I have been thinking about Aaron lately. In 2012 Aaron was instrumental in helping to defeat the SOPA and PIPA bills. The [internet went black](https://freedom.press/issues/sopa-protest-10-years-later/) causing a tidal wave of backlash so strong that the bill's backers had to withdraw the legislation.

Today we really need this kind of activism. We need people hammering the phones, turning their websites black, more than ever. We have the far right willing push forward authoritarian agendas, that attempt to silence peoples speech, the people behind trump are using these powers to kill and stir up aggression. There are more abuses to people's lives then ever. We have technologies like AI that are being developed in secret, all of its progress being pushed forward that is going to cause costs to rise, put more load on our power grids. The financials beind the investment is putting a strain on obtaining parts for General Computing. We have social media algorithms that manipulate people choices.

We have to start reigning in this power, put pressure on your representatives to end Citizens United and we need to enforce anti-trust.

I often wonder what Aaron would think of the internet today.

For those here who are younger there was a very a different culture online in the mid-00s. It was very optimistic about how access to data and global communication could create a better world – The Arab Spring being one of the best examples.

This was even a view largely shared by Western governments and "The great firewall of China" was ridiculed by almost everyone at the time.

Today it feels like very few of us still believe in Aaron's vision of an open internet anymore. As someone who is around the same age as Aaron and shared his optimism, it's been hard to watch the internet become an increasingly closed, restricted and regulated place in recent years.

I understand that most people disagree with me on that which is fine, but it's also why I'd love to hear Aaron's take on it – did we just get it wrong? Is the internet today with all its bad actors, AI bots and big tech algorithms fundamentally a different place than it was back then? Would Aaron still view open access to data the same? How would he feel about tech companies scrapping the web to build AI models for their own financial gain?

Discussions at the time:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5046845

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5048820

Blog post in 2016 by Noah, Aaron's brother: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881413

The positive contributions he never got a chance to make are sad to contemplate.

Thanks for posting this

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