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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

#51

Post by paxys »

wolco2 wrote: post #44
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…

It is much easier in third world countries to hide children / existance. This will make them attractive. In the future you describe you would have a hacked or stolen id.

Maybe today, but a lot of these third world countries are very rapidly developing a surveillance culture as well.

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

#52

Post by Jtsummers »

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.

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

#53

Post by sixstringtheory »

wolco2 wrote: post #44
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…

It is much easier in third world countries to hide children / existance. This will make them attractive. In the future you describe you would have a hacked or stolen id.

Minority Report proposed a solution to the automated public retinal scans...

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

#54

Post by gabereiser »

Raphmedia wrote: post #37

Could it be a Canadian that drove to NY and then hiked west? That's a pretty common thing to do. I have a bunch of friends from college that are bouncing around the globe travelling on foot, picking fruits and doing farm-work when they run out of funds. Or are the databases / missing persons agencies communicating with each others?

Clues here are: he’s from Louisiana, worked in NY in tech, liked screeps. Coder from the looks of his notes. Mid 30s to late 40s.

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

#55

Post by mathstuf »

kick wrote: post #16
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…

He didn't say his name, though. At minimum it's a desire to stay pseudonymous, and I think it should be respected. The idea that privacy can be violated like this solely because random Facebook users are interested in it and on the off-chance that family he hadn't interacted with in years might find some abstract comfort despite not being close at all is just incredibly bizarre.

I've thru-hiked and "no one" goes by their real names out there (for long). It's just not the way trail community works. There are many people I met and all we know name-wise about each other are our trail names.

I suspect those that didn't want to be on social media at all would have declined to be in the GoPro video for a longer discussion (as I likely would have, but I wouldn't have stopped a passing hiker doing a GoPro recording since that's more in the realm of a dashcam kind of thing). Fellow hikers tend to be respectful about such things.

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

#56

Post by [deleted] »

gabereiser wrote: post #54
Raphmedia wrote: post #37

Could it be a Canadian that drove to NY and then hiked west? That's a pretty common thing to do. I have a bunch of friends from college that are bouncing around the globe travelling on foot, picking fruits and doing farm-work when they run out of funds. Or are the databases / missing persons agencies communicating with each others?

Clues here are: he’s from Louisiana, worked in NY in tech, liked screeps. Coder from the looks of his notes. Mid 30s to late 40s.

[deleted]

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

#57

Post by andromeduck »

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.

It's rare but it does happen. Sometimes the heart can just stop beating such as in SADS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_arrhythmic_death_syndro... https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17522-sudden-...

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

#58

Post by ColanR »

wolco2 wrote: post #44
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…

It is much easier in third world countries to hide children / existance. This will make them attractive. In the future you describe you would have a hacked or stolen id.

> hacked or stolen id

Even that would be tough, since I'd guess facial recognition would detect that.

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

#59

Post by mabbo »

nxthompson2 wrote: post #3

I'm the author of the piece. I think the best clues are that the mystery hiker told people he was from Louisiana, and that he worked in the tech industry in NY. I suspect someone here might recognize him. I'm reachable at nxthompson at protonmail.

Just wanted to say that it's a really well written piece. Nothing over-dramatized, but the whole story is there.

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

#60

Post by ColanR »

victor9000 wrote: post #48
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.

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.
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