“Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic”
Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, sent a manifesto titled “Industrial Society and Its Future” to the Washington (DC) Post and the New York (NY) Times in September 1995. This anti-technology paragraph is frequently quoted:
“Imagine an alcoholic sitting with a barrel of wine in front of him. Suppose he starts saying to himself, ‘Wine isn’t bad for you if used in moderation. Why, they say small amounts of wine are even good for you! It won’t do me any harm if I take just one little drink…. ’ Well you know what is going to happen. Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.”
The saying is sometimes written as, “Never forget that a human being with technology is exactly like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.”
Wikipedia: Ted Kaczynski
Theodore John Kaczynski (/kəˈzɪnski/; born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber, is an American domestic terrorist. A mathematics prodigy, he abandoned an academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle, then between 1978 and 1995 he killed three people, and injured 23 others, in a nationwide bombing campaign targeting those involved with modern technology. In conjunction, he issued a social critique opposing industrialization and advancing a nature-centered form of anarchism.
Singularity Symposium
Who is Ted Kaczynski?
Ted Kaczynski was a genius child prodigy, brilliant mathematician, social critic, technophobic neo-Luddite, extreme environmentalist and murderous terrorist who was responsible for a series of bombings targeting universities and airline companies. His nickname the Unabomber originates from the FBI acronym “UNABOM” which stands for “UNiversity and Airline BOMber.” (Left: The widely disseminated FBI forensic sketch of the Unabomber, by Jeanne Boylan)
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“Imagine an alcoholic sitting with a barrel of wine in front of him. Suppose he starts saying to himself, “Wine isn’t bad for you if used in moderation. Why, they say small amounts of wine are even good for you! It won’t do me any harm if I take just one little drink…” Well you know what is going to happen. Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.”
Washington (DC) Post
The Unabomber Trial: The Manifesto
Editor’s Note: This is the text of a 35,000-word manifesto as submitted to The Washington Post and the New York Times by the serial mail bomber called the Unabomber. The manifesto appeared in The Washington Post as an eight-page supplement that was not part of the news sections. This document contains corrections that appeared in the Friday, Sept. 22, 1995 editions of Washington Post. The text was sent in June, 1995 to The New York Times and The Washington Post by the person who calls himself “FC,” identified by the FBI as the Unabomber, whom authorities have implicated in three murders and 16 bombings. The author threatened to send a bomb to an unspecified destination “with intent to kill” unless one of the newspapers published this manuscript. The Attorney General and the Director of the FBI recommended publication.
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE
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203. Imagine an alcoholic sitting with a barrel of wine in front of him. Suppose he starts saying to himself, “Wine isn’t bad for you if used in moderation. Why, they say small amounts of wine are even good for you! It won’t do me any harm if I take just one little drink…. “ Well you know what is going to happen. Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.
19 September 1995, Washington (DC) Post, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” pg. 62:
Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.
28 July 1997, InfoWorld (San Mateo, CA), “Time to discuss USB devices, our vices, low prices” by Sean Sugan, Andre Kyitka and Brooks Talley, pg. 58L:
Considering the headache that was coming on, though, maybe it’s better they’re still prototypes. Our revels got us thinking about the tough-love grouch who suggested that “the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.” (Be the first to identify that pundit and get an InfoWorld mug.)
9 October 2004, Sydney (New South Wales) Morning Herald, “The simple life; Cover story Winding back technology” by Ben Wyld, pg. 6:
But technology, he suggested, should never be thought of as anything other than the enemy.
“Imagine an alcoholic sitting with a barrel of wine in front of him. Suppose he starts saying to himself, ‘Wine isn’t bad for you if used in moderation. Why, they say small amounts of wine are even good for you! It won’t do me any harm if I take just one little drink.’ Well, you know what is going to happen. Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.”
Kaczynski pleaded guilty in 1998 to killing three people and is serving life in jail.
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@kineticturtle
“and let us never forget that the human race with technology, is like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.” -Theodore Kaczinski
3:53 PM - 4 Apr 2009
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Patrick McCray
@LeapingRobot
“Never forget that a human being with technology is exactly like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine…”
8:30 PM - 19 Apr 2018
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Winston Smith
@halahel777
” Never forget that a human being with technology is exactly like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine” - Ted Kaczynski
11:50 PM - 28 Apr 2018