Fragile Young Genius Crushed - RIP Aaron Schwartz

[syrakusos]

.... and if you will allow me... this thing with geniuses commiting suicide, please, before you get all ideological on this, read about the case of Evariste Galois. As the replicant Roy Batty said in Blade Runner, "The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long."

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Michael,

You are a hacker?

Since when?

I'm going to start believing in unicorns...

(You seem to be a good interviewer, though. Good work.)

Michael

[syrakusos]

Michael, You are a hacker? Since when?

I'm going to start believing in unicorns...

(You seem to be a good interviewer, though. Good work.)

Michael

You are perfectly free to believe whatever you want. But enough about me ... Thanks for the links in #46.

[Brant Gaede]

.... and if you will allow me... this thing with geniuses commiting suicide, please, before you get all ideological on this, read about the case of Evariste Galois. As the replicant Roy Batty said in Blade Runner, "The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long."

I wonder if this story influenced Victor Hugo in the creation of a character so loved by Ayn Rand depicted in his masterpiece and described as "The marble lover of liberty."

--Brant

[Reidy]

I don't see a detailed enough resemblance to convice, unless somebody has documentation that Hugo knew of the incident and said he was using it. Was Enjolras a mathematician? He didn't die in a duel.

Dying young was trés chic in the romantic era, as the example of the various poets shows. The only possible way to hang on to your social cachet after 30 was to go mad.

[BaalChatzaf]

.... and if you will allow me... this thing with geniuses commiting suicide, please, before you get all ideological on this, read about the case of Evariste Galois. As the replicant Roy Batty said in Blade Runner, "The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long."

Thank you so much for remembering Evriste Galois, the young mathematician who invented Group Theory, probably one of the most important branches of mathematics. Modern theoretical physics is to a great extent an exercise in Group Theory. It is regrettable that Evriste Galois was moved by his youthful many passions. If he had kept his temper, he might have produced first class mathematics for another 20 years.

For those further interested please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_theory

[Brant Gaede]

I don't see a detailed enough resemblance to convice, unless somebody has documentation that Hugo knew of the incident and said he was using it. Was Enjolras a mathematician? He didn't die in a duel.

Dying young was trés chic in the romantic era, as the example of the various poets shows. The only possible way to hang on to your social cachet after 30 was to go mad.

It doesn't take much to get the creative juices flowing. Occupation and way of death in this case don't have to matter. I doubt too that he was any "marble lover of liberty." I certainly agree with your first sentence, however.

--Brant

[Guyau]

.

Report on MIT and the Prosecution of Aaron Swartz

[BaalChatzaf]

Fragile Young Genius Crushed - RIP Aaron Schwartz

At 26 years old, Aaron Schwartz hung himself.

Why?

What was there to die for?

He was one of the inventors of the RSS feed (at 14!). Co-founder of Reddit. Internet freedom activist.

This last might explain it.

He already suffered from depression. That's not good for someone who was looking at millions of dollars--which he did not have--in legal fees and possibly going to jail for decades. It was too much and he went over the edge. He hung himself.

The USA government considered Aaron Schwartz a felon and was prosecuting him as such. His crime? He downloaded a crap-load of scientific papers he believed should be free to the public, especially seeing how public funds helped produce almost all of them.

Now Aaron is dead and his persecutor, Carmen M. Ortiz, is alive. Not even JSTOR--the company behind the site he hacked--wanted to prosecute him. But US Attorney Ortiz did. She needed a high-profile win for her career. She needed to put a genius behind bars. She needed to show that smart-aleck who was boss.

Well decades from now, people are still going to know who Aaron Schwartz was, they are still going to be using the wealth he helped produce from his precious mind. But nobody will remember Ortiz. And it won't matter two-hoots that she got appointed by Obama.

Watch the video at the end and give a silent thank you to Aaron Schwartz for getting the anti-SOPA effort off the ground. If that seems remote, think about this. His work ultimately means you are still free to post on OL without government review or permission.

Aaron lived long enough to learn that SOPA usurps freedom, that copyright law contains a seed that can easily grow into government tyranny. So people need to be vigilant in keeping that seed from sprouting. If you view the video, you will see that he did not live long enough to learn that Social Security comes with the same seed. I believe he would have realized it over time.

But no longer.

This is one David who got stomped by Goliath.

It's a sad, sad day...

Reddit co-founder commits suicide

Aaron Swartz, Precocious Programmer and Internet Activist, Dies at 26

http://youtu.be/Fgh2dFngFsg

Michael

Laying hands on intellectual property that one does not own is theft. Good intentions do not change that.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[dldelancey]

Neither of the "victims" named in the indictment had any interest in a criminal prosecution. We often give lip-service to victimless crimes in these dicussions.