[PLUG-TALK] We lost a great one

Keith Lofstrom keithl at gate.kl-ic.com
Sat Jan 12 22:12:08 UTC 2013


On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 10:01:06AM -0800, Michael Rasmussen wrote:
> Aaron Swartz - co author of the RSS spec, joint founder of reddit, freer of public documents is dead at 26
> http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html

A suicide.  I wonder if Aaron Swartz made a call or email
just before he killed himself, to a person who said "Hi,
Aaron.  Can I call you back in half an hour?".  The
recipient thinks "this can wait", and Aaron, irrationally
depressed, is all alone in a black pit of despair.   In
the aftermath, the person Aaron called may be in their
own nightmare now. 

For that person still alive, I'll paraphrase the ideas
Amanda Fritz shared at Kirk Reeve's memorial service:

 Depression is a disease, and it kills people.  Other people
 do not cause this disease, professional therapists often
 cannot cure it, and there is no blame or shame when a
 loved one kills themselves.  If you are depressed, seek
 help.  If a friend is depressed, encourage them to seek
 help.  The chances of a cure are not perfect, but better
 than nothing, like all diseases.  Be a friend, that helps,
 but understand that you can't determine the outcome.

If anyone here is feeling depressed, let's talk, F2F (I'm
not good with phones).  Chances are, for most of you,
talking with me won't help much, but for a few it might. 
We'll both keep trying, and lives will be saved sometimes,
though sadly not all lives.  We aren't that lucky, and
we don't have the control that we think we do. 

---

As a geeky semi-irrelevancy, Randolph Nesse writes about
the evolutionary psychology of depression, as an adaptation
to feelings of powerlessness.  All our genes flowed through
tyrants, and their vassals, for millions of years when clans
were small and alpha males had life-and-death power and an
insemination monopoly over the clan.  All our genes passed
through countless alpha males, so we unconsciously assume
we have absolute dictatorial powers.  Only a lifetime of
civilized conditioning suppresses that.  But we also need to
survive the overlordship of the alpha male (until he weakens
enough that we can kill him and take over).  The symptoms
of depression may be a form of human submission display that
reduces our perceived threat to the alpha male.  How disabled
do you have to be to not be a threat?  An awful lot, enough
that other less obviously depressed males get picked off first.
All of which is spectacularly mal-adapted for living in a
semi-civilized world of 7 billion interconnected people.
If you are depressed, it is because you are human.  :-(

Perhaps, until we rewire our brains and our genes, we need
an app that psychologically buffers us from the world.  It
would make us seem alphas in our own digital cocoon, while
projecting meek harmlessness to everyone else.  Then we can
stop killing ourselves, and stop striving to rule the world,
though we may never talk directly to anyone else again. :-(

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993



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