Elon Musk has said the Unabomber’s infamous manifesto warning of the dangers of technology “might not be wrong” — after the killer died in jail over the weekend.
The Twitter boss made the comment on the day Ted Kaczynski died by suicide in his supermax prison cell at age 81 after nearly three decades behind bars.
A former math prodigy, Harvard-educated domestic terrorist, gave up his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle.
In 1978, he launched a 17-year anti-tech strike, sending 16 homemade bombs to people he believed were destroying the environment by creating a more technically advanced society.
The Twitter tycoon made the controversial comment on the day domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski reportedly died by suicide in his supermax security prison cell
In 1978, the Unabomber launched a 17-year anti-tech strike, sending 16 homemade bombs to people he believed were destroying the environment by creating a more tech-advanced society
By 1995, he had killed three people and wounded 23 others, making him the most prolific bomber in American history.
While living as a hermit in a shack with no running water or electricity in Lincoln, Montana, in the 1970s, the Unabomber wrote a 35,000-word manifesto called “Industrial Society and Its Future.”
In the extended essay, Kaczynski claimed that technology has made life unsatisfying while at the same time causing widespread discontent, and that “the industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for humanity.”
On Saturday, author Ashley St Clair tweeted this quote alongside an article about his death, to which billionaire Musk replied, “He may not be wrong.”
The social media mogul’s comment comes despite being a pioneer in today’s tech world.
Last month, Musk’s company Neuralink received FDA approval to begin human trials for brain implants.
The mind chip is being designed to help disabled and healthy people heal from a range of ailments, including obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia, while also enabling web browsing and telepathy.
Musk, who bought Twitter in October for $43 billion, has even vowed to land humans on Mars within five to 10 years using the $3 billion (£2.4 billion) Starship.
However, the SpaceX boss has also joined calls for caution in artificial intelligence development.
Along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and 1,000 other technology leaders, Musk signed an open letter via The Future of Life Institute calling for a six-month pause in the “dangerous race” to develop AI so that more risk assessments can be made. .
Ted Kaczynski flanked by federal agents as he was led to a car from the federal courthouse in Helena, Mont. on April 4, 1996.
Musk’s comment comes despite being a pioneer in the tech world these days
Kaczynski is now widely known as America’s most prolific bomber.
During his 17-year campaign of terror, he enacted a sinister plan to detonate explosives at universities and airports, which he would often mail to his victims.
Years before the September 11 attacks and the anthrax mailing, the deadly homemade bombs of the Unabomber changed the way Americans shipped packages and boarded planes, virtually shutting down air traffic on the West Coast in 1995.
While the fear he sparked led The Washington Post and The New York Times to make the painful decision to publish his manifesto in September 1995, it ultimately led to his downfall.
Kaczynski’s brother David and David’s wife, Linda Patrik, recognized the bizarre belief system in the tome and tipped off the FBI.
The tip led to the end of the nation’s longest manhunt, and in April 1996, authorities found him in his 12-by-14-foot Montana log cabin.
Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when he was finally captured in 1996.
He served two decades in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado before being transferred to a North Carolina federal penitentiary medical prison.
The Unabomber was found dead around 8 a.m. Saturday in his cell at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina.
While the formal cause of death has not been disclosed, sources say he died by suicide, according to the New York Times.