Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
theatlantic.com
Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
1–10 of 190 posts
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#2Ted has always been my favorite mathematician. Really a remarkable guy.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#3His story is tragic. Tragic in that he was seemingly so smart even he couldn't handle it. Tragic in that people lost their lives. Tragic in the fact that we lost a mind like his and the advancements he could've brought to mathematics potentially. Sad in that he was so impacted by MK ultra. It's a truly terrible, yet captivating story.
His neo-Luddism has always been of interest to me also, as one of my classes read his essays in college. They just seem so uneven, like they are trying to grasp at a logical idea but fall short. Yeah, interesting and really sad.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#4His story is tragic. Tragic in that he was seemingly so smart even he couldn't handle it. Tragic in that people lost their lives. Tragic in the fact that we lost a mind like his and the advancements he could've brought to mathematics potentially. Sad in that he was so impacted by MK ultra. It's a truly terrible, yet captivating story. His neo-Luddism has always been of interest to me also, as one of my classes read h…
His works are incredibly well-written and precise. They are only unconvincing to us because we have incompatible preferences.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#5Not sure what the point of all this is. Thousands of very smart, accomplished men and women have gone through GenEd at Harvard without murdering multiple people.
Personally I think Kaczynski was influenced more by his inability to get a date in his entire life.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#6His story is tragic. Tragic in that he was seemingly so smart even he couldn't handle it. Tragic in that people lost their lives. Tragic in the fact that we lost a mind like his and the advancements he could've brought to mathematics potentially. Sad in that he was so impacted by MK ultra. It's a truly terrible, yet captivating story. His neo-Luddism has always been of interest to me also, as one of my classes read h…
I never read any of his writings. I never thought someone who murdered to call attention to his writings would write anything worth reading. But I read a long biography of him in the NY Times after he was arrested. It said his favorite book was Conrad's The Secret Agent; he read it 20 times. Ok, I'll read that. There's a character, the anarchist who carried a bomb with him everywhere so the police wouldn't arrest him, who he obviously patterned himself after.
There was nothing to the man. Aside from some mathematical talent, a mediocrity attempting grandiosity through terrorism.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#7Not sure what the point of all this is. Thousands of very smart, accomplished men and women have gone through GenEd at Harvard without murdering multiple people. Personally I think Kaczynski was influenced more by his inability to get a date in his entire life.
Not sure what the point of all this is. Thousands of very smart, accomplished men and women have gone through date-less lives without murdering multiple people.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#8Not sure what the point of all this is. Thousands of very smart, accomplished men and women have gone through GenEd at Harvard without murdering multiple people. Personally I think Kaczynski was influenced more by his inability to get a date in his entire life.
The point is that he was expirimented on with procedures that could be called torture.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#9Not sure what the point of all this is. Thousands of very smart, accomplished men and women have gone through GenEd at Harvard without murdering multiple people. Personally I think Kaczynski was influenced more by his inability to get a date in his entire life.
>Personally I think Kaczynski was influenced more by his inability to get a date in his entire life.
You should read his manifesto, the dude had some funky ideas about society and there's no excuse for murdering innocent poeple, but he does defend what he believes in very vigorously. He wasn't a man without an ideological backing.
Re: Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber (2000)
#10His story is tragic. Tragic in that he was seemingly so smart even he couldn't handle it. Tragic in that people lost their lives. Tragic in the fact that we lost a mind like his and the advancements he could've brought to mathematics potentially. Sad in that he was so impacted by MK ultra. It's a truly terrible, yet captivating story. His neo-Luddism has always been of interest to me also, as one of my classes read h…
The article paraphrases Ellul criticizing the modern world, "mankind no longer saw technology as merely a tool but now pursued its advancement as an end in itself. Society served technology, not vice versa. Individuals were valued only insofar as they served this end." That was a major influence on Kaczynski.
When you say it's tragic that he didn't end up contributing to mathematics, you're judging his life by the values he revolted against.
I believe that advancing technology (and knowledge in general) is among the highest callings a person can have, so I agree with you. But he wouldn't.