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20th Anniversary of Unabomber's Arrest (abc10.com) 78

Posted by EditorDavid from the proud-Harvard-alumni dept.
theodp writes: Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of the arrest of Theodore Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, at his cabin in rural Montana. Kaczynski, a brilliant mathematician turned recluse, spread destruction and death throughout the U.S by mailing bombs to his victims, most of whom worked at UNiversities or in the Airline industry -- hence the "UNAbomber" moniker -- from 1978 until his arrest in Lincoln, MT, on April 3, 1996. For years, the only clue to his identity was a single now-iconic sketch of a shadowy, hooded figure. The big break in the case came in 1995, when David Kaczynski recognized the ramblings of the Unabomber's 35,000-word anti-technology manifesto entitled Industrial Society and its Future, which was published in the Washington Post, as those of his older brother Theodore and tipped off the FBI. (Kaczynski warns of a world of intelligent machines where "the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines.") Kaczynski, now 73, is currently serving a life sentence without parole at the so-called Supermax prison in Colorado. Kaczynski's listing in the Harvard alumni directory for the class of 1962 gives his occupation as 'prisoner' and cites "eight life sentences, issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, 1998" in the awards section.
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20th Anniversary of Unabomber's Arrest More

20th Anniversary of Unabomber's Arrest

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  • Be sure to state the entire truth, please!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sgt_doom ( 655561 ) on Sunday April 03, 2016 @03:12PM (#51833863)
    That Kaczynski, while at Harvard, found himself to be the unwitting test subject of the CIA's MK ULTRA type, Prof. Murray. How this may have affected the child prodigy has never been examined --- but then NO so-called American reporter in the US of A has yet to identify the CIA stooge who overrode French airport security and ushered the underwear bomber aboard the Detroit inbound airliner that day?

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
      Wasn't that the SAME GUY who planted the explosives in WTC7? Heard it on the Internet...

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Daniel Matthews ( 4112743 )
      Surprisingly the above claim has merit!

      Chase, Alston (2003). Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0393020029.

      Chase A (June 1, 2000). "Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber". The Atlantic Monthly. pp. 41–65.

      I personally know that similar things were going on at major universities in Australia as recently as 20 years ago (Hi Ken).

      • It's a well known story. Maybe not MKULTRA but it's definitely something that would screw up an underage student's head.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday April 03, 2016 @04:07PM (#51834137)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ropati ( 111673 )

        Listen to the RadioLab podcast:
        http://www.radiolab.org/story/91721-oops/ [radiolab.org]

        In particular the first segment: "Be Careful What You Plan For".

        The Unibomber had his personality fried by the US government. If I had been tortured like that I am sure I would be just as asocial as Ted.

        The whole story has implications for all the other torture done by the US Goverment in the "War on Terrorism".

  • of technology, disturbing.

  • The New Luddite Challenge (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in developing intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings can do them. In that case presumably all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines and no human effort will be necessary. Either of two cases might occur. The machines might be permitted to make all of their own decisions without human oversight, or else human control over the machines might be retained.

    If the machines are permitted to make all

    • First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in developing intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings can do them. In that case presumably all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines

      That is a foolish presumption. "Intelligent machines" will only do the the tasks where they have a comparative advantage [wikipedia.org]. By definition, that is not "everything".

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        But important things like "faster-than-light" stock market trading.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tomhath ( 637240 )
          It isn't "faster than light". But it has to be faster than the next guy to succeed. My own experience is that electronic trading is far better than the old way of letting human brokers skim off much bigger commissions for willing out a form.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        "Intelligent machines" will only do the the tasks where they have a comparative advantage [wikipedia.org]. By definition, that is not "everything".

        It doesn't have to be everything, you arrogant pretense at omniscience.

        Machines can put 90% of the human race out of work and that will have a huge impact on
        humanity.

        • Machines can put 90% of the human race out of work ...

          Too late. That already happened during the mechanization of agriculture in the late 19th and early 20th century.

          ... and that will have a huge impact on humanity.

          Indeed. Average incomes doubled and doubled again as productivity soared.

          • You are probably right for the long term.

            But for a decade or two it can be extremely painful and people did die homeless and of exposure as a result of the industrial revolution. While the people after them got jobs, they got no training and thus had no employment. Close to 10,000 of them in england revolted and were put down by the army.

            Likewise, rising productivity was a major factor in the decade long destruction of the lives of 25% of the population of u.s. citizens in the early 20th century.

            However,

      • You're not looking far enough ahead.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by joh ( 27088 )

      He missed one option (in theory, he fell to it in practice): Human idiots being in control over humans. This is the classical solution to all problems and it has proven to be a big problem. Machines, this we haven't really tried yet.

      We may prefer Artificial Intelligence over Natural Stupidity in the end.

      • Didn't he say it already when he said "machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made ones"?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by theodp ( 442580 )

      Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: "I don't understand why some people are not concerned" [washingtonpost.com]

      I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence. Increasingly scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don't do something very foolish. With artificial i

  • The incredibly expanding mountain cabin (Score:3)

    by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Sunday April 03, 2016 @04:17PM (#51834191)
    This guy's shack was searched multiple times and each time the police retrieved a treasure trove of incriminating documents. How all the crap would fit in the small shack and how they could have missed it in the previous searches, was never explained though.

  • You guys just have a direct news feed to Ars or are you going to try to do something original one of these days.. like the old /.?

  • It's just my opinion but this should probably be put to rest and not thought about in an anniversary like format...

  • Referring back to the spelling and assholes article last week, here is what pisses me off about people that should KNOW how to spell when producing content.

    This is the caption from the video linked via the Slashdot description...

    "On April 3, 1996 Ted Kaczinsky's rain of terror came to an end. Former FBI agent Max Noel, who helped in the Unabomber's arrest, says what Kaczynski did was "pure evil." (April 2, 2016)"

    It is REIGN not RAIN....Jesus...

  • He was just trying to stop the creation of SkyNet.

  • I wondered if I would be one of the guys to fall to pieces from this guy. We're all still giving you the finger Ted. I bet few people understand what I even mean by that. Only if they realize what showing your middle finger really meant. It was there.

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