For the late Epstein, his generous donations served to whitewash his tainted reputation.
And for the most part, they did.
But his closeness to the science community wasnt exclusively cosmetic.
He also reportedly provided prominent researchers and academics with young children to sexually exploit.
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MIT students are planning a protest against the institutions long-standing relationship with Epstein.
His judgement, on the other hand, is open for discussion.
The accusation quoted is a clear example of inflation.
The reference reports the claim that Minsky had sex with one of Epsteins harem.
Lets presume that was true (I see no reason to disbelieve it).
Only that they had sex.
Stallman states that he doesnt disbelieve the accusation levelled against Minsky.
Theres a problem with that.
The age of consent in the US Virgin Islands, where the incident took place, is eighteen.
Theres a term for that.
Medium is the message
Theres no doubt that Stallman is very technically gifted.
But hes also a deeply divisive figure, who has expressed many controversial views around this very issue.
Heres what he wrote in 2006 after learning about the formation of a pro-pedophilia political party in the Netherlands.
I am sceptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children.
Thats not willing participation, its imposed participation, a different issue.
If hes guilty of anything, its of having some extremely questionable opinions.
And these opinions matterexactlybecause of the respect Stallman commands.
Pedophilia should never be normalised.Ever.
And as someone who cares about children, the normalisation of pedophilia createsmassivesafeguarding issues.
The second is whether the technology world will continue to tolerate so-called brilliant jerks.
Stallman himself is undeniably a technically gifted visionary.
But hes also someone with a reputation for controversy.
There are far too many examples to cite, but heres one thats exceptionally noteworthy.
Hundreds of thousands of babies are born every day.
While the whole phenomenon is menacing, one of them by itself is not newsworthy.
Nor is it a difficult achievementeven some fish can do it.
People were seemingly content to tolerate Stallmans abysmal behaviour because hes clearly very gifted.
And what was once acceptable is now less so.
Now, emotional intelligence is just as important as technical aptitude.
As the technology space becomes more collaborative and diverse, therell inevitably be less space for people like Stallman.
And as much as it pains me to say, perhaps thats for the best.
