Aaron Swartz at Wikimedia Meetup in Boston, via Wikimedia Commons
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That's interesting because I feel that there is this increasing sense that the tech world has bought into its own bullshit. They've set themselves up as elite, but Aaron behaved in the exact opposite way.I'm 100 percent with you on that. I completely agree. We lionize these people, right? One of the things you can take away from Aaron's story is that he turned his back on startup culture. He thought the cycle of build-to-flip and make a lot of money was bullshit. All startups say they want to make the world a better place. [laughs] It's kind of a startup slogan. Aaron rather decisively turned his back on that culture, and was clear-eyed about questions like, 'Are we making the world a better place? Did you know what made the world a bad place to begin with? And how do you quantify the change that you're trying to make?'"One of the things you can take away from Aaron's story is that he turned his back on startup culture. He thought the cycle of build-to-flip and make a lot of money was bullshit."
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Lots of people from MIT have reached out and said they want to do screenings at MIT. I said, "Absolutely, as long as we can do some sort of real and honest discussion about it afterward, maybe like a panel or something." Government, of course, has just been silent.I've wondered if there were some MIT administrators or bureaucrats who were truly aloof about Aaron Swartz's role in free culture. Could they have been totally ignorant of Aaron's resume, seeing him instead as some common cyber-criminal?I think there was a little bureaucratic ignorance, or a sense that they didn't want to be bothered about it, as opposed to direct maliciousness. Obviously, there is a big split between MIT's administration and legal counsel and then the students and faculty. I think MIT was driven by general counsel, and felt that they had motivation to do just what the government wanted them to do. MIT is an enormous defense contractor, and I think that they have lots of incentives to just cooperate with the government."There is one part in the film where we list the organizations of which [Aaron] was founder or to which he contributed, and that list is crazy."
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