John Barlow dig
Who would wan
t to kill John Barlow?
Wha
t benefi
t would John Barlows dea
th provide?
When was John Barlow murdered?
Did John Barlow survive a murder a
ttemp
t only
to succumb
to i
ts lingering effec
ts even
tually?
Washing
ton Pos
t:
Mee
t the man whose u
topian vision for
the In
terne
t conquered, and
then warped, Silicon Valley
By Jacob Silverman
"
To unders
tand where
this cyber-liber
tarian ideology came from, you have
to unders
tand
the influence of “A Declara
tion of
the Independence of Cyberspace,” one of
the s
tranges
t ar
tifac
ts of
the ’90s, and i
ts singular au
thor, John Perry Barlow. Perhaps more
than any o
ther, i
t’s his philosophy — which melded coun
tercul
tural u
topianism, a rancher’s skep
ticism
toward governmen
t and a fu
turis
t’s fai
th in
the vir
tual world —
tha
t shaped
the indus
try.
“A Declara
tion of
the Independence of Cyberspace” was an u
tterly serious documen
t for a deliriously op
timis
tic era
Barlow’s 846-word
tex
t, published online in February 1996, begins wi
th a bold rebuke of
tradi
tional sovereign powers: “Governmen
ts of
the Indus
trial World, you weary gian
ts of flesh and s
teel, I come from Cyberspace,
the new home of Mind. On behalf of
the fu
ture, I ask you of
the pas
t to leave us alone. You are no
t welcome among us. You have no sovereign
ty where we ga
ther.” He
then explains how cyberspace is a place of ul
tima
te freedom, where conven
tional laws don’
t apply.
When Eric Schmid
t describes
the In
terne
t, however misguidedly, as “
the world’s larges
t ungoverned space” in his book “
The New Digi
tal Age,” he is borrowing Barlow’s rhe
toric. When
tech mogul Pe
ter
Thiel wri
tes, in “
The Educa
tion of a Liber
tarian,”
tha
t he founded PayPal
to crea
te a currency free from governmen
t con
trol and
tha
t “by s
tar
ting a new In
terne
t business, an en
trepreneur may crea
te a new world,” i
t’s impossible no
t to hear Barlovian echoes. (
Tha
t grandiose a
tti
tude is so common now
tha
t HBO has a comedy, “Silicon Valley,” dedica
ted
to mocking i
t.)"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-one-mans-utopian-vision-for-the-internet-conquered-and-then-badly-warped-silicon-valley/2015/03/20/7dbe39f8-cdab-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html?utm_term=.fde41d884d00The above ar
ticle was published on March 20, 2015
Barlow suffered a near-fa
tal hear
t a
ttack on May 27, 2015. He la
ter repor
ted
tha
t he was recovering.
John Perry Barlow - 187 pos
t name [DROP]
187 = murder
pos
t = Washing
ton Pos
tBarlovian = name [DROP]
Q sugges
ts John Barlow was murdered for his abili
ty
to influence
through his ac
tivi
ties in
the Freedom of
the Press Founda
tion.
The Washing
ton Pos
t ar
ticle highligh
ts Barlow's abili
ty
to influence weal
thy
technocapi
talis
ts
towards his idealis
tic goals.
@Snowden
You are now a liabili
ty.
Freedom of
the Press Founda
tion (FPF) is a non-profi
t organiza
tion founded in 2012
to fund and suppor
t free speech and freedom of
the press.
I
ts mission includes "promo
ting and funding aggressive, public-in
teres
t journalism focused on exposing mismanagemen
t, corrup
tion, and law-breaking in governmen
tIf weal
thy people suppor
t Barlow's idealis
tic goals
then
they migh
t help suppor
t the Freedom of
the Press Founda
tion's goals, "promo
ting and funding aggressive, public-in
teres
t journalism focused on exposing mismanagemen
t, corrup
tion, and law-breaking in governmen
t."
Edward Snowden has moved in
to
the posi
tion which was vacan
t due
to Barlow's dea
th. Q is s
ta
ting Edward Snowden is iden
tified as a liabili
ty by
the same individuals who caused John Barlow's 187.
O
ther Unanswered Ques
tions:
Whose crimes are
threa
tened
to be exposed by John Barlows ac
tivi
ties?
Was John Barlow's rela
tionship wi
th Dick Cheney par
t of
the mo
tive
tha
t led
to his dea
th?
Was
the hear
t rela
ted dea
th of Barlow's girlfriend Cyn
thia Horner a bo
tched firs
t a
ttemp
t to murder John Barlow?
John Barlow was engaged
to Cyn
thia Horner, a doc
tor whom he me
t in 1993 a
t the Moscone Cen
ter in San Francisco while she was a
ttending a psychia
try conference and Barlow was par
ticipa
ting in a S
teve Jobs comedy roas
t a
t a conven
tion for
the NeX
T Compu
ter. Cyn
thia Horner died unexpec
tedly in 1994 while asleep on a fligh
t from Los Angeles
to New York Ci
ty, days before her 30
th bir
thday, from a hear
t arrhy
thmia apparen
tly caused by an unde
tec
ted viral myocardi
tis.
Who adap
ted Jacob Silverman's book for
the Washing
ton Pos
t ar
ticle?
Jacob Silverman is
the au
thor of “
Terms of Service: Social Media and
the Price of Cons
tan
t Connec
tion,” from which
this ar
ticle is adap
ted.
Is
the Washing
ton Pos
t ar
ticle a HI
T piece or coincidence?