
Letter from Unabomber to Dr. David Gelernter (1995) - nafey
http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/edheritage/1910/unabomber.htm
======
arca_vorago
What most people don't know is that the US government experimented on him at
the age of ~16 when he was a math undergrad at Harvard in project artichoke
offshoot MK Ultra.

~~~
JohnStrange
Do you have a reference for that?

~~~
aaron-lebo
This is what he's referring to:

 _In his sophomore year at Harvard, Kaczynski participated in a personality
assessment study that was conducted by Harvard psychologists and led by Henry
Murray. Students in Murray 's study were told they would be debating personal
philosophy with a fellow student. Instead, they were subjected to "vehement,
sweeping, and personally abusive" attacks in a "purposely brutalizing
psychological experiment".[28] During the test, students were taken into a
room and connected to electrodes that monitored their physiological reactions,
while facing bright lights and a one-way mirror. Each student had previously
written an essay detailing their personal beliefs and aspirations: the essays
were turned over to an anonymous attorney, who would enter the room and
individually belittle each student based in part on the disclosures they had
made. This was filmed, and students' expressions of impotent rage were played
back to them several times later in the study. According to author Alston
Chase, Kaczynski's records from that period suggest he was emotionally stable
when the study began, and Kaczynski's lawyers attributed his deep-seated
hostility towards mind control techniques to his participation in this
study.[28] Furthermore, some have suggested that this experience may have been
instrumental in Kaczynski's future actions.[29][30]_

Dunno about all the mkultra stuff, but they psychologically abused the hell
out of a 17 year-old kid.

~~~
j_s
[29] RadioLab (June 28, 2010). "Oops".
[http://www.radiolab.org/story/91721-oops/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/91721-oops/)

[30] Jump up ^ Cockburn, Alexander (October 18, 1999). "CIA Shrinks & LSD".
CounterPunch. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
[https://www.counterpunch.org/1999/10/18/cia-shrinks-
lsd/](https://www.counterpunch.org/1999/10/18/cia-shrinks-lsd/)

source:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski)

------
throwanem
This is the second time in recent days that Kaczynski's writings have been the
subject of HN discussion. Rather than rehearse what I had to say then, I'll
just link it: [https://aaron-m.com/2017/07/09/on-
kaczynski](https://aaron-m.com/2017/07/09/on-kaczynski)

~~~
arnioxux
Taking "technology" to its logical end, you will probably arrive at AGI. And
despite being decades off away from it, there are already many people making
sure that it will be "safe" since the default otherwise will most likely lead
to human extinction.

[https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-
revol...](https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-
revolution-1.html)

[https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html](https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html)

EDIT: I am getting a lot of downvotes for this comment. And just to clear up
intention, all I am trying to say here is that yes, technology could be
deleterious but we can prevent it in ways other than concluding “and that’s
why we have to start blowing shit up and killing people”. I don't see why
that's offensive.

~~~
ryanackley
Part of what we see as "human intelligence" comes from our biological origins.
For example, intelligence AND emotions drive our actions: ambition, empathy,
fear, greed, jealousy, love, etc. They are survival and reproductive
mechanisms built into our brains based on the human condition.

My response to the theory that an all-powerful computer intelligence will one
day have us at it's whim is why would it even care? For the same reason it
lacks empathy, it would also lack any ambition or fear or jealousy.

The bigger risk is relying too much on A.I. built for very specific purposes
(ANI). A contrived example would be putting A.I. in charge of managing the
nuclear arsenal. A bug in the A.I. that caused a pre-emptive strike could wipe
out all life on earth.

~~~
throwanem
I'm going to stay on the self-promotion train for one more stop, because I
actually just a little while back started writing a long piece on a subject
very much adjacent to what you're describing:
[https://aaron-m.com/2017/08/01/on-the-theodicy-of-system-
sho...](https://aaron-m.com/2017/08/01/on-the-theodicy-of-system-shock-part-1)

Part 2, although I know where I intend to take it, is very inchoate at this
point for a reason that I mention in a postscript to part 1. I'd love to have
any feedback anyone would care to provide! It'll be of great use in improving
the back half of the essay.

------
wolfgke
The German director Lutz Dammbeck made an interesting documentary "Das Netz"
(the net) about strange parallels in the development of the internet, the
counterculture and the terrorist attacks of the Unabomber:

>
> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Netz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Netz)

------
irln
Maybe I'm cynical but does a connection exist between sudden renewed interest
in Kacynski and a discovery channel docudrama being released?

~~~
someguydave
Advertising? In my HN feed? Say it ain't so!

------
paulie_a
I read his manifesto in middle school because it had just came out in the
papers. Previously I thought it was incredibly repetitive to disguise the
simplistic ideas. Reading this I change that opinion, he was an angry "loser"
with delusions of his own intellect that overcompensates with a lot of words.

~~~
celticninja
Perhaps you should look at how he became what he became, the CIA and the
MKULTRA project were probably a huge factor in the creation of his persona. So
calling him a loser is probably an unfair assessment.

~~~
Jtsummers
Calling him a loser also means largely discarding anything he says without any
consideration. The fact is, we've done that with large classes of people (in
every country, in every time) who feel that the "current" (whatever it is at
the time) system or progress is harming them. Eventually, they boil over to
become either the majority or mobilized minority army and we have chaos in a
country, region, or globally.

This letter speaks rather directly to our contemporary issue of technology
displacing non-degreed workers. Either by exporting the jobs (cheaper
transport, better logistics), eliminating or reducing the number of people
required (increased automation), or increasing the technical sophistication
required (again, automation but also increasing presence of computer systems
and more complex tooling). It's pretty obvious in the present discussions (and
the most recent US presidential election) that people are feeling a great deal
of fear and hardship because of our direction over the past 30-40 years (in
particular). We have to confront these issues. Otherwise, a lack of
consideration or deliberation (publicly) is a tacit endorsement of the current
direction and its negative effects on large blocks of our fellow humans and
citizens.

------
aluhut
There is an interesting documentary about Kaczynski and the philosophy behind
him by Lutz Dammbeck called "The Net":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLqrVCi3l6E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLqrVCi3l6E)
Featuring a pretty pissed David among others.

------
foxhop
If you read his manifesto it goes much deeper into his thought process. There
are also quite a few documentaries out there that give more insight into how
he gets caught.

------
pmarreck
It looks like the Unabomber's fears have come true... and surprise, we're
still mostly OK!

~~~
onion2k
_we 're still mostly OK_

There are _a lot_ of people who are definitely not OK. Arguably the majority
of people live in a state of at least uncertainty about their future, if not
outright fear for their security and safety. This is true at both a local and
a global scale.

~~~
kps
We're down to just a majority, from pretty much everybody for pretty much all
of human existence. Good work, folks! Let's not stop now.

------
crb002
I would like to see Kaczynski and Manson appear by Snowdenbot for a
roundtable. Both share dystopian views that inspired them to violent tragedy.
I'm curious what their thoughts are on legislation to address regulation of
genetic engineering etc.

~~~
abiox
snowdenbot?

------
eliwjones
Doesn't anyone remember that it's "UNABOMer"?

~~~
dragonwriter
> Doesn't anyone remember that it's "UNABOMer"?

No, the FBI investigation was named “UNABOM”, the popular media name assigned
to the perpetrator before he was identified, inspired by that, was
“Unabomber”.

“UNABOMer” seems to be an attempt to preserve the sound of the latter while
making it more consistent with the former, but is historically inaccurate.

------
abiox
i presumed this would be something at least... quasi-intellectual, but this is
just a slimy letter from a terrorist harassing a (soon to be?) victim.

kind of gross.

------
timwaagh
i flagged this because its essentially terrorist propaganda because of what
the guy did. i dont know what the guidelines are regarding such things but i
don't think this belongs in a civil place like this.

~~~
aluhut
So his ideas could radicalize us here? Is this what you think? Like ISIS
propaganda?

He did math too. Do you want to ban math here also?

~~~
josinalvo
The argument is that we should not reward terrorism or further incentivise it.

If you want to discuss this "math" of yours, bring it from a source that does
not amplify the signal by killing people.

~~~
aluhut
I don't feel it amplified anything in me. How is it that you have such strong
feelings about it?

We also read excerpts of Mein Kampf at school. I did not have the feeling I
needed to kill Jews afterwards. Maybe the text is not the problem here?

------
mynameishere
It's astonishing, the seriousness with which the media takes a terrorist's
opinions, if that terrorist has the correct politics.

~~~
throwanem
Of which mainstream American media organization am I to believe radical
anarchoprimitivism is the secret agenda?

~~~
eli_gottlieb
Well, most mainstream media organizations actually do have a _deeply_
reactionary attitude towards technology and a _deeply_ naively optimistic view
towards Nature, in fact _routinely_ committing the naturalistic fallacy...
so... almost all of them, on some level?

~~~
abiox
seems almost comically reductive just to get to the 'all of them' zinger.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
It's not a zinger. Almost all major media organizations are techno-reactionary
and bio-conservative. They regularly run stories trying to convince people
that, for instance, selectively-bred food crops are a Really Bad Idea.

~~~
abiox
> techno-reactionary

yet they have pervasive technology use including new and emerging
technologies, so this is reductive.

> selectively-bred food crops

humans have been doing this for ages, from bananas to cows... are they telling
people to not eat bananas? this too seems reductive.

