casual inquiry into a hack's logic results in his defiance: the hack stiffens as if he is being interrogated
attempting to help the hack find a basis in reality, the mediator embraces the role the hack has created for him of interrogator
the mediator hopes, by empathizing, to comprehend the hack's logic and thus help the hack create a link to reality
what he does not realize is that he cannot, because the hack is utterly hopelessly lost inside his synthesis--threatened, probably even dangerous
the mediator hopes to comprehend the hack's logic to help him ground it in reality, but the mediator's attempt causes the hack such pain and humiliation that the hack panics and desperately attempts to re-establish his separate identity and to recover his lost synthesis
he does this by lashing out inexplicably at the mediator--imagining that he is causing the mediator great injury and pain in doing so
the hack sees himself as alternative and superior, dialectical and criminal, and thus cannot be grounded in reality -- he pulled from his jacket a tiny 22 pistol, automatic, and pointed it at the mediator
already braced by the hack's outburst, the mediator was able to push the pistol back towards the hack as the hack pulled the trigger
the hack shot himself three times and bled to death
This is my personal "crucible" (Click here) on Oddmuse, which is a similar public s/w wiki written in Perl: free s/w people, free s/w ideas