this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023

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which ones do you think I missed? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

186 comments fedilink hide all child comments

image transcription:

big collage of people captioned, "the only people I wouldn't have minded being billionaires"
names(and a bit of info, which is not included in the collage) of people in collage(from top left, row-wise):

Alexandra Elbakyan, creator of Sci-Hub. perhaps the single-most important person in the scientific community regarding access to research papers.
Linus Torvalds, creator of linux kernel and git, courtesy of which we have GNU/Linux.
David Revoy, french artist famous for his pepper&carrot, a libre webcomic. inspiration for artists who are into free software movement
Richard Stallman, arch-hacker who started it all. founded the GNU project, free software movement, Emacs, GCC, GPL, concept of copyleft, among many other things. champions for free software to this day(is undergoing treatment for cancer at the moment).
Jean-Baptiste Kempf, president of VLC media player for 2 decades now
Ian Murdock, founder of Debian GNU/Linux and Debian manifesto. died too soon.
Alexis Kauffmann, creator of framasoft, a French nonprofit organisation that champions free software. known for providing alternatives to centralised services, notable one being framapad and peertube.
Aaron Swartz, a brilliant programmer who created RSS, markdown, creative commons, and is known for his involvement in creation of reddit. he also died too soon.
Bram Moolenaar, creator of vim, a charityware.

on the bottom right is the text reading, "plus the thousands of free software enthusiasts working tirelessly."

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[–] [email protected] 242 points 11 months ago (20 children)

It's nice to appreciate people who do good things, but keep in mind that the only way people become billionaires is by exploiting people. So I would not want any of these people to be billionaires because it would mean they got that wealth not by doing good things, but by owning ridiculous amounts of capital and exploiting people.

Rant over, sorry.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 11 months ago

it's alright mate. your rant helped me see things in a different light. so thank you.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I could see someone making something useful and selling it to billions of people at a fair price not being exploitative and also being a billionaire.

I think it's rare to the point of maybe happening once ever, but I'm not super upset about the behavior of the guy currently bankrolling the signal foundation.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The problem is if you aren't exploitative then you aren't being as "efficient" (in a capitalist sense) so you'll be out-competed. The system is designed to incentivize exploitation. It's mis-aligned to do anything else.

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 11 months ago (1 children)

None of them. I don't care who they are, nobody should be a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The point is, I think, if they were to become billionaires (say Bll Gtes leaves it to them in his will), then they wouldn't be billionaires for long -- their moral compasses (given they've spent their lives on non-profit causes) dictate that they'd likely put the money into other non-profit ventures.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thats a fair point, but money changes people. That kind of money is obscene because it effectively puts you above most laws. I, too, would like to believe that the folks on this list would do only good with the money; but the longer the list, the more likely you witness the “Bad Change!” At the end of the day, most folks have families and other concerns outside of their public pursuits. That kind of money, while bringing its own problems, can get rid of just about any “normal people” worries (obviously not something like inoperable cancer)!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I would use [it] from a desire to do good. But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine

Gandalf, to Frodo, saying why he should not be given the one ring.

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 11 months ago

no one should be billionaires.

[–] [email protected] 93 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think they aren't billionaires precisely because they worked for the good of the internet/knowledge.

If they indeed became billionaires that would imply that how they conduct themselves had completely been altered along with their core beliefs.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You literally can't be a billionaire without exploiting people. If you're not sharing profits equitably, you're exploiting your work force; if you ARE sharing profits, then there's no way you'll become a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago

I heard of a shorter way of saying that: There is no ethical billion dollars.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 11 months ago

None of these people could ever be billionaires. Only a sociopathic, narcissistic mind could ever do what it takes to hoard a billion dollars. Capitalism rewards having a lack of empathy for other people.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago (11 children)

You need to be a horrible person to become a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You need to be a horrible person to become a billionaire

And to STAY a billionaire. If you have immense power to do good, and every single morning you wake and choose not to, you are an evil ghoul driven by greed, period.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I love how so many of them demand love and acclaim for claiming they will give their money away... when they die.

You want me to sing your praises because you won't use the money you made exploiting countless laborers and lobbying government to benefit yourself above society to anoint a handful of nepo babies to wield that power after you? Gee thanks?

Its like a serial killer promising not to train his children in the family business. Its not doing good, just doing slightly less bad. Except billionaires cause damage on a far greater scale.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago (8 children)

If they were billionaires, they likely wouldn't be the people they are today.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Image of me is missing but I still agree.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago

on the bottom right is the text reading, “plus the thousands of free software enthusiasts working tirelessly.”

We don't work tirelessly. We get tired all the time, but keep at it as well as we can.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Can we throw Steve Irwin in here. I bet that dude could have saved the Great Barrier Reef and a whole lot of wildlife if he had more means.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

This is exactly why those people never become billionaires. You can't make billions without screwing over people and the environment.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

RIP Aaron Swartz.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

Rip Swartz man, the idea of all human knowledge from how to change your tire to how to put out a fire being monetised is legitimately scary

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (9 children)

I have a standing theory that once a person is no longer concerned about their welfare or the welfare of their descendants, they go crazy.

Like, once you reach a point where survival is no longer a problem, that part of your brain goes nuts. It's not a flawless theory, since philanthropy is a thing and people like Dean Kamen exist, but it's a thing that seems to happen an awful lot.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I think it’s more that billionaires have very few people to surround themselves with except for sycophants and other billionaires.

Nobody says no to them, everything they’ve ever done was the right thing according to everyone around them, so why should the next thing they do or say be wrong?

Covid really really accelerated the craziness among them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

I've worked for several very, very rich men. The pattern I notice is that they always get surrounded by people who make sure that they never, ever hear "no".

Imagine living in a world where every inane thing that comes out of your mouth, somebody immediately makes it their mission to try and make it happen. You no longer get any kind of useful feedback from the world and your opportunities to learn from feedback are greatly reduced.

I agree, I think in the end, it does make them crazy.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple.

I don't think he was ever a billionaire, though he's certainly done quite well for himself. Since leaving Apple, he has founded several new companies and projects, focusing a lot on education and philanthropy. He was also involved in founding the EFF.

He's an engineer first and foremost, and several of his projects never achieved mainstream success, partly for being, IMHO, ahead of their time -- for example, a programmable universal remote in the 80s, and a GPS-based item tracker in the early 2000s.

As far as I know, he has never been involved in any notable scandals.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Me. I use arch btw.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

No one should have that much power.

I wouldn't have trusted Fred Rogers with a billion dollars, and he's practically the only famous stranger I could have seen trusting with my newborn alone.

It's a society warping level of wealth. No single, unelected, unaccountable person should possess that much uniltateral power.

The global ~~allowance~~ encouragement of such an exploitative, reckless goal is why we are in our various bleak situations.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But of course, such based individuals will never be billionaires. Specifically because their basedness precludes them from being psychopathic enough to commit the kind of cutthroat, violent exploitation of tens of thousands of workers' labor inherently necessary to amass such wealth.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

when you put it that way, I realise how being so rich is anti to what most of these people are known for.

speaking of which, here's a to-scale representation of how rich some people are.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

yeah, no

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Richard Stallman

Are you sure about that one?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (4 children)

If you're talking about what he's accused of saying, he did not say that. People kept repeating a badly garbled version of what he said that makes him sound awful, even though his actual words are easy to find and completely disprove the accusations.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Aspiring to becoming and staying a billionaire requires a certain amount of psychopathy because it takes a certain mentality to want to own so much wealth that you'll never be able to enjoy all of it in a lifetime while at the same time denying or taking away the wealth of others who might need it.

If I had a billion, I'd take a few million and live off the interest and give away the rest and not be bothered by anyone or anything ever again.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

- me. i wouldn't mind being a billionaire. now give me money /s

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Aaron Swartz created markdown?!! I did not know that!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I also had no idea he made RSS

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Watch "The Internet's Own Boy", it's a great documentary about Aaron.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Cory Doctorow

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

As funny as the thought of Stallman becoming a billionaire is, ultimately, like all celebrities, these people are strangers to the overwhelming majority of you. Parasocial relationships are never healthy, and the result of being put on a pedastal is that they became idols and symbols and ceases being people.

And I don't think that's what they would have wanted.

After all, the only good billionaire is a Barbi-onaire.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

How would they earn billions without getting the money from other people's work?

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