonymous for every message, people will invest in their online personas and will be upset or devastated if they are attacked or destroyed.

The real difference now compared to the past IMO is that as a society we haven't really internalized that will large, possibly global reach and the benefits it may bring come an associated set of dangers. The larger the audience, the larger the possible benefits of your interactions. Linus Torvalds leverages a global audience into a volunteer workforce for what is likely the greatest software engineering product of the human race to date. Another person makes a poor decision or hurtful comment or is just interpreted wrong, and is the zeitgeist of a day or two, but a day or two of almost the whole world's ire. That can have major personal and professional consequences, as we've seen.

Managing a one-on-one interaction and explaining yourself to someone is generally trivial, for mature people. Doing so for a group of 10 is harder, but also possible much of the time. For 100, adequately assuaging them all is unlikely, some will retain reservations you'll likely never know are directly related. It worsens at every level. At the point where thousands or millions of people have negative impressions of you, many will never even see counterfactual evidence to what was initially presented, and your reputation may be tarnished, possibly to a sizeable fractions of the human race, and there's not much you can do about it, because the novel situation that got information about you in front of them initially is extremely unlikely to be repeated.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's more evidence out there, but I'm concerned about doxxing by saying more.

Then why bother saying it? I also know more evidence that supports my position, but I, too, don't want to dox by saying more.

>Then why bother saying it?

Because there's no indication from your post to suggest that you know more evidence that supports my position. Your post sounds like far more of a leap than it does if you've seen the other stuff.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the intent is to kill, and the person died through their actions, then it is murder. The methods and means don't need to be enumerated. The intent and the end state are what is defined in law. Both the US and Japan have standing here to charge KF members with murder and those that run KF as an accomplice.

Perhaps it doesn’t bother you but I’m worried about giving prosecutors yet another extremely broad tool that they can use to put people in jail on dubious grounds.

A group of people organize together with the intent of killing or harming others on the internet. This feels like an "on the internet" patent moment, absurdly so.
Post reply on HN