Comment by akira2501
2 years ago
> Plenty of smart folks have 'jumped the shark' intellectually: Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was very talented in mathematics before he went off the deep end.
Kaczynski dropped out of society to live in a cabin alone at 29. He delivered his first bomb at 35. I'm not sure this is a reasonable comparison to invoke in any way whatsoever.
When DJB starts posting about the downfall of modern society from his remote cabin in Montana, perhaps, but as far as I know he's still an active professor working from within the University system.
While kaczynski was clearly unhinged, and I frankly don’t see how sending mail bombs did anything helpful towards solving the problems he addressed (or that his proposed solution would necessarily be better than ‘the disease’), I dare anyone to read his manifesto and say he was wrong.
If DJB is unhinged but similarly insightful about a crypto algo, I think we’d all be better off. Assuming he lays off the mailbombs anyway.