this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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which ones do you think I missed? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
83 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."

(page 2) 33 comments
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 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] 1 points 9 months ago

I think you need to make money to be a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 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] 1 points 9 months ago

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] 1 points 9 months ago

I dont want anybody to be a billionaire, also they couldn't because to be one you have to be exploitative and a bad person

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

It would probably ruin them and their work though. While I have little sympathy for the plights of billionaires, it's difficult for people to not allow that level of ridiculous wealth and power to affect them. These people have found a much healthier path to success. I'm sure the living ones are all financially comfortable without the ridiculous distortion of excess wealth.

Also though I'd object to anyone being a billionaire since it's absurd.

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

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I also had no idea he made RSS

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

The creator of Vim is unfortunately no longer with us.

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

Reminds me of this tweet from Merman_Melville: "Being a billionaire must be insane. You can buy new teeth, new skin. All your chairs cost 20,000 dollars and weigh 2,000 pounds. Your life is just a series of your own preferences. In terms of cognitive impairment it's probably like being kicked in the head by a horse every day" The experience itself is probably harmful and changes the person.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Studies have shown that people change at a certain amount of money, like they cross a line in the sand. When you can buy anything everything just becomes yours by default in your mind. And anyone who can't do that are basically sheep dogs - useful but not worth your time. These studies were done in the twenty-tens and the number then was between 20 and 30 million for most people. Imagine your view on the world if you have 100 times that amount.

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

Nope, there should not be any! Fuck capitalism!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There's a whole bunch of people that deserve to become billionaires a lot more than people in tech and that would have a much better impact on the world if they did. I would much rather have a bunch of billionaire physicists, immunologists, virologists, pediatricians and so on.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

If we're putting developers on the list, it should be Fabrics Bellard or Graydon Hoare.

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

Ian Murdock, founder of Debian GNU/Linux and Debian manifesto. died too soon.

ACAB

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Why are you saying that in relation to Ian? What do cops have to do with him?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And even if it's contrary to popular opinion, I don't mind Bill Gates being a billionaire. I mean, I'd love to have invented the sole operating system for Windows and get all that money. My feeling is, if you make something that worthy you deserve to get paid over and over again.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

there’s still stories going around that Gates copied chunks of CP/M …

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'm sure he didn't really invent the system out of whole cloth, most great inventions were copied from ideas of others.

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