The Unabomber wasn't so dumb.....

D2Cat

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The Unabomber was a tech-obsessed crazed killer – but 40 years on, technologists are starting to wonder if some of his theories might be true
Jonathan Gornall



But for the series Manhunt: Unabomber, currently playing on Netflix, few people under the age of 60 would have heard of Ted Kaczynski and the 17-year campaign of terror he waged against what he saw as the runaway Frankenstein's monster of technological progress.

There is some irony here. Kaczynski dismissed television as “an important psychological tool of the system”, designed to control the masses – but now the box-set generation has been introduced to his murderous mission to halt what he believed was the erosion of human freedom and dignity by our unthinking embrace of technology.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the start of that campaign. Between 1978 and 1995 the Harvard-educated maths genius, who became known to the FBI as the Unabomber, planted 16 bombs, killing three people and injuring 23 more. Most of his targets were involved with technology, albeit to varying degrees. He was caught only when the New York Times and Washington Post agreed to publish his 35,000-word manifesto called Industrial Society and its Future and its themes were recognised by his brother, who turned him in.

Kaczynski, who had retreated to an off-grid cabin in Montana to plot the overthrow of technological society, was quite literally the proverbial voice in the wilderness. Forty years on, however, it could be argued that the Unabomber was a visionary to whom we should all now be paying very close attention indeed.

Of course, it goes against the grain to credit a killer. But as Dr David Skrbina, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, puts it: “The challenge is to make a firm separation between the Unabomber crimes and a rational, in-depth, no-holds-barred discussion of the threat posed by modern technology”. Kaczynski, says Dr Skrbina, “has much to offer to this discussion [and] his ideas have no less force, simply because they issue from a maximum security cell”.

If anything, technological developments in the world outside that cell in the past 40 years have served only to reinforce Kaczynski's message. Take the so-called "transhumanism" movement, with futurists such as Ray Kurzweil gleefully herding us towards the dystopian surrender of our humanity, to a hybrid amalgamation of artificial intelligence and flesh and blood – the so-called singularity, upon us as soon as 2029, according to Google's blue-sky thinker. This was a theme embraced by electric-cars-to-rockets multi-billionaire Elon Musk at the World Government Summit in Dubai last year. In the fast-approaching era of artificial intelligence, he proclaimed, human beings must merge with machines or become obsolete.

In his manifesto, Kaczynski wrote cogently of his fear that “the technophiles are taking us all on an utterly reckless ride” and that technology “will eventually acquire something approaching complete control over human behaviour”. He was especially fearful of the rise of artificial intelligence – a concern shared today by thinkers including the cosmologist Stephen Hawking. “A super-intelligent AI,” Professor Hawking has warned, “will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals and if those goals aren't aligned with ours, we're in trouble.”

Kaczynski was way ahead of him. Twenty years earlier, he predicted that computer scientists would “succeed in developing intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and as machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more and more of their decisions for them”.

Eventually “the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently”, at which stage “the machines will be in effective control”. People won’t be able to turn off the machines "because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide”.

Think of the astonishing and largely unforeseen technological developments that have taken place and the ethical and social dilemmas many of them are now posing, in the 40 years since Kaczynski made his first bomb: the internet, the personal computer, supercomputer, tablet, smartphone, mass surveillance, GPS, email, wifi, broadband, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, robotics, wearables, drones, autonomous vehicles – to name a few.

Then there’s the rise of giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter, tracking and harvesting every facet of our digital lives, to say nothing of the Trojan horse toys we willingly bring into our homes, such as Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home – always listening, increasingly watching and constantly learning about you and your habits.

Consider Kaczynski’s observation that “if the use of a new item of technology is initially optional, it does not necessarily remain optional because the new technology tends to change society in such a way that it becomes difficult or impossible for an individual to function without using that technology”. Now contrast that with the declaration by the United Nations that access to the internet is nothing less than an inalienable human right, right up there with food, shelter and education.

Which of this doesn’t chime with Kaczynski’s fear that the human race might “drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines’ decisions”, at which point “the human race would be at the mercy of the machines”?

The scale of the intrusion of technology into our lives is now so extensive and complex that it is near impossible for individuals to grasp. But some technologists, at least, are starting to wonder if it isn't all getting out of hand – and in the process are beginning to sound an awful lot like Kaczynski.

Last week the San Francisco-based Centre for Humane Technology, a group of “deeply concerned former tech insiders”, launched a campaign to “realign technology with humanity's best interests”. Technology, it announced, “is hijacking our minds and … eroding the pillars of our society: mental health, democracy, social relationships and our children”.

As a 75-year-old man serving eight consecutive life sentences in a maximum security prison in Colorado might be forgiven for saying, I told you so.
 
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motionclone

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Well if you werent on a list you will be now D2, google is watching
 

skeets

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Truely all of that sounds like a plot theme for a Twilight Zone program
 
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mcfarmall

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And people think Alex Jones is crazy...nowadays conspiracy theory is becoming conspiracy fact.
 

ranger danger

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Mr. Kaczynski was not stupid /dumb! In fact, he was Mensa level Brilliant with an IQ of 167! I was called to "test" to be a juror on his trial so I did as much reading about him as I could prior to the test. He, Like Hitler and many others, had some great ideas. But, like many high IQ thinkers, had no social abilities.


10 Well known serial killers.

1) Ted Kaczynski (A.K.A. The Unabomber)- 167

2) Edmund Kemper- 136

3) Ted Bundy- 136

4) Andrew Cunanan - 147

5) Joel Rifkin- 128

6) Jeffrey Dahmer- 145

7) Juan Corona - 130

8) Kristen Gilbert- unknown

9) Charlene Williams- 160

10) Michael Ross- 122


IQ CHART:

0-24 Profound Mental Retardation Limited or no ability to communicate, eat, bath, dress and toilet.

25-39 Severe Mental Retardation Limited ability to communicate, eat, bath, dress and toilet. No academic skills.

40-54 Moderate Mental Retardation Some independent self-help skills and very basic academic skills.

55-69 Mild Mental Retardation Usually able to dress/bath independently and can do simple jobs. Elementary school academics.

70-79 Border Line May live independently with difficulties. Can perform simple and repetitive jobs.

80-89 Low Average Can complete vocational education and live independently.

90-109 Average Can complete high school graduation and college with difficulty.

110-119 High Average Typical level of college graduates.

120-129 Superior Typical level of persons with doctoral degrees.

130-144 Gifted Capable of understanding highly, complex academic material.

145-159 Genius Exception intellectual ability and capable of looking beyond known facts.

160-175 Extraordinary genius Extraordinary talent like Albert Einstein.
 

bcp

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From:

The FBI used the case identifier UNABOM (University and Airline Bomber) to refer to his case before his identity was known, which resulted in the media naming him the "Unabomber".

Bruce
 

Henro

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Mr. Kaczynski was not stupid /dumb! In fact, he was Mensa level Brilliant with an IQ of 167!
Actually, you are confusing things a bit.

He obviously was not stupid by our society's definition of smart.

But he was dumb, doing what he did...some might even say there are different kinds of stupid. He in my opinion proved that intelligence and stupidity are not mutually exclusive.
 

ranger danger

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Perhaps I chose the wrong wording but, I'm not so sure. I have a sister-in-law who was accepted to a high end university on a full ride academic scholarship in a Masters level Chemistry program. She came to me in an absolute panic because she couldn't figure out how to fill out her entrance paperwork. She is now a Developmental Chemist for a major drug manufacturer. Is she stupid or, is she just incapable of comprehending basic life skills?
 

Henro

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Perhaps I chose the wrong wording but, I'm not so sure. I have a sister-in-law who was accepted to a high end university on a full ride academic scholarship in a Masters level Chemistry program. She came to me in an absolute panic because she couldn't figure out how to fill out her entrance paperwork. She is now a Developmental Chemist for a major drug manufacturer. Is she stupid or, is she just incapable of comprehending basic life skills?
Nobody knows everything. Your sister in law was smart enough to ask for help with something she was uncomfortable with. That is SMART.

Basic life skills? I do not know. One important basic life skill is to know when to ask for help...many do not realize this.

Your SIL is obviously not lacking in intelligence.

That being said, if I were isolated on a deserted island, with one other person, and could choose a partner, I think I would choose a farmer over an academic. Preferrably a female farmer...LOL... No offense to academics! OR male farmers! Just a practical consideration...LOL

AND no negative implication towards farmers either. We are all equally smart in our own ways. One no better than another...
 
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xrocketengineer

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Well, I think that there is disconnect between intelligence and many other things that make a person function effectively in a society. When I was in college, I was staying with an uncle that was very creative with his business and interests and some people would even ask him if he was an engineer but all he had was a high school diploma. Our next door neighbor was a professor at the university with a PhD in Physics that disliked teaching undergraduate students because unlike post graduate students, they would give up quickly when he assigned them a problem that would take 20 hours to solve. He would come over all the time to ask (and annoy) my uncle about simple things like how to use a paint roller or how to assemble a kiddie pool. He seemed to expect a class or course on anything new he attempted.
One day, the professor's old VW Bug would not start . As usual, he came to my uncle for help. My uncle not wanting to be bothered with batteries and jumper cables suggested to him to push start the car since we lived at the top of a hill. And maybe my uncle had some ulterior motives since the hill was steep enough, that during the construction of the subdivision, someone got killed going down driving a piece of construction equipment when he could not negotiate the turn at the bottom. Regardless, down the hill the professor went in his VW trying to get it to start. After a while, the professor came back walking up the hill huffing and puffing. My uncle asked him - "What happened?" and the professor replied - "It did not start". My uncle asked him - " Did you put it in second gear like I told you?" and the professor replied "Yes". My uncle asked him - " Did you let out the clutch pedal?" the reply was - "What clutch pedal? The car is automatic."
 
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Lil Foot

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Reminds me of another VW/common sense related story.
I worked 2nd shift for a while at a major aerospace company.
One night as I was leaving the plant at 12:30AM, a manager, who was recently promoted from engineer, called out to me and asked if I had cables & could give his Manx VW Buggy a jump.
I said sure, and got my LandCruiser, & drove to the the back of his buggy.
As I hopped out, I told him I didn't think my cables were going to be necessary.
His entire engine was missing.
He never even thought to look back there.
Apparently someone stole the engine between 4PM & 12:30AM, within direct sight of the guard shack, at a range of 200ft.
Lots of funny stuff went on under that security department.