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‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

theguardian.com

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Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#31

Post by wellthisisgreat »

ok123456 wrote: post #11
djyaz1200 wrote: post #8

Kaczynski was a loser. He couldn't manage to turn a Harvard degree into a productive role in society so he waged a cowardly war on people who did nothing to harm him. The detailed list of specific injuries to victims here is sad... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

He did less damage than a Harvard grad who went on to run a hedge fund, or went on to work in private equity, or work for McKinsey, or become a lobbyist. Where's the detailed list of victims of globalization and finance?

that's some rich whataboutism

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#32

Post by pierat »

atestu wrote: post #25
joshuaheard wrote: post #19

I watched a TV show about the Unabomber a while back that was really good. I remember one of the detectives investigating him became sympathetic after reading his manifesto. I don't think the Unabomber was as much anti-tech as he was against tech controlling our lives. A valid concern in the AI era. I'll never forget the one scene where the detective was driving an empty road late at night and came up to a red light…

Manhunt: Unabomber https://reelgood.com/show/manhunt-unabomber-2017 I loved it too. It used to be on Netflix but they took it down.

It's still up... On Piratebay.

hXXps://thepiratebay DOT org/description.php?id=18642823

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#33

Post by tptacek »

djyaz1200 wrote: post #8

Kaczynski was a loser. He couldn't manage to turn a Harvard degree into a productive role in society so he waged a cowardly war on people who did nothing to harm him. The detailed list of specific injuries to victims here is sad... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

Yes. Repetitive, I know, but the standard reminder applies: we are talking about a man who deliberately attempted to down a commercial jetliner, and almost succeeded. There's no rationalizing to do here.

People cheerleading Kaczynski tend not to know this, and I think that's because for the most part they're not really engaged with the story; rather, it's just much more interesting, for Internet conversation purposes, if there are buried intellectual gems to unearth from Kaczynski's project. Because of the powerful bias towards "fun to talk about", there will always be people around to say "Mail bombs are mostly always bad, but what about Iraq, maybe he was right about some things."

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#34

Post by Convolutional »

djyaz1200 wrote: post #8

Kaczynski was a loser. He couldn't manage to turn a Harvard degree into a productive role in society so he waged a cowardly war on people who did nothing to harm him. The detailed list of specific injuries to victims here is sad... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

[flagged]

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#35

Post by ok123456 »

wellthisisgreat wrote: post #31
ok123456 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He did less damage than a Harvard grad who went on to run a hedge fund, or went on to work in private equity, or work for McKinsey, or become a lobbyist. Where's the detailed list of victims of globalization and finance?

that's some rich whataboutism

It's not "whataboutism." It's proportionality and universality.

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#36

Post by throwawaaarrgh »

ok123456 wrote: post #11
djyaz1200 wrote: post #8

Kaczynski was a loser. He couldn't manage to turn a Harvard degree into a productive role in society so he waged a cowardly war on people who did nothing to harm him. The detailed list of specific injuries to victims here is sad... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

He did less damage than a Harvard grad who went on to run a hedge fund, or went on to work in private equity, or work for McKinsey, or become a lobbyist. Where's the detailed list of victims of globalization and finance?

Kill ten people and you're a serial killer. Kill ten million and you're a politician.

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#37

Post by calf »

I'm a Marxian leftist, but the one time I tried reading his essay I found it incomprehensible, ramblings of an ill person. It could've been about any topic, the style was redundant overconfident rambling.

So, I never cared for the overanalysis of this, the media obsession and spectacle is pretending he had anything comprehensible to say at all.

I.e., his ideas resonate for people who have not actually read leftist writing. Or maybe they resonate for accelerationists, tankies, and the like.

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#38

Post by infamouscow »

wellthisisgreat wrote: post #31
ok123456 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He did less damage than a Harvard grad who went on to run a hedge fund, or went on to work in private equity, or work for McKinsey, or become a lobbyist. Where's the detailed list of victims of globalization and finance?

that's some rich whataboutism

Whataboutism is slang for not having a coherent argument.

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#39

Post by soupfordummies »

ok123456 wrote: post #11
djyaz1200 wrote: post #8

Kaczynski was a loser. He couldn't manage to turn a Harvard degree into a productive role in society so he waged a cowardly war on people who did nothing to harm him. The detailed list of specific injuries to victims here is sad... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

He did less damage than a Harvard grad who went on to run a hedge fund, or went on to work in private equity, or work for McKinsey, or become a lobbyist. Where's the detailed list of victims of globalization and finance?

For the sake of argument, 100% agreed.

However, that's still irrelevant and does nothing to alleviate the fact that he killed many innocent people.

Two wrongs don't make a right, as they say.

Re: ‘His ideas resonate’: how the Unabomber’s dangerous anti-tech manifesto lives on

#40

Post by aeternum »

fwlr wrote: post #20
speak_plainly wrote: post #3

I never found his argument convincing. The main tension in his manifesto is motivated by an underlying assumption that isn’t accurate. He sees technology as being a distinct force in opposition to humanity rather than an extension of humanity and that is the source of his fears. There are a lot of reasons to believe that technology is not an opposing force, like the idea of embedded cognition and embedded action. I t…

Hmm, I’m not sure I buy your contention. You can point to an individual instance of applying a specific technology and say “it is an extension of a particular human intention”, sure. But this is not commutative; Person A’s application of Technology X to Situation 1 is “extension of human intention”, but to Person B who is also in Situation 1, Technology X is “counter force in opposition to (Person B’s) humanity”. See…

The issue with that argument is that it is way too general.

IE, suppose one lion has shaper teeth. It uses those teeth to catch antelope more efficiently. The other lions see those sharp teeth as inherently anti-lion because those teeth deprive the rest of them of delicious antelope.

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