I have been rid of a pain in my assholes. EVERY fucking time for the last thirteen years I have opened MIT Technology Review I have seen that guy's so-twee-I-want-to-strangle-him photo or read his goddamned editorials. But when I opened the current issue..."David Rotman, editor," David Rotman editor, DID MIT FINALLY FIRE PONTIN?! He "departed" one account has it, which is good enough for me!, but all that was revealed is summed up in this Wikipedia entry:
Without evident comment, the July/August, 2017, issue revealed a shift in top personnel, with Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau listed as Chief Executive Officer and Publisher, and David Rotman as Editor.
Pontin first came to the attention of the undersigned in January, 2005. In a post titled Hack_Job
I wrote this:
If memory serves, the current February '05 issue, is the first under a new editor. If so, the new editor is a person named Jason Pontin. Whatever, the tone of the magazine, and perhaps its purpose has changed drastically.
That new tone, agenda-driven and personal, was what first caught the eye with its cover story, an article on human aging and a researcher named Aubrey de Grey of Cambridge University. Under a head-shot of de Grey is the title,
"living forever? Audrey de Grey thinks he can defeat death."
"Is he nuts?"
"IS HE NUTS?"? When was the last time that question or anything like it appeared on the cover of TR? Has it ever?
The article, which it is no exaggeration to call a diatribe, is preceded by editorials, the most prominent of which is one by Mr. Pontin titled Against Transcendence in which he writes the following:
"de Grey thinks he is a technological messiah."
"But what struck me is that he is a troll."
A troll.
As Wikipedia notes the Pontin-de Grey "dispute has persisted for at least a decade." Which I also noted in January, 2017 Polyamorous:
Aubrey de Grey also affirms that I "pissed him off a lot" - and that he is "polyamorous." http://bit.ly/awI8q5
1:11 PM - 23 Oct 2010
Dear God. Jason Pontin is the most juvenile debater. This is so embarrassing, and it has been going on for ELEVEN years!
Pontin is the editor of MIT Technology Review. de Grey is a life-extensionist. In 2005 Pontin wrote an insulting ad hominem editorial about de Grey for the magazine. Letters of protest flooded the magazine from shocked readers and I posted my own outrage here at the time. The personal nature of Pontin's attacks continued, in 2010 above, and last year:
...
Is Jason Pontin gay or bi or poly? Did he and de Grey have something at Harrow? There is no relevance of any of this to the debate. Maybe Pontin is so personal in his criticism because it is personal to him. Whatever is going on here, MIT has got to see that this is an embarrassment to MIT and they have to stop it.
Which they did.
