A little while ago, I received an email from a friend. He had played a fairly central role since the early days of the Internet and, for roughly the past 10 years, had been working to improve identity and privacy online. I knew that his health was failing, but… This was an email he sent as he faced death. Perhaps it could be called a kind of last testament. I have modified parts of it to protect his privacy, but I am posting a translation here.
Do not slacken the reins.
My friend,
First, I want to apologize. For not having been in touch all this time. How can I possibly explain myself???
I have been diagnosed with the following:
a) diastolic congestive heart failure
b) cardiac Primary Amyloidosis
c) multiple myelomaI am now undergoing the 2th cycle of chemotherapy. So far, things are not going very well, and there has not been much improvement. Of course, I do not know what will happen next, but in any event I am fighting as hard as I can. The problems of congestive heart failure and cardiac amyloidosis are irreversible, and medicine has not found any way to stop their progression, but even so, I intend to do everything I can.
I would like to catch up on what all of you are doing and talk about various things.
I am deeply grateful for all of you, and I respect you. Having entered a new stage of life, there is much I want to talk about. Put briefly, the inevitability of our need for privacy, for control over personally identifiable information, and for control over our online presence presses upon me with ever greater clarity now that I am approaching the final stage of life and considering how I will depart from this world.
Have a good day.
Your friend
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