
Hans Reiser: former genius, convicted murderer and future mad scientist? - pessimizer
http://tacomaconfidential.typepad.com/the_murder_book_2008/2010/10/hans-reiser-former-genius-convicted-murderer-and-future-mad-scientist.html
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hristov
Hans Reiser is above and beyond all a fucking psychopath. It is obvious to me
that the cloning story is just a ploy for him to make some money. It seems
ridiculous at first glance, but it has a chance of working.

You see Hans knows very well that he had a huge groups of fans and supporters
and that those supporters were not very smart and supported him even after the
evidence against him got more and more obvious and incontrovertible. I
remember that even after he led the police to her body there were huge
discussions on slashdot and some people were still talking about how he was
still somehow unfairly treated by the justice system and Nina somehow brought
this about on herself.

Psychopaths are very adept at using people, and I bet Hans just feels that
there still are some people he can use out there. The problem is that after he
showed her body to the police even his most ardent fans would have to admit
that he killed her.

So he comes up with this story that he wants to clone her to give her the
happy childhood that she missed. (Notice that he did not say that he wanted to
give her her adulthood which she missed because he killed her).

Obviously a smart and practical person like him knows that this will not work.
Even if cloning were possible, you would create a different person. It would
be a different person with the same DNA but a different person nevertheless.

So yes, he is just a psychopath that wants to get another bunch of money from
the fools that used to believe him.

~~~
js2
For those who don't appreciate exactly what psychopath means, see
<http://www.hare.org/links/saturday.html>

~~~
lambda
An interesting read, but I will note that the linked article is from Robert
Hare's own website, and it reeks of pop-psychology and pop-science (lots of
anecdotal evidence, and claims of him being a misunderstood pioneer, not much
in the way of actual verifiable arguments or even proper citations). I know
that the idea of the psychopath, the unrepentant criminal or person without
the ability for empathy, has become popular recently, but I am skeptical of
some of the claims I've seen about the nature of the condition itself, the
diagnosis of the condition, how common it is, and the possibility of any sort
of rehabilitation.

~~~
jacquesm
It's on his site because he asked the author apparently if it is ok to
reproduce it, but it's written by one 'Robert Hercz', it was the cover story
of the Sep. 8th 2001 issue of Saturday Night magazine.

That's not exactly a scientific publication either, but it is not as if he
wrote it himself.

------
gvb
I can tighten up the headline: "Hans Reiser: Delusional."

It is obvious he lives in a totally different world than the one most of us
live in. I would call it "anti-world" because really bad things happened when
it collided with "normal-world".

------
jacquesm
Poor kids. Nina is out of it, Hans serves his sentence in jail, and those kids
are left without their parents and very little understanding of what the hell
happened to their lives in a way that will ever make sense to them.

Seeing their father in the news like this isn't going to help them at all,
it's bad enough to see their father as a former open source contributor turned
murderer of their mom.

Yes, that's a 'think of the children' argument, but in this case it is very
specific children that I have in mind and I think it is a valid point.

------
tzs
Reiser could have been out of jail for several months now, if he had accepted
the first deal he was offered:

    
    
        Judge Goodman essentially confirmed the nature of
        the crime from the bench. He said that he initially
        agreed — prior to Reiser’s trial that
        began in November — to accept a voluntary
        manslaughter plea deal. Goodman said he would have
        given Reiser the minimum, three-year term. The
        maximum for that heat-of-passion crime was 11 years.
    
        Reiser refused the offer, which required him to
        produce the body and explain the crime, the judge
        said.    Had he accepted, he would have likely been
        released next May, the judge said. "That deal was
        rejected by Mr. Reiser. He chose, if you will, to
        roll the dice," Goodman said.
    
        Defense attorney William DuBois said, "It’s beyond
        me" why his client did not accept the original
        offer.
    
        The judge said he would have approved the deal to
        bring immediate closure to family and friends of
        the victim, and to prevent the young Reiser boy,
        who is now 8, from having to testify. The judge
        said it would have also spared taxpayers the
        expense of a trial.
    

<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/07/judge-says-reis/>

I agree with DuBois. Consider the three possibilities:

1\. Gamble with a trial, get lucky, and win. Get out as soon as the trial is
over, end of April 2008.

2\. Take the involuntary manslaughter deal. Get out May 2009.

3\. Gamble with a trial, and lose. 25 to life. Make a deal then, and maybe get
that knocked down to 15 to life.

Would anyone here have rejected the deal in his situation? Remember, you
_know_ that you are guilty, so going to trial means you are betting that you
did such a good job of hiding the body and other evidence that they won't get
a conviction.

~~~
jarek
Well, he _did_ do a good enough job of hiding the body. The evidence against
him was circumstantial. Given what we know about his character, I have no
trouble believing he believed he could explain it away. People have been found
not guilty due to reasonable doubt on evidence stronger than in his case.

~~~
jacquesm
> The evidence against him was circumstantial.

The evidence was actually pretty good. Yes, there was no body which makes it
circumstantial but the total body of evidence was such that it would have been
very surprising if he had walked. Car seats don't go 'missing' just like that,
cars don't suddenly get flooded and large bloodstains do not suddenly appear,
and definitely not all around the moment when a person suddenly disappears.

Most explanations of these circumstances would stretch credulity considerably.

------
johnohara
FTA: He proposes that in 12 years, when he is released, that he be allowed to
clone his wife and provide her with the good childhood she missed.

There is a fine line between genius and madness. Where is the remorse for his
actions?

~~~
bane
_Where is the remorse for his actions?_

Weird? Yes. Uncomfortable? Yes. Not living on the same planet as the rest of
us? Yes.

But perhaps that's his way of showing remorse. Give her another chance at
life, one that he took away.

~~~
coolgeek
"Give her another chance at life"

The "her" you refer to no longer exists, and never will again (at least in
this sector of the multiverse).

What he would be giving "another chance at life" to would be a wholly distinct
organism that happens to share the same DNA.

~~~
hugh3
And this wholly distinct organism would no doubt wind up having a totally
screwed-up life.

Just imagine... you're a perfectly normal young girl growing up in a middle-
class household -- you probably told that these people raising you are your
aunts and uncles. But then one day your family decides you're old enough to be
told the truth -- you're a clone of their mother, who was murdered by their
father. Your purpose in life is to be happy in order to make up for the long-
dead woman who shares your DNA.

No thanks, I'd much rather take the genetic lottery. And this is why I oppose
human cloning -- I can't think of any circumstances in which growing up as a
clone of someone else (probably someone much older) wouldn't suck.

~~~
thwarted
Ever see Anna to the Infinite Power?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_to_the_Infinite_Power>

Other than the specific circumstances of the mother being murdered by the
father, that's kind of close to the plot of this movie.

The movie also some pretty weird ideas about what cloning is.

------
ax0n
Without a massive boost in senility, a lobotomy or way too many psychoactive
drugs, isn't it kind of hard for one to become a "former genius?"

~~~
raganwald
Dunno...

Is "genius" some kind of IQ score that is measured abstractly? Can one be a
"genius" behind bars or homeless? Or is "genius" measured by actions, as in
inventing something like a filesystem? If the latter, does one piercing
insight net you the genius title for life, or must one keep it up?

I can see how one definition of the word "genius" might be the _realization_
of creative and intellectual potential, and one could consider this type of
genius a temporary title that must be "renewed" through ongoing and active
creation and intellectual activity.

This particular definition seems to be in harmony with widespread HN values,
namely that it is not enough to have ideas, one must also manifest them to
earn full admiration. In which case, Mt. Reiser might well be a former genius
for the purposes of ongoing realization of creative and intellectual
potential.

~~~
icandoitbetter
Exactly. A functional description of genius, i.e. one that is applied to
subjects meeting certain criteria, is the only description that makes sense.
Let's not forget that genius does not describe a particular brain
configuration, but rather a specific perception/archetype that exists in some
cultures.

------
orblivion
Maaaaaaaybe we'd better look over that Reiser FS source code, just one more.
Just in case.

------
knowtheory
Reiser's lack of awareness of the feelings of others is extremely disturbing.

I hope somebody saves this article and mails it to the parole board.

W T F

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drallison
Hans Reiser lecture (video) on the Reiser4 file system at Stanford in October
2005. <http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/permlinks/051026.html>

------
iuguy
ReiserFS: The filesystem with killer performance.

------
keyle
How can someone can contribute to such a big part of the open source community
and take someone's life? It's like being bipolar on some level.

I didn't know about this guy until today and now I'm freaked out about reading
open source projects discussions :P

