<p>We often say, upon the passing of a friend or loved one, that the world is a poorer place for the loss. But with the untimely death of programmer and activist Aaron Swartz, this isn’t just a sentiment; it’s literally true. Worthy, important causes will surface without a champion equal to their measure. Technological problems will go unsolved, or be solved a little less brilliantly than they might have been. And that’s just what we know. The world is robbed of a half-century of all the things we can’t even imagine Aaron would have accomplished with the remainder of his life.</p>
<p>Aaron Swartz committed suicide Friday in New York. He was 26 years old.</p>
<p>When he was 14 years old, Aaron helped develop the RSS standard; he went on to found Infogami, which became part of Reddit. But more than anything Aaron was a coder with a conscience: a tireless and talented hacker who poured his energy into issues like network neutrality, copyright reform and information freedom. Among countless causes, he worked with Larry Lessig at the launch of the Creative Commons, architected the Internet Archive’s free public catalog of books, OpenLibrary.org, and in 2010 founded Demand Progress, a non-profit group that helped drive successful grassroots opposition to SOPA last year.</p>
<p>“Aaron was steadfast in his dedication to building a better and open world,” writes Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle. “He is among the best spirits of the Internet generation. I am crushed by his loss, but will continue to be enlightened by his work and dedication.”</p>
<p>I lost a very good friend in the same manner last summer, suicide by hanging. It never gets any easier to hear about, even if it’s a stranger. My heart and comfort goes out to his loved ones. It’s a significant loss to the internet community, but it’s nothing compared to the loss that his family and friends feel. RIP</p>
<p>Depression is a serious condition that often strikes when young people are in their 20s.
I don’t know if Swartz had been battling depression, but it seems likely.
One reason people don’t get treated for depression, as well as other mental issues, is because many insurance policies don’t cover them, or cover them in such a limited fashion that treatment is just not affordable. Of course, there are always people who don’t get treatment for other reasons too, and many don’t even know they would benefit. And there is a stigma that can follow the patient. The whole issue needs some serious consideration in this country. Too many of our youth have serious mental health issues that are not being addressed, and we’re all suffering for it.</p>
<p>Yes, he had depression. Swartz was facing 35 years in prison and felony charges for illegally downloading over 4 million of scholarly JSTOR articles. He planned to make those articles freely available for public access. </p>
<p>But, he had depression long before the JSTOR case. Several years ago, he wrote about his depression on his site.</p>
<p>We as a society DO need more and better options for public health and treatment of depression and mental illness. There are shrinking resources and still a great deal of stigma for mental health treatment. </p>
<p>We need to do much better to help all members of our society live healthy and productive lives. We can afford the cost in lives ended too soon and unfulfilled potential, to name a few. </p>