Stay Off the Grid, Win $10,000

DariusD writes "Last summer, Wired writer Evan Ratliff wrote a story about how people erase their identities and start over. After it ran, he tried to disappear — spending 25 days on the lam until a few enterprising Wired readers tracked him down through some brilliant hacking and sleuthing. Now we're going to try the experiment again. Evan, Wired, Loneshark Games and I are working with Universal Pictures to do another, similar contest connected to the new film Repo Men, and this time we want you to go on the run. We need four applicants willing to disappear from their lives from late February to late March. If they can stay hidden for that time period, they'll end up with $10,000 each."

Comments

Easy

[sakdoctor]

Easy with one caveat. It would only be easy for people who wouldn't want to take part in the first place.

For the twittering, facebooking, wannabe internet-celebrity, attention whores, who would take part; they'd blow it.

Re:Easy

[Angst Badger]

Easy with one caveat. It would only be easy for people who wouldn't want to take part in the first place.

Indeed. All you'd have to do is get a friend to give you a lift to a national park and spend the month camping, and when you need something, walk out to the nearest town and pay in cash. This time of year, you'd probably want to choose a park in the southern parts of the country -- the accompanying Deliverance joke is left as an exercise to the reader -- but that's about it. Even if you're the governor of South Carolina -- the Appalachian Trail is the last place they'd look for you.

Re:Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried asking a Democratic reformer in China, an atheist Iranian, a member of the Tibetan independence movement and a North Korean, but none of them could think of a situation where this might be useful.

If anyone can think of a situation where a person would want to be active online without being found, please post it here. My four friends and I are super-curious now.

from previous discussion

Re:Easy

[mdarksbane]

That's what concealed carry laws are for.

Oh wait, you're in the middle of the wilderness.

That's what open carry laws are for.

Re:Easy

[lorenlal]

I disagree. Being a slashdotter, we'd just have to setup shop in your parents' basement... You'll eventually have to go back.

Uh, but you can't drop off the grid...

[Rich0]

The summary seems misleading. From what I understand, you aren't allowed to actually drop off the grid - they want you to actually perform certain activities, check in, provide clues, etc.

Otherwise I'd just take a month off of work and buy a ton of food and go wilderness camping somewhere (Canada would be nice, but not in Feb). There is almost no way anybody would be able to track you down.

On the other hand, I'd never take a month of vacation time just to live like a hermit and maybe win $10k - they really need to up the ante if they want people to do this for real.

It sounds like the contest is just about lying low, but posting hints. That obviously makes you far more detectable than if you were allowed to participate without any constraints.

Re:If only I were still Unemployed...

[maxume]

Well, except for the fact that they are selecting 4 people, and they aren't quite so likely to select people that have it easy.

Re:Seems easy

[c_sd_m]

There are huge chunks of crown land in many parts of Canada where any citizen can backcountry camp for free and unregistered. Unfortunately, they also tend to be in places you wouldn't really want to spend March. It'd be an unpredictable time to pack for a month, given that you could have a spring melt or -25C. It'd be a lot more comfortable in a heated yurt or tentipi in a national or provincial park, perhaps with some cross-country ski trails for entertainment. They'll claim they want your name but I've never shown any ID when checking in.

Actually, that sounds kinda fun. I'd never be able to carry enough books and wine for a month in the backcountry.