Don't know his story that well... and his impact on the wider cryptoanarchist space is lesser compared to say Snowden or Ulbricht... Like its hard to point to successors or feilds that came out of his actions.
Plus probably rad-libertarian bias on my part. He's more famous in tech circles, academic settings, and SF as opposed to the libertarian/agorist "fuck the state" wing of things.
Might also just be that his story is the saddest, the one that feels least like a victory... Say what you will about the fate of Ulbricht and Assange, their sites and successors are still going.... Whereas my bias is to say freeing Academic knowledge is kindof a pointless exercise (but then i studied English and philosophy, and I see little of value in the academic papers of either field)
Moldbug had a very good write up on Swartz. I'd love to be sold on the Idea of him. Just always felt less impactful in the fight against the state than someone like Satoshi Nakamoto or Assange or Wilson.
It's difficult to say whether freeing academic knowledge is pointless, or if academic environments cause cynicism about academia in those that leave them, but I am not convinced some subfields of a particular physical science would benefit from free paper access. Arxiv and moving to a free access, author pays upfront to publish, style model seemed to be gaining a lot of tracktion before I abandoned that particular flavour of ivory, but then again maybe information really does want to be free?
He who denies you access to information dreams himself your master?
Ok fine, purchased
Hey, why didn't you consider Aaron Swartz in your pantheon?
Don't know his story that well... and his impact on the wider cryptoanarchist space is lesser compared to say Snowden or Ulbricht... Like its hard to point to successors or feilds that came out of his actions.
Plus probably rad-libertarian bias on my part. He's more famous in tech circles, academic settings, and SF as opposed to the libertarian/agorist "fuck the state" wing of things.
Might also just be that his story is the saddest, the one that feels least like a victory... Say what you will about the fate of Ulbricht and Assange, their sites and successors are still going.... Whereas my bias is to say freeing Academic knowledge is kindof a pointless exercise (but then i studied English and philosophy, and I see little of value in the academic papers of either field)
Moldbug had a very good write up on Swartz. I'd love to be sold on the Idea of him. Just always felt less impactful in the fight against the state than someone like Satoshi Nakamoto or Assange or Wilson.
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2013/01/noam-chomsky-killed-aaron-swartz/
It's difficult to say whether freeing academic knowledge is pointless, or if academic environments cause cynicism about academia in those that leave them, but I am not convinced some subfields of a particular physical science would benefit from free paper access. Arxiv and moving to a free access, author pays upfront to publish, style model seemed to be gaining a lot of tracktion before I abandoned that particular flavour of ivory, but then again maybe information really does want to be free?
He who denies you access to information dreams himself your master?