Some points from the unabomber manifesto
2 min readAug 5, 2023
- Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing . Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first he will have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored , demoralized. Eventually clinically
- But most people need a greater or lesser degree of autonomy in working toward their goals. Their efforts must be undertaken on their own initiative and must be under their own direction and control.
- Suppose that a public official appoints his cousin, his friend or his co- religionist to a position rather than appointing the person best qualified for the job. He has permitted personal loyalty to supersede his loyalty to the system, and that is “nepotism” or “discrimination,”
- Our lives depend on whether safety standards at a nuclear power plant are properly maintained; on how much pesticide is allowed to get into our food or how much pollution into our air.The individual’s search for security is therefore frustrated, which leads to a sense of powerles
- A technological advance that appears not to threaten freedom often turns out to threaten it very seriously later on. For example, consider motorized transport. A walking man formerly could go where he pleased. In many cases the new technology changes society itself
- Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, so that they can never again do without it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation.But, even more, the system as a whole becomes dependent on it.
- People in the past could be pushed only so far and no farther. But today this may be changing, because modern technology is developing ways of modifying human beings. Antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual’s internal state
- Many primitive peoples, when they don’t have work to do, are quite content to sit for hours at a time doing nothing at all, because they are at peace with themselves and their world
- 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,People won’t be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent
- Suppose a biological trait is discovered that increases the likelihood that a child will grow up to be a criminal, and suppose some sort of gene therapy can remove this trait. Of course most parents whose children possess the trait will have them undergo the therapy.
