star simpson
intro’d to Star via this tweet:
MIT needs to step up and protect its community. https://t.co/QaE2iL3U75 My thoughts after speaking at @EFF’s Freedom to Innovate #f2i
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/starsandrobots/status/674702563883675649
So, I went directly to the best place I could think of: the very first place I walked to after I was let free, was the Office of the President at MIT. (In loco parentis, right?) But I was stopped at the door. She wouldn’t see me or talk to me. Liability, and all. The potential cost of giving me any legal advice or talking to her directly about anything, would simply be too great. So MIT found the protection it sought, while I did not.
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The MIT community in particular came together to understand. MIT alumni have seen and heard enough to know when one of its own might need protecting.
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Star Simpson’s actions were reckless and understandably created alarm at the airport. — MIT News Office, Sep 21 2007
Reckless. Reckless. I got emails, later, from MIT alum telling me that they’d been prepared to come out to support me, and were ready and willing to help defend against this nonsense—but that when MIT released this statement, it changed their minds.
reckless — marked by unthinking boldness; with defiant disregard for danger or consequences; (Webster’s)
MIT, bastion of scientific inquiry, symbol of the search for truth. September 21st 2007 was a day the Institute elected to publish an authoritative prejudicial statement.
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What I am asking is that MIT fix its approach and..
stand behind the people
..who make its community what it is, and as part of that, commit to providing support in the inevitable future situations when they occur.
MIT has so far learned some lessons about speaking publicly on the subject of ongoing (much less breaking or unfolding cases) from what happened with me, although not the right ones: the new policy is that MIT refuses to comment at all. This reveals MIT’s outlook on supporting students: stay silent. Rather than an MIT that merely avoids criticizing its own community in public I would like to see an MIT that used its name and reputation to stand by and speak up for creators, instead.
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Part of the trouble here is that legal liability can be estimated in dollar figures, and MIT, the corporation, acts to protect itself in view of the risk of such costs. But the damage that fear has on a creative environment such as MIT’s is incalculable. And what happens at MIT has a ripple effect throughout the world.
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Providing support in the form of the student legal clinic is not just advisable, but necessary for MIT to protect its creative culture and continue to do and invent great things. It would be short-sighted and dangerous to the long-term survival of the Institute and all it stands for—even, reckless, not to.
whoa.
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this is the talk Star referenced above – Freedom to Innovate – oct/nov 2015
on the mit site was a promise.. that if you wanted to learn the technical skills to change the world through building something… that mit was that place
my generation wasn’t promised flying cars (thiel) but wear able tech, 3 d printers, info freedom thru net.. those were the things i hoped to dedicate myself to
on miters (created in and compared to) – building 420 – physicists during war
worked with jeff lieberman
on wanting a wiki/wear able… wanting to live it.. take it with me
on people kind of getting it… but thinking they need to see it..
mit’s motto – minds and hands.. not enough to just think it
11 min – what i didn’t see was my project through the eyes of people who were traumatized and were looking for terrorist.. who were living their lives in fear
19 min – unbelievable how many have come to me and say they had same experience…
there will be many more like me.. by having early on the freedom to explore…
20 min – best policy to say nothing.. choice.. did more harm than good – ie: aaron
that’s why today is so important… a way for mit to legally support students..
here in media lab.. you can build whatever.. but you don’t know if when you take it outside.. someone will be afraid.. and mit won’t support..
instead.. mit used its full weight of its name to tell the world what it means to be an engineer…
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so good to hear:
One week after publishing this, I am overwhelmed by the positive response. Thanks to the more than 7k people who read and shared.
A number of MIT alum have stated to me that they will work to support, or will designate their alumni donations to the legal clinic.
I can’t tell you how heartening it is to see this — the response in 2007 was so wholly different to what’s happening now.
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find/follow Star:
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let’s do this first: free art-ists.
be you. 