I wish I had known Aaron Swartz

Cory Doctorow has written, gut-wrenchingly, about him. So has Lawrence Lessig. His CV is like some kind of insane mashup of technological achievement. And he died at 26. The way it should work: everything he did until yesterday - Reddit and the rest - should have been prologue. But now it isn’t. He joins the list of people I wish I could have sent a copy of something I’d written to, just to say “thank you for being awesome”, but I was too late or too dumb. Also on that list: Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. I wish I had time to find out who else I would love to meet.

It’s been a time of jubilee for me. My wife and I are expecting a second child soon. My local bookshop has a table (okay, it’s a small table) for just my second novel. GeekDad just gave me an award. I cannot tell you how jazzed I am about all that.

But this evening, I’m going to bed sad because there was this guy, and he was clearly incredible, and he isn’t in the world any more. It’s selfish of me to wish I could have met him, but I do, and of course if I could still meet him that would mean he was not dead, and that would be good.

So, sure, I’m laughing at the Obama administration’s so-funny response to the Death Star petition. But mostly as I read it I’m thinking: you know what? This is really cool. But what would have been even cooler would have been stepping into the mix and saying to the DoJ “hey! this Swartz guy is a national treasure. He can be awkward, but frankly if you can show me someone who isn’t you can have a medal. JSTOR doesn’t care about what happened, and sure as Hell it’s not worth this level of rageful pursuit. So figure out a way through this which is not a waste.”

Let me say, this is not an American thing. Everywhere I can see, technologists who get caught misbehaving, or are perceived as ‘making trouble’ - even in small ways - get a very rough ride. The old habits of telcos of making the costs of electronic intrusion look massive when what you’re really talking about is publicly available documentation and a few hours of server time - those are standard practice now. People accused of electronic trespass, digital silliness… they’re chased down like someone starting wildfires. Why? Because they scare the crap out of officialdom. Because they tend to be cheeky, and there is nothing which angers bureaucracy like mockery. Mockery kills careers and brings down stupid fiefdoms and idiotic rules faster than anything else. Play - which is part of creative technology and its ethos of making the world better - is scary to traditional authority. And traditional authority reacts poorly to being afraid.

So now I’m going offline, and tomorrow will be another day, and I will never meet this person whom people I respect quite obviously loved. If you knew Aaron Swartz, I wish you… whatever makes death less appalling. And I’m sorry for intruding, I guess. I’m envious, too. He sounds like an amazing guy.

And if you didn’t know him, like me, I wish you would look around you and see who you do know who is amazing, and take note. And maybe look after them a bit.

Goodbye, Aaron Swartz - unbekannterweise.

unbekannterweise aaron swartz