The greatest man who ever lived died this morning doing one of the things he loved best: playing in the ocean. It was the Pacific, that endless expanse that taught him how to love the sea, where he jumped the waves with his newest slavegirl and retired to epicurean picnics. A gliding threesome of pelicans crested the breaking waves in that spot where he defiantly breathed his last, skimming the water in a final winged salute.
Mircea Popescu did what he loved, did what he knew to be right; these were, almost without exception, the same. Unhesitatingly he gave all of himself to whatever work was at hand, whether it was comfortable or not, whether it came naturally or not, whether he knew it could be done or not. The result is that in the history of this earth, an earth not quite enough to serve a man so true, there has never been a greater example of any of the things that he was. A writer, a master, a tactitian; a manager, a cook, even a puppeteer. The work he has left behind is a remarkably vast and inequitably brilliant heritage, even if those left to attempt to appreciate it fall immeasurably short of its worth.
This was the man who took the head of the Romanian Academy to task, who exposed the broken Romanian baccalaureate and actually broke wikileaks, the man who identified countless scams in Bitcoin's nascent turmoil and the creator of its first and only true exchange; the man who forged a republic and when it proved impotent, had the strength to burn it down, the creator of Eulora, the author of more and better books, short stories, prose and poetry than any other who took up the pen. He touched essence and distilled it, and often in multiple languages. He did not merely gleam, he was resplenduminous, and at every point where his indomitable mind sparked against the medium of life, he left eternal fires in word and deed.
The world, indeed, was not enough, though he had it. Few and far between were the ones devoted and stalwart enough to let the man shape them with his many hammers. So very many tried, yet fell, and did not get to meet the unabashed glory of his love. For his love was the purest of miracles, capable of bringing beautiful things into being just as it was capable of razing them to utter destruction. It was only a force of nature itself that could have claimed him, and the rip tide that did was a furious exemplar in a place famous for dangerous waters. Dangerous, but fantastic; how he could possibly have found more suitable a place and a means to die is utter mystery.
But this most poetic death, mimicing the butterflies' final flight over the ocean of which he was so fond, came so soon on the line of his life as to render it the worst of all thefts. His life was robbed by the water, and the world entirely robbed of its light.
I do not need to record for you all that Mircea Popescu did and was, lists and rooms and great halls full of works that span subject and style and yet never fail to be excellent, because by his very nature he proclaimed it; loudly, freely, amply. That nature will ring out for all time.
From his work, 'Stop all the clocks (again)'
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent each dog from barking with your own hip bone.
Break all the strings, drill out the tuba and with muffled drums
Bring out the coffin, set ablaze the slums.
Let halves of aeroplanes turn overhead
Their smoking, broken cockpits dripping "He Is Dead",
Put dark crepe bows through every single feather of each single dove,
Gift each policeman one black velvet glove.
No further want for stars, go put them out ;
No roundness left for Moon, the Sun we'll do without.
Go pour the ocean in a cup and let it be misunderstood
After today, nothing can come to any good.
There can no further be such thing as song
I thought that love would last for ever. I was wrong.
It's time to swallow caltrops and wash them down with bleach
There's scarcely any further point to speech.
The sea you see was gloomly cried in place,
There used to be much sweeter water in that space.
The eagle's flight is broken and all geometric figures shattered
There's nothing left in place of all that ever mattered.
And so goodbye, there's nothing left except the time to die.
The world is certainly a lot smaller with his passing.
If he ended up surviving this dance with the depths of danger --as he did the ones before-- I reckon he'd have charged back in not long after catching his breath. That's part of what made him great.
Great he was and great Trilema is, ~pure energy.
I grieve with you.
@Robinson Dorion So small, in fact, I can't fathom how it seems to continue existing. A ridiculous simulation, at any rate.
Faked death.
@Pale Horse I couldn't blame the world for hoping.
I had rather lose halfe my estate, then misse thee but an houre out of mine armes this night. Oh, 'tis an age, a world of time to me: why I haue fed of Oister-pyes, and rumps of Sparrows a whole moneth, in expectation of the first night, and leaue it for a vow? I know you doe but iest, this is but your deuice to whet me on, and heighten me, as if old age at once hath soakt vp all my marrow.
Thank you for writing this. I recently contact Mircea in the hopes of telling his story to more people. Maybe that is something we can speak about sometime. I am sorry for your loss.
@Pete Rizzo And as I recall he wasn't interested. No storytelling can surpass the vast libraries he left behind, in his own hand. His is not a tale to be re-told; it's told already, in more detail and with greater skill than anyone else can hope to touch.
I know that won't keep people from trying. He knew it wouldn't, too --and he despised you all for it, which should come as no surprise. The time to walk with him in step --or at least, to try to heel behind-- came and went, for you, long ago.
All that success and money, but no life jacket. Note to self.
@bay area coins Life jackets are for they who value life, the concept, over living, the deed.
You have my condolences.
The man is my hero. Only nature, the world itself could have taken him.
@Aaron Rogier Indeed.
Very saddening to read this, I owe the man so much. My condolences for your loss.
@Cazalla You and me and everyone else.
I am sad he had to leave.
I am sorry for your loss.
@David Francois Merci.
As the trackback doesn't seem to have made it, I'll leave the link directly here: http://ossasepia.com/2021/06/24/severed/
@Diana Coman Nfi how the trackback got lost in the stream, but thanks for passing the link.
RIP Mircea. Gl with the treasure hunt everyone
@Remus I suppose you've no idea what treasure is.
@hanbot The treasure is different for everyone, for me, the treasure are my kids and the joy of life.
I am very sorry for your loss. No words will ever be enough to express what Mircea was.
I found with sadness that Trilema is down; is this permanent? Will the rest of the world also lose what remains of his genius?
Far from permanent, and I'm sure plenty of people have private copies/mirrors anyhow.
My condolences. Had hoped to meet the man someday.
Hopefully he is in a better locus, wherever that may be.
It is unfortunate that he had to leave this early. I always thought Mirea would plant a flag somewhere and proclaim a proper republic.
Would you know if he made arrangements for his Bitcoin to pass on? Or did he bequeath their value to posterity by taking them out of circulation?
One wonders what a "proper" republic would be, and as for the rest, it'd seem quite squarely not your business.
A republic that is manifest in the world; that has control over a territory, exercised by an authority organized within this state.
On the matter states; why didn't you bear him children?
Your definition would seem to imply a need for they worthy of exercising such authority with and/or over, which was manifestly lacking. Otherwise, none of your business, quite obviously.
Imagine claiming to have the highest IQ, but then failing to account for the propensity of water in the lungs of a fat lazy poor failed swimmer to induce death by drowning. If only Mircea could have controlled his primitive impulses to make costly displays like an r-selective African savage LMAO.
May you and all yours ever be courted by hunger and woe.
Nevertheless he enjoyed a life that you will never be able to enjoy, not in a thousand years.
Being like you is a fate worse than any death.
Omar Bessa (~170 IQ) estimated Mircea Popescu’s IQ to be ~145.
It’s unfathomable that a self-proclaimed BitcOn $billionaire who once insinuated to have accumulated 1 million BTC from SatoshiDice — inter alia such as the claim of terminating Hillary Clinton’s POTUS bid — didn’t have constant security watch.
And where’s the body, the police report,the funeral and the investigation of this new teenage slave girl from ‘Yurp’?
Dudes, those are really tasteless comments. I did not fucking know this.
One of my friends who was Mircea's biggest fan, passed away recently. If he was good enough that she could admire him that's great enough for me.
There's a dead person here, deserving of respect like many others.
Deserving of respect like no other, truly. But the inept are inept for a reason, incapable of expressing something they cannot understand.
I'm sorry for your loss of your friend; I hope she communicated her admiration in some way, at some point.
She actually did... quite a lot I think, it was Brenda Fernandez, I know you met her IRL some time ago.
I am very sorry for your loss as well. Sadly i did not know of him directly until his passing but i’ve known about all the companies and things he was involved in. He was no doubt a visionary and pioneer. I have spent the last 2 days reading through as much of his blog as i possibly could. He was no doubt a brilliant philosopher and person just by reading some of his thoughts and ideas. I really wish i that i could know more about him. The world truly lost a treasure and gleaming light. I really wish i knew more about what he read and what helped him form his thinking. Thank you for this amazing post and i will continue spending the next weeks trying to learn as much as i can from this man. Mircea popescu, i know that i never got to learn from you directly or speak with you but thank you for everything you did to make the world a more free place and for all the wisdom you left us. No doubt the world is a darker place with a brilliant mind gone too soon. I will continue to spend these next weeks to learn as much as i can for you.
MP was a sexually starved peasant that became rich and became a sociopathic narcissist of epic proportions. Thinking of himself as king and being enabled by wealth, the only thing he clearly showed the world was the sheer magnitude of his neuroses. A "brilliant mind" that became entangled with countless accusations of scam artistry and whose following was composed of opportunists, sycophants and whores. Not a single project, not a single idea of benefit to humanity came out of his existence (or that of his followers).
How is that for a eulogy?
You're an imbecile. Get lost.
You’re an imbecile and a loser to even take the time out of your day to write that for someone whom you never met. Sad life to talk down upon someone whom you never met
Trilema.com appears to not be available at the moment. Do you know if it's temporary/due to a fixable mistake or not?
Seems fine.
Mircea Popescu's brilliance will be remembered, and forever missed. I am sorry for your loss.
Thanks bvt.
CONDOLEANTE INTREGII FAMILII...
IMI PARE NESPUS DE RAU CA NU AM AUZIT DE MIRCEA PANA ACUM...
DUMNEZEU SA L ODIHNEASCA!
Noa....
I sure hope you got something tangible out of this affair, all these years sucking his cock and letting him fuck you in the ass better amount to something.
Not everything is a chip in a bargain, but he knew the world at large was too stupid to get that through its thick skull.
So melodramatic, if he didn’t have a billion dollars I wonder if you skanks would wax so eloquent. Greatest author ever? Shut the fuck up.
Your bile is meaningless, your posturing pointless, and your notions of self and "wondering" entirely erroneous. No one is interested.
I am heartbroken. I miss him already and I can't imagine what it must be like for you.
I mainly knew him from reading his blog, Trilema. He was supremely talented. He was a master of physics, philosophy, language and technology, possessed deep and wide-ranging knowledge of many other fields, and was able to deftly weave together insights from these disparate areas to develop profound new thoughts. And he was a literate writer, in the true and rare sense of that term: that is, one who produced writing that seemed to gain more depth of meaning every time it was read. (To paraphrase something he said on this topic, this phenomenon occurred not because the writing had changed, but because the reader had changed after each reading.)
I also credit his blog with motivating me to make one of the best financial decisions I ever made: buying a small (but not insignificant) amount of bitcoin back in 2014. I'd read about bitcoin before, but it was reading Trilema that whacked me between the eyebrows and led me to realise that I had to buy bitcoin *immediately* -- and, what's more, to do so anonymously. This decision has paid off very well, and has given me a small taste of financial freedom in the last few years; enough, at least, to move closer towards the kind of life I want to live. Thanks, Mircea.
He also had *taste*. He had standards. He had a clear eye for the good, and could see that much that is called "good" today is not good at all. He was one of the writers who led me to realise that I should stop wasting my life producing and consuming trash, and to seek out better things: better currency, better books, better programs, better work, better places, better people. This realisation was even more valuable than the investment in bitcoin. Thanks again, Mircea.
I'm sorry for your loss.
My condolences to yourself and to everyone involved.
I've just learned the news, and I cannot help but feel truly saddened.
Sincerest condolences for your loss. I've been asked to write a profile on Mircea's incredible life and achievements. Would it be possible to speak with you in private?
Nope. The man was there, prolific, and open, for years. Your time came and went.
prin 2009-2010 am auzit de el, dar 90% din timp era un mic razboi de uzura cu zoso din care pare ca a iesit invins, iar apoi cel putin din perspectiva mea a disparut complet. textele interesante de pe trilema m-au facut sa le citesc dar mai mult de 2-3 nu se putea din cauza timpului
anyway, cum zicea zoso cand a fost anuntat in ziare decesul "mi-e prea lene să fac screenshot cu toate siteurile care s-au apucat să scrie pe prostul ăla paranoic mincinos, să îl am când o să apară și o să spună că a fost o păcăleală.", sper sa fie o pacaleala si sa reapara
ps. ar fi interesant de citit cum de dupa 2012-2014 nu s-au mai contrat pe bloguri deloc
What war dude, he was just one among many morons flailing about how like MP they must be 'cause otherwise it ain't fair and so forth. It's about as interesting as dust.
you might be right on this idea but that guy smells stuff very good and in this moment i hope that he is right (sometimes fails big also)
why i wish he is correct? because i see some interesting stuff on trilema that might need later chapters and so on, reading stuff like 3-5 years after the moment of posting is good but probably at that very moment would have been even better
anyway, i`ll bookmark your blog and probably return from time to time
Sad... very sad... I recognised him being the Master of Yes_pleaase... RIP...
I am sorry for your loss ...
I'm very sorry for your loss.
A Mass will be said for MP's soul on 14.08.2021 (behind the clausus of the Dominican Cloister in Warsaw). Requiescat in pace, Mircea, you will be missed.
Nice to hear from you, and thanks for passing that along.
I just returned from Colombia after a long absence and learned from shinohai that MP is gone. I mourn his loss with you from castle titsbare.