Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated • Hacker News Board

ignoramous wrote: post #97

sokoloff wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic Wikipedia. “I spoke with Cliff today; now I have to go discuss on the Talk page whether or not he’s dead.”

For living persons, Wikipedia takes misleading / contentious material quite seriously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_livin... That said, Wikipedia is pretty unapologetic about its preference for verifiability , not truth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability,_not_t...

No reliable secondary sources that you are still alive I'm afraid

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#125

Post by KingFelix » Fri, May 08, 2026, 5:09 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #89

hoppyhoppy2 wrote: post #78

Thank you for the update, Cliff. I will update your Wikipedia page to show that your death is currently under dispute.

Classic Wikipedia. “I spoke with Cliff today; now I have to go discuss on the Talk page whether or not he’s dead.”

Sounds a bit like a Philip K Dick story

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#126

Post by GolfPopper » Fri, May 08, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

organ1cwast3 wrote: post #26

vishnukool wrote: post #19

This is the weird part of AI hallucinations and people start treating it like a verified fact after it gets repeated.

Yeah that's weird. Finding everything2 decades ago it occurred to me the internet is 100% untrustworthy source for anything. Believing AI is bonkers to me. But these shields been up since the 90s. None of this stuff matters. It was all gibberish

It matters, in the sense that other people (some of them with control of a great deal of wealth and force) believe it, and make decisions based on it.

I'm confident there were plenty of citizens of the Soviet Union who knew that Lysenko was decoupled from reality. That didn't stop them from starving to death.

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#127

Post by cineticdaffodil » Fri, May 08, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

Its mostly people who get too much positive feedback and stories on the web, only good things is a huge signifier of a person passing. Get some haters like the rest of us Cliff ;)

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#128

Post by sirbranedamuj » Fri, May 08, 2026, 5:20 PM UTC

Glad to hear! My Klein bottle is still proudly displayed on my shelf after nearly a decade :)

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#129

Post by NoSalt » Fri, May 08, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

dmoy wrote: post #123

NoSalt wrote: post #110

Wait ... is this THE Cliff Stoll???????

Yes, you can also buy klein bottle hats or bottles or scarves from him, and he will send you funny notes/literature along with it. Cliff is awesome

The legend himself. I feel honored to be within the same thread as he is. I cannot tell you the number of people I have recommended his book to. I have even shamelessly plugged it to my 13-year-old son. :-D

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#130

Post by mdnahas » Fri, May 08, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

koliber wrote: post #44

A doctor friend of mine once joked that it would be really cruel to issue a death certificate for someone who is alive. This seems to be a soft version of that. The only thing that would be crueler is to revoke someone's birth certificate. "Sir, you never existed in the first place."

We created databases to keep track of reality. It fascinates me when the database is taken for reality.