The point of this Note is that it is hard to decide how much to reveal about the "metadata" of my life like the places and events I have been to, so I want to make sure everyone knows that I am acknowledging that fact and why it is so.
Given the nature of society now, it is not that hard to find a lot of information on a person's life-- even if they do not publish that information with their own hands. However, that information is not necessarily that easy to find unless you spoon-feed it to people, which is a personal choice to do.
Throughout the years I have thought about how public of a public figure I must be. That involves trying to predict the future: how many people will be aware of me and where will those people be located in the world? Should both my message and I as a person be location-less? Isn't it dumb to tell people of your whereabouts if you don't have to? Besides-- this is not a personal Facebook account where the only people who can see my information are people I know. This is public and can be found via search engines.
I have taken certain measures like redacting my home address and telephone number on the whois information for this website. That aside, in my particular case I have made it obvious that I am a runner who has competed in many races. That includes competing as the member of public secondary school and college teams for 22 seasons. I have run almost 400 races in 11.5 years. That means that a lot of information regarding places I have been to is out there.
I know some people might find this to be an act of overthinking. People like farmers and race directors are basically public figures in regards to their work, and knowledge as to their location in the world (at least regarding their work) is unavoidable. The thing is, unlike farmers and race directors, I don't need people to know where I am for kimwrate.com to serve its purpose. To be clear, I don't mean “where I am” every moment like there is some kind of tracker planted on me; but, where I generally live and go. So, I have largely avoided putting that information on kimwrate.com over the years.
In the article Existential Loss I did make the decision to name the race at hand. In The Spiritual War I did not name the 100-mile race, partly because I knew that anyone who wanted to find the race results could do so easily enough based on the information that I did share.
Concern #1: Fairness Towards Others
I have three primary concerns. The first concern is that if people know my information then they can find information on people I know. I feel that is unfair because this is kimwrate.com, not everyone.com. Sometimes I need to talk about specific people in order to make a point. This is partly due to how frequent is the theme of interpersonal conflict and also due to the nature of our existence (i.e. everything is connected via the void). While I don't need to share names, depending on what I say people might be able to figure out who I am talking about. I don't want to put people I talk about in that position because they did not choose to be there. At this point it comes down to this: Should I just say, Sorry, Charlie; but, if you're in my life you are going for this ride with me, like it or not?
What is fair? After the Beast of Burden in 2019, Tim Hardy posted a picture of us at the start line on his blog. People know Tim from his being a retired Army Major, a race director, and, perhaps moreso than anything else, having raced at Barkley. He didn't ask whether he could post a picture of me; so, is it fair that he did? Well, I am pretty sure that almost 100% of race waivers declare that by signing you give permission for your photo to be published by the race organizers. While a participant is not the same as an organizer, you could argue that you agreed that it is alright for your photo to be taken at any time during the event. If I am a race director I am not sure that I would make that argument. The thing is, in America we technically have freedom of the press. In 2020 this basically means that you can publish anything you want as long as it does not threaten the interests of people with the means for defeating you in a lawsuit or otherwise deplatforming you. I could publish anyone's name that I want to; though, that does not necessarily protect me from a defamation lawsuit if that person thinks I have made them look bad. A big example of this is Peter Thiel's funding of Hulk Hogan's successful lawsuit against the gossip website Gawker, which had defamed the two men as far as they both were concerned. Besides-- in this specific race photo situation, I am pretty sure that Tim will get more publicity from me writing about him than vice versa; and, having my photo published actually helps my mission of living transparently and bringing awareness to my ideas about life.
Concern #2: Peace in My Personal Life
Now for Concern #2, which is the smallest concern. The more I talk about local places, the more that local people will be able to find me and also take an interest in what I say. Sometimes I like the idea of my home as a place where I am separate from kimwrate.com and can be a fairly normal or at least “silent” person. I have a small reputation from both local races and also just running from running around the local area; but, that is just a flash in the pan in other people's lives and that is not even remotely like being some kind of public figure with many strong words to say as I do here. Overall my problem here is that, as I said, I like the idea of my home and even most of my in-person activities as a place where I can be separate from kimwrate.com, so I can go about my life with a degree of silence and peace. To an extent I don't really mind my online and in-person activity being separate.
That being said, I think I have to let that false peace go. If I want to have the greatest possible effect and, moreover, live as honestly as possible, then my website and my life cannot be that separate. I don't have to livestream my life; nevertheless, on the Internet it is relatively futile for me to pretend that I am some location-less person. Furthermore, people I have met might be interested in things I have done and why. The fact that I am not the most normal person might fuel that interest in certain contexts. For instance, people at races might be interested in how or why I did certain things and what I was thinking. It comes down to this: How far must I go in order to live transparently? Add this question to the one I asked for Concern #1, which is whether people must ultimately be dragged on to the ride with me.
Concern #3: Intentions of Others
Concern #3 is more intense. What if people want to use information about my life against me? To be specific, what if someone wants to hurt me or people in my life? Isn't it dumb to invite that threat from anywhere in the world? At this point I as an individual probably do not look like a major “threat” to anyone. But, as I build steam, what if certain people realize that I ultimately am a threat to their interests and they want me gone? Well, you could argue that for any public figure. A lot of people want Trump gone, though he is constantly protected by the Secret Service. Not only that; but, the more public a person is, the more likely it is that anyone trying to harm that person will be caught. Also, as I stated in Transparency and Integrity, I believe there are certain forces on this Earth that want me gone anyway, not necessarily as an individual (yet) but as part of certain groups within humanity. I believe the best safeguard against that, not just for myself but for everyone in the same boat as me (and I think the number of us is in the millions), is to live transparently. In the Soviet Union the Secret Police took people from their homes in the middle of the night. Not only that but the citizens of the USSR barely resisted, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn has testified. It is harder to hurt someone when many people take an interest in protecting them and likewise when many people are aware of and interested in that person's life.
Having established all of that, I remain concerned about one specific way in which people might take interest in me and use my information against me. What if people take an interest in my knowledge and abilities to the point where they want to “use” me somehow? So far I have not demonstrated elite-level intelligence in any technical discipline nor really any individual discipline at all, so that makes me less desirable. The thing that is most exceptional about me might be my thought process. Basically, to the stated concern I am wondering whether people will take an interest in my connection to the void and see whether they can use that to their own ends. This includes aspects of the U.S. government: it is known that the military has studied remote viewing via Project Stargate and also that, by way of entities like Area 51, the government does have interest in extraterrestial life. So, people might want to see if I can contact aliens or highly evolved beings, predict the future, see the past, and who knows what else. Basically I am concerned about getting black-bagged over the head in the middle of the night one day-- probably not anytime soon but one day. That will come down to people's beliefs about me. If it does happen it would basically be thanks to kimwrate.com and all I have shared here.
Overall, then, I have three questions regarding the sharing of personal information: Must people in my life and perhaps even everyone get dragged into living transparently with me, whether they want to or not? How far must I go in order to effectively live transparently? And, finally, Will people want to use my personal information against me someday? Morever, what is the kind of interest that such people are most likely to take in me, and what will they do about it? The answers I seem doomed to are: Yes; Completely; Yes; Something related to the void and/or other knowledge and abilities (and maybe who, what, and how I am overall); and, probably whisk me away to try to use me somehow. Assuming those answers are correct, at least A. I am honest about it, regarding the first question; and B. I am on to you in advance and have let the world know, regarding the last three questions. I also understand that people who take an interest in and even want to use me might actually have benevolent intentions. To deal with this I have to figure out what groups want what and decide in advance as much as possible who I would be willing to help and in what context.
I have a spreadsheet which contains all of my race results. I think I am going to share it publicly one day, and that will reveal the name of every race I run.
In “The Spiritual War” I did mention the name of another race in passing-- the Utica Boilermaker. That race is the most internationally-famous aspect of my home.