John David McAfee / 1945–2021 / Gloucestershire, United Kingdom / Computer Programmer, Entrepreneur, Investor, Founder of McAfee Associates, Inc.
Belize
Note: McAfee lived in Belize from 2009 until 2013. While there, he was arrested on a charge of murder.
Belize is so raw and so clear and so in-your-face. There’s an opportunity to see something about human nature that you can’t really see in a politer society, because the purpose of society is to mask ourselves from each other.
Reported by Joshua Davis in “John McAfee Fled to Belize, but he couldn’t escape himself,” wired.com, December 24, 2012.
My fragile connection with the world of polite society has, without a doubt, been severed. My attire would rank me among the worst-dressed Tijuana panhandlers. My hygiene is no better. Yesterday, for the first time, I urinated in public, in broad daylight.
Reported by Joshua Davis in “John McAfee Fled to Belize, but he couldn’t escape himself,” wired.com, December 24, 2012.
I have no illusions. We are tainted by everything we touch.
Reported by Joshua Davis in “John McAfee Fled to Belize, but he couldn’t escape himself,” wired.com, December 24, 2012.
Computer Viruses
A virus is a computer program created to infect other programs with copies of itself. It has the ability to clone itself, so that it can multiply, constantly seeking new host environments.
John McAfee and Colin Haynes, Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs, and Other Threats to Your System (1989).
The reality is so alarming that it would be very difficult to exaggerate. Even if no new viruses are ever created, there are already enough circulating to cause a growing problem as they reproduce. A major disaster seems inevitable.
John McAfee and Colin Haynes, Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs, and Other Threats to Your System (1989).
Confidence
Ignorance and confidence are constant companions.
John McAfee, Into the Heart of Truth: The Spirit of Relational Yoga (2001).
Drugs
Note: To the accusation that McAfee had communicated with drug traffickers regarding the designer drug, MDPV, McAfee responded:
It was the most tongue-in-cheek thing in the f***ing world. . . . If I’m gonna do drugs, I’m gonna do something that I know is good. I’m gonna grab some mushrooms, number one, and maybe get some really fine cocaine. But anybody who knows me knows I never do drugs.
Reported by Joshua Davis in “John McAfee Fled to Belize, but he couldn’t escape himself,” wired.com, December 24, 2012.
Examples
A good example is more irritating than a bad one.
Answer during Q&A following presentation, Munich, Germany, January, 1991.
Facts
If you own the facts, you may distort them as you like.
Roundtable, anti–computer virus conference, 1992.
Going One’s Own Way
I think that it’s when we step out of the road, step outside the box, become our own person and we walk fearlessly down paths other people wouldn’t look at, that true progress comes. And sometimes true beauty as well.
Interview with Leo Kelion, “John McAfee: Addict, Coder, Runaway,” BBC News, bbc.com, October 11, 2013.
Government Corruption
I am not implying that our entire Government is corrupt. I am saying that it is corrupt to the point that no-one is untouched by it.
McAfee tweet, June 10, 2019.
History
History is sympathetic to its authors.
John McAfee, Into the Heart of Truth: The Spirit of Relational Yoga (2001).
Hope
Hope is paltry food for living.
John McAfee, Into the Heart of Truth: The Spirit of Relational Yoga (2001).
Individual Opinion
Opinions need a willing ear.
John McAfee, Beyond the Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali (2001).
Majority Opinion
If the majority holds something of value, you can be certain it has none.
Presentation, anti–computer virus conference, Sydney, Australia, 1991.
McAfee on McAfee
Note: McAfee’s father committed suicide when his son was 15 years old.
Every day I wake up with him. Every relationship I have, he’s by my side; every mistrust, he is the negotiator of that mistrust. So my life is f***ed.
Reported by Joshua Davis in “John McAfee Fled to Belize, but he couldn’t escape himself,” wired.com, December 24, 2012.
I gravitate to the world’s outcasts. Prostitutes, thieves, the handicapped . . . For some reason I have always been fascinated by these subcultures.
Reported by Joshua Davis in “John McAfee Fled to Belize, but he couldn’t escape himself,” wired.com, December 24, 2012.
People kept saying I hyped this, I hyped this. I never contacted the press—they called me.
Reported by Josh Quittner, New York Newsday, April 5, 1992.
If you have the winning cards, why cheat?
Interview, Good Morning America, ABC, June, 1991; in response to accusation he had falsified VirusScan’s capabilities.
Note: On October 5, 2020, Spain arrested McAfee at the request of the US, to face fraud charges connected to cryptocurrency promotion. On June 23, 2021, McAfee was found dead in his prison cell near Barcelona.
Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: “We’re coming for you McAfee! We’re going to kill yourself.” I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whacked.
McAfee tweet, December 1, 2019.
I am content in here. I have friends. The food is good. All is well. Know that if I hang myself, à la [Jeffrey] Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.
McAfee tweet, October 16, 2020.
I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing.
McAfee’s final tweet, June 16, 2021.
Obedience
Disobedience is the vehicle of progress.
Reported by Josh Quittner, New York Newsday, April 5, 1992.
Power
There are three kinds of power: the power to create, the power to acquire, and the power to destroy. The power to create Is ever with the people. The other two must be removed from Government. We need a Government with zero power, controlled by an all-powerful people.
McAfee tweet. January 19, 2020.
Software
Software production is unlike any other production that preceded it. No raw materials are required, no time is required, and no effort is required. You can make a million copies of a piece of software instantaneously for free. It’s a totally new paradigm of production.
Interview, Nerds 2.0.1—A Brief History of the Internet, Volume Three: Wiring the World, television film directed by John Segaller, PBS, 1998.