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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Theo R Cwithin" data-source="post: 5162759" data-attributes="member: 75712">Nifty read!  I had picked up on this back when it happened, and it's nice to revisit it.  From the article:This is the sentiment that held my interest, the game as an exercise in vanishing, if only because it's a notion that's passed through my head more than a few times in recent years.  And having traveled a bit in dodgy places and worked highly secure jobs, the personal security aspect naturally piques my interest.  Like you, though, I think he wasn't terribly serious about it-- but as it was a contest, I suppose that's to be expected.One thing that strikes me is the crowd-sourcing aspect.  I don't know how similar that sort of thing is to standard information-sharing between, for example, law enforcement agencies, but it certainly drove home the fact that maintaining an onlife life (or any electronic life at all) in this day and age just seems completely impossible if everyone and his dog is looking for you. In fact, that's one of the appealing things about the exercise: how completely can one withdraw from the internet and the rest of the wired world?  Is there any place left where one can even lie low and be reasonably assured that no one would pick up on the effort to track you?  Also interesting; could you utilize a counter-effort to your advantage? (The article briefly mentions a facebook page that sprung up based on this idea, but apparently it was a fizzle.)I think you have it right that to truly vanish is to abandon the prior life completely, and take on a new one.  I'd take it a step further and say that the new one would have to be a colorless and highly anonymous one-- which is actually quite attractive to a colorless and highly anonymous guy like me.  This suggests to me that one understated aspect in the article is sacrifice: not just of the past (family, friends, contacts, references, etc), but also of comfort and convenience.  It seems that if one can get by at a near subsistence level without emotional support, then vanishing becomes vastly easier.  But there's the rub, right?There's so much more to this to think about!   But if nothing else, I certainly believe it would be an interesting exercise to try "for real".  However, without someone to do the seeking, there's no real incentive to do the hiding.  And since I've never robbed a bank or annoyed the KGB, I suppose it'll have to remain a thought experiment for now. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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