The Unabomber, Explained

Technology is making our lives mundane, unfulfilling, and unnatural. Our spiritual and psychological health is in the gutter. Thanks to big tech and industrialized society, our planet is equally doomed. These issues do not know left or right, conservative or liberal. The problems brought upon us by technology will only get worse. So, let's just blow it all up. It's time to start over. That was the philosophy of the uni bomber, Ted Kazinski. To ignite a revolution, Ted anonymously mailed bombs to people he saw as critical in continuing industrial growth, including advertising executives, timber industry lobbyists, and computer scientists. Ted wrote an entire manifesto as he was carrying out these bombings, which features predictions and analysis of humanity's future. Today, a lot of these predictions have proven to be eerily accurate. Ted was not just some crazy person, either. Throughout his life, he displayed genius level intellect time and time again. So, let's talk about how and why Ted Kazinski wanted to destroy the world. Throughout his whole life, Ted Kazinski was incredibly intelligent. He skipped the sixth and 11th grades. He graduated high school at age 15 and began college at Harvard at 16. At 20, he graduated with a bachelor's in economics. But this is kind of when Ted's life started to fall apart. At Harvard, Ted participated in a study about mind control techniques. You see, in this study, participants were told they would write personal essays about their aspiration and dreams and then debate philosophy with other students. But in reality, the essays were given to an anonymous person who would use them to verbally abuse their respective authors. The students brains were monitored as once a week they received intensely personal verbal attacks about their hopes and dreams. This experiment lasted 3 years. Ted later said it had no impact on the trajectory of his life. Given his intelligence, I could be inclined to believe him, but who really knows? In 1966, Kazinski was having fantasies about becoming a woman and decided to undergo a gender transition. Ted made an appointment to discuss this idea with a psychiatrist, but changed his mind in the waiting room.