Dedications
PrevNode Link[ A wise man once said that “It's the way of the world to praise dead saints and persecute living ones”. Well, I’ve decided to not give in, and praise a few living great men, who are likely messiahs or "hacker monarchs".
I hereby praise the former Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned back in 2013 (see this mini-essay I wrote shortly after that for the reasons), the Japanese Emperor Emeritus Akihito, the head of the Linux kernel project Linus Torvalds, the former president of the Free Software Foundation, Richard M. Stallman (RMS), and Guido van Rossum, who is a software developer who created the Python programming language.
They all became hacker kings due to either birth, or by choice, and they all "slew" themselves (metaphorically) and retired (similar to Solon's tactic); at least temporarily.
I also dedicate it to Queen Elizabeth II, who is a good woman, a great woman, and likely may admit to being a hacker monarch by now. While "the media" may paint her as senile, I suspect she is not. However, she may opt to follow suit and become queen regnant Emerita (and still remain a wonderful and effective hacker monarch/messiah), due to old age.
Note that I do not intend to demote the alternatives to the projects they headed, or claim that I fully approve of all their actions and opinions. I am a secular Jewish resident and citizen of Israel, and while I like and use Python, I use many other programming languages (whether Turing-complete or not). I also do not always agree with Stallman's opinions and I recently tried porting some of my FOSS projects to FreeBSD. But we can all learn from each other.
Also note that I do not wish them (or anyone else) to physically die, soon or ever. I just want people to acknowledge their worth, and appreciate them, including when they are still alive. ]
[ That put aside, the names of the two terminators, which were chosen as Hebrew names which were cognate with "Arnold" and "Emma", coincide with those of my late grandfather-on-my-father's side, Aharon Fish, whom I knew and loved up to my twenties, and his younger sister, Channah Fish, who lived up to 103 and passed away a few years ago (as of 2021). They were both Warsaw-born Jews and the only known surviving siblings from their family after WWII.
I dedicate this screenplay to their memory as well. ]