Ask HN: Who are the real pioneers and contrarian visionaries in tech? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Who are the real pioneers and contrarian visionaries in tech?

From crypto to AI, it feels this industry has more than ever been swayed by hype and herd mentality. I've had so many conversations with PMs, execs, and VCs in the space who have no real interest in understanding the current state of tech or developing their own vision for where we could be headed. Many are just looking to create "value" for their own shameless self-enrichment.

In your specific niches and domains, however big or small, who would say have been real pioneers who've held steadfastly to a vision of the world based on their own unique set of values?

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Richard Stallman. You may not agree with everything he says but definitely he had a unique vision of the world and values and stood by them.

Getting a free C compiler and the rest of linux userspace was a massive deal.

contrarian visionaries ... held steadfastly to a vision of the world based on their own unique set of values

The archtype has to be Ted Nelson [1]. He is frequently discussed on HN [2].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson

2. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Ted+Nelson

Geoffrey Litt at Malleable Systems Collective, who recognizes more than almost anyone the importance of building in ways that can be co-augemtative with culture & society. https://malleable.systems/

Computing direly needs directions that expand outside of helpless consumerism. Litt is a fine fine example of someone with actual human vision, who chases Douglas Engelbart's dream of Augmenting Human Intellect.

George hotz. The dude just builds stuff to see if he can. Very excited for the future of tiny grad.

George Hotz was the first to jailbreak the iPhone, and also gave a presentation called "Jailbreaking the Simulation" [0] which is as wild and thought-provoking of an idea as it sounds. It's worth a watch.

[0] https://youtube.com/watch?v=ESXOAJRdcwQ

Super interesting how simulation theory aligns so deeply with Vedic (and with the right lens western) theology

Two names come to mind, but they aren't perhaps nice/good people.

1. Steve Jobs

2. Elon Musk (before the twitter madness)

Those two changed the world, or at least how the world see things.

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