which ones do you think I missed?
which ones do you think I missed?
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."
It's nice to appreciate people who do good things, but keep in mind that the only way people become billionaires is by exploiting people. So I would not want any of these people to be billionaires because it would mean they got that wealth not by doing good things, but by owning ridiculous amounts of capital and exploiting people.
Rant over, sorry.
no one should be billionaires.
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.
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.
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple.
I don't think he was ever a billionaire, though he's certainly done quite well for himself. Since leaving Apple, he has founded several new companies and projects, focusing a lot on education and philanthropy. He was also involved in founding the EFF.
He's an engineer first and foremost, and several of his projects never achieved mainstream success, partly for being, IMHO, ahead of their time -- for example, a programmable universal remote in the 80s, and a GPS-based item tracker in the early 2000s.
As far as I know, he has never been involved in any notable scandals.
Can we throw Steve Irwin in here. I bet that dude could have saved the Great Barrier Reef and a whole lot of wildlife if he had more means.
No one should have that much power.
I wouldn't have trusted Fred Rogers with a billion dollars, and he's practically the only famous stranger I could have seen trusting with my newborn alone.
It's a society warping level of wealth. No single, unelected, unaccountable person should possess that much uniltateral power.
The global
allowanceencouragement of such an exploitative, reckless goal is why we are in our various bleak situations.on the bottom right is the text reading, “plus the thousands of free software enthusiasts working tirelessly.”
We don't work tirelessly. We get tired all the time, but keep at it as well as we can.
Rip Swartz man, the idea of all human knowledge from how to change your tire to how to put out a fire being monetised is legitimately scary
I have a standing theory that once a person is no longer concerned about their welfare or the welfare of their descendants, they go crazy.
Like, once you reach a point where survival is no longer a problem, that part of your brain goes nuts. It's not a flawless theory, since philanthropy is a thing and people like Dean Kamen exist, but it's a thing that seems to happen an awful lot.
yeah, no
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.
As funny as the thought of Stallman becoming a billionaire is, ultimately, like all celebrities, these people are strangers to the overwhelming majority of you. Parasocial relationships are never healthy, and the result of being put on a pedastal is that they became idols and symbols and ceases being people.
And I don't think that's what they would have wanted.
After all, the only good billionaire is a Barbi-onaire.
How would they earn billions without getting the money from other people's work?
Would these people actually be billionaires though? Seems to me many of them would put that money to good use instead.
agree with @avidamoeba@lemmy.ca, power corrupts – radix malorum est cupiditas
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.
Idk man we just saw a week ago how atrociously Linus used to treat people. Imagine combining that with enough greed to hold onto a billion dollars. Imagine what any of these people would be like if they were the type to ruthlessly exploit others to get rich. I think a billionaire Linus would be worse than Bill Gates. At least Gates is a nice guy.
It is the act of holding onto that much wealth that is immoral, not who is doing it. This is just fantasizing from a painfully neoliberal perspective: OP is imagining the world would be better if the good guys hoarded inconceivable amounts of wealth and exploited the labor of others.
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
Cory Doctorow
The creator of Vim is unfortunately no longer with us.
Fundamentally speaking, none of these people would've ended up as billionaires for long. Most FOSS heavyweights already gave up their chance at being much more wealthy for their current roles. That being said, I'm pretty sure Linus and a few others here aren't exactly short on cash
Ooh, I've met three of them on this list. Jean-Baptiste was the best though ;)
Hummmmm...Lennart Pottering?
The year Aaron Swartz died is the year that everything started going to shit.
I think you need to make money to be a billionaire.
John Gruber created Markdown but Aaron helped and tested it.
I would be OK if the guy that made Stardew Valley became a billionaire.
if Arnold Swartz was a billionaire lemmy wouldn't exist and most likely kbin also
Terry A. Davis
Rest in peace Bram Moolenaar
Patrick Volkerding could use a shout-out --- founder, maintainer, and benevolent dictator-for-life of Slackware.
First recognized Linus and was like where’s Aaron. [Probably saw him subconsciously but] Was super satisfied he’s there. Rest in peace, hero.
it's precisely that they don't build themselves up by exploring the less privileged and really create value to society that we view them as good people. No billionaire is self-made, no billionaire is good. Eat the rich, help your communities, be kind.
Oh wow Ian Murdock commit suicide :(
If we're putting developers on the list, it should be Fabrics Bellard or Graydon Hoare.
