Chris McKinstry

McKinstry was a Canadian citizen. Born in Winnipeg, he resided several years in Chile. From 1999, he lived in Antofagasta as a VLT operator for the European Southern Observatory. At the end of 2004, he moved back to Santiago, Chile. Suffering from bipolar disorder, McKinstry had an armed standoff with police in Toronto in 1990, with it lasting 7 1/2 hours. It ultimately concluded with McKinstry being hit with tear gas, but ending with no casualties {{cite web |url=http://groups.google.ca/group/wpg.general/msg/2764a9158359f7b8?dmode=source |title=McKinstry in Toronto - Globe and Mail |website=Google Groups |access-date=June 10, 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://groups.google.ca/group/wpg.general/msg/42073915fd22e6ea?dmode=source |title=McKinstry in Toronto - Toronto Star |website=Google Groups |access-date=June 10, 2018}}

In February 1997, Chris McKinstry started an online soap opera, CR6.{{Cite news|date=1997-01-09|title=Winnipeg crew offers Net soap for cyber fans|pages=24|work=The Ottawa Citizen|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85650772/winnipeg-crew-offers-net-soap-for-cyber/|access-date=2021-09-20}}{{Cite news|date=1997-01-25|title=Canadian soap opera is coming to Internet|pages=61|work=The Windsor Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85320709/cr6carlee-benolt-actress-in-cr6-did/|access-date=2021-09-20}} According to journalist Bartley Kives, around 700 people auditioned for the show, which only lasted for two months, before McKinstry left Winnipeg with "estimated debts in excess of $100,000".{{Cite news|last=KIVES|first=BARTLEY|date=2011-01-23|title=Jan 2011: A belated eulogy|language=en-CA|work=Winnipeg Free Press|url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/b_kives/a-belated-eulogy-114443089.html|access-date=2021-09-20}} McKinstry later claimed to have lost $1 million in the CR6 failure, and the many people he recruited to build the soap opera, including photographers, writers, a director, and several prominent businesses, never received any of the money owed to them for their work.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Before his death, McKinstry designed an experiment with two cognitive scientists to study the dynamics of thought processes using data from his Mindpixel project. This work was later published in Psychological Science in its January 2008 issue,{{cite journal |last1=McKinstry |first1=Chris |last2=Dale |first2=Rick |last3=Spivey |first3=Michael J. |title=Action dynamics reveal parallel competition in decision making |date=January 1, 2008 |journal=Psychological Science |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=22–24 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02041.x |pmid = 18181787|s2cid=25789465 }} with McKinstry as posthumous first author.

CR6

Chris McKinstry had a long struggle with his mental health, with him admitting to being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.{{cite magazine |last1=Kushner |first1=David |title=Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. What Really Happened? |url=https://www.wired.com/2008/01/ff-aimystery/?currentPage=all |magazine=Wired |access-date=Jan 18, 2008}} McKinstry, as a result, suffered from frequent suicidal thoughts and a long-standing depression, discussing it in his suicide note. In his teen years, McKinstry had attempted suicide, intentionally overdosing on drugs, another issue McKinstry struggled with.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/archive/wired/archive/16.02/McKinstry.html |title=So what does a web suicide note look like? |magazine=Wired|date=2006|access-date=June 10, 2018}} [https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/archive/wired/archive/16.02/McKinstry.html Document] His bipolar disorder is often attributed to the reason for his standoff in 1990.

Chris McKinstry was found dead in his apartment on January 23, 2006, with a plastic bag over his head, connected to the stove gas line with a hose.{{Cite magazine|title=Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. What Really Happened?|language=en-US|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/2008/01/ff-aimystery/|access-date=2021-09-16|issn=1059-1028}} He was found to have posted a suicide note online. McKinstry wrote, "I am tired of feeling the same feelings and experiencing the same experiences. It is time to move on and see what is next if anything...This Louis Vuitton, Prada, Montblanc commercial universe is not for me. If only I was loved as much a Montblanc pen..."'{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/archive/wired/archive/16.02/McKinstry.html |title=So what does a web suicide note look like? |magazine=Wired|date=2006|access-date=June 10, 2018}}

There was some public note of the similarity between the suicide of Chris McKinstry and that of Push Singh, another AI researcher, a little over a month later. Both of their AI projects, McKinstry's Mindpixel project and Singh's MIT-backed Open Mind Common Sense, had similar trajectories over the last six years.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/2000/09/two-fake-brains-better-than-one/ |title=Two Fake Brains Better Than One |last=Manjoo |first=Farhad |date=September 15, 2000 |magazine=Wired |access-date=June 10, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060528032243/https://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,38745-0.html |archive-date=May 28, 2006}}

McKinstry is the subject of a 2010 documentary called The Man Behind the Curtain directed by Michael Beach Nichols and Joshua Woltermann which recounts his innovative work and his struggle with mental health issues.{{cite web |url=http://themanbehindthecurtainfilm.com |title=Home |website=The Man Behind The Curtain |access-date=June 10, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090317082034/http://themanbehindthecurtainfilm.com/ |archive-date=March 17, 2009}}

• "Minimum Intelligent Signal Test: An Alternative Turing Test", Canadian Artificial Intelligence, No.41.{{cite journal |url=http://hps.elte.hu/~gk/Loebner/kcm9512.htm |title=Minimum Intelligent Signal Test: An Alternative Turing Test |last=McKinstry |first=Chris |journal=Canadian Artificial Intelligence |issue=41 |access-date=June 10, 2018}}
• "A Closer Look at Life in the Summer of '76", Mindjack, 2001.
• "Passage through science", Mindjack, 2001.
• "Twenty Twenty: Astronomical Vision", Mindjack, 2002.
• "A Hacker Goes to Iraq", 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, 2003.{{cite journal |url=http://sysk-net.com/books/2600%20The%20Hacker%20Quarterly%20-%20Vol%2020%20-%20No%201%202003%20%5BPDF%5D.pdf |title=A Hacker Goes to Iraq |last=McKinstry |first=Chris |date=Spring 2003 |journal=2600: The Hacker Quarterly |volume=20 |number=1 |page=9 |access-date=June 10, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060203185959/http://sysk-net.com/books/2600%20The%20Hacker%20Quarterly%20-%20Vol%2020%20-%20No%201%202003%20%5BPDF%5D.pdf |archive-date=February 3, 2006}}
• {{cite book |chapter=Mind as Space |editor-last1=Epstein |editor-first1=Robert |editor-last2=Roberts |editor-first2=Gary |editor-last3=Beber |editor-first3=Grace |title=Parsing the Turing Test: Philosophical and Methodological Issues in the Quest for the Thinking Computer |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcXFfl1pPcgC&dq=chris+mckinstry&pg=PA283 |date=1 December 2008 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4020-9624-2 |page=283}}
• {{cite journal |last1=McKinstry |first1=Chris |last2=Dale |first2=Rick |last3=Spivey |first3=Michael J. |title=Action dynamics reveal parallel competition in decision making |date=January 1, 2008 |journal=Psychological Science |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=22–24|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02041.x |pmid = 18181787|s2cid=25789465 }}

{{Reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.oocities.org/gactheripper/MIndPixelPageFront.html |title=MindPixel: Is It Real? |date=October 2009 |website=oocities.org |access-date=June 10, 2018}}
• {{cite web |url=http://mindpixel.com |title=Mindpixel Digital Mind Modeling Project |date=2000 |website=Mindpixel |access-date=June 10, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000815061020/http://www.mindpixel.com/ |archive-date=August 15, 2000 |df=mdy-all }}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20000824.html |title= Put On Your Thinking Cap: Chris McKinstry Wants to Build a Brain Accelerator |last=Cringely |first=Robert X. |author-link=Robert X. Cringely |date=August 24, 2000 |website=PBS |access-date=June 10, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001206114300/https://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20000824.html |archive-date=December 6, 2000}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.cr6.com/ |title=CR6 online soap opera |website=cr6.com |access-date=June 10, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970412125441/http://www.cr6.com/ |archive-date=April 12, 1997}}
• {{cite thesis |last=von Ahn |first=Luis |date=December 7, 2005 |title=Human Computation |type=Ph.D |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science |page=67 |url=http://reports-archive.adm.cs.cmu.edu/anon/2005/CMU-CS-05-193.pdf |access-date=June 10, 2018}}

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Category:Artificial intelligence researchers

Category:People from Winnipeg

Category:Canadian psychedelic drug advocates

Category:Suicides by gas

Category:1967 births

Category:2006 suicides

Category:People with bipolar disorder

Category:2006 deaths