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THEY'VE LIED ABOUT US... ARRESTED US...
AND OUTLAWED US.
BUT THEY CAN'T KEEP US OUT...
AND THEY CAN'T SHUT US DOWN.
+++Hacker's Manifesto+++
-Another one got caught today, its all over the papers. "Teenager arrested
in computer crime scandal". "Hacker arrested after bank tampering"Damn kids.
They're all alike. But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's
technobrain ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever
wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my world... Mine is a world that begins with school...
I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
Damn underachiever. They're all alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I'
ve listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a
fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it
in my head..." Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're alike. I made a
discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does
what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, its because I screwed it up. Not
because it doesn't like me... or feels threatened by me... or thinks I'm a
smartass... or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here... Damn kid. All
he does is play games. They're all alike. And then it happened... a door
opened to a world... rushing through the phone lines like heroin through an
addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the
day-to-day incompetincies is sought... a board is found. "This is it, this
is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them ,
talked to them , may never hear from them again... I know you all... Damn
kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike. You bet your ass we'
re all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered
for steak... the bits of meat that you did let through were prechewed and
tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignores by the apathetic. The
few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are
like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now... the world of the
electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service
already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't
run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and
you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals.
We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias...
and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you
murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own
good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of
curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think,
not by what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something
that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto.
You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're
all alike.
+++The Mentor+++
Are YOU a Hacker?
by Robert Bickford
Are you a Hacker? How would you know? If all you know about the word is what
you've seen on the evening news, or read in a magazine, you're probably
feeling indignant at the very question! But do those magazine-selling
headlines really describe what a Hacker is?
Some time ago (MicroTimes, December 1986) I defined a Hacker as "Any person
who derives joy from discovering ways to circumvent limitations." The
definition has been widely quoted since that time, but unfortunately has yet
to make the evening news in the way that a teenager who robs a bank with his
telephone does.
Does that teenaged criminal fit my definition? Possibly. Does that fact make
all, or even most, Hackers criminals? (Does that fact make all or most
Hackers teenagers?) Of course not! So why is there such widespread
misinformation about Hackers? Very simply, it's because the criminal
hackers, or 'Crackers', have been making news, while the rest of us are
virtually invisible. For every irresponsible fool writing a virus program,
there are at least twenty software engineers earning a living
"...discovering ways to circumvent limitations." When the much-publicized
InterNet worm was released by an irresponsible hacker, hundreds of other
Hackers applied their considerable talents to the control and eradication of
the problem: the brilliance and creativity brought to this task are typical
of the kind of people --- Hackers --- that my definition is meant to
describe.
Working on the yearly Hackers Conferences has been a mixed experience: on
the one hand, helping to bring together 200 of the most brilliant people
alive today, and then interacting with them for an entire weekend, is
immensely rewarding. On the other hand, trying to explain to others that the
Hackers Conference is not a Gathering of Nefarious Criminals out to Wreak
Havoc upon Western Civilization does get a bit wearing at times. Also,
trying to convince a caller that repeatedly crashing his school district's
computer from a pay phone will not, emphatically not, qualify him for an
invitation to the conference can be a bit annoying. None of this would be a
problem if we hadn't let a small minority --- the Crackers --- steal the
show, and become associated with the word 'Hacker' in the minds of the
general public. The attendees at the Hackers Conferences --- many of whom
hold PhDs, and/or are Presidents or other upper management of Fortune 500
companies --- are (quite understandably) very indignant at being confused
with these Crackers.
Taking myself as an example --- no, I don't have a PhD, my only degree is
from the School of Hard Knocks, and no, I'm not working in management ---
when this article was first published [1989] I was writing software for a
company that builds medical image processing equipment. My code controls a
product that can, and often does, either improve the quality of medical
care, reduce the cost, or both. When I develop a piece of software that goes
around some limit I feel very happy, and can often find myself with a silly
grin plastered across my face. When some ignorant reporter writes a story
that equates the work I do with expensive but childish pranks committed by
someone calling himself a "Hacker", I see red.
Are you a Hacker? If you want to break rules just for the sake of breaking
rules, or if you just want to hurt or "take revenge" upon somebody or some
company, then forget it. But if you delight in your work, almost to the
point of being a workaholic, you just might be. If finding the solution to a
problem can be not just satisfying but almost an ecstatic experience, you
probably are. If you sometimes take on problems just for the sake of finding
the solution (and that ecstatic experience that comes with it), then you
almost certainly are. Congratulations! You're in good company, with
virtually every inventor whose name appears in your high school history
book, and with the many thousands of brilliant people who have created the
"computer revolution."
What can we do about all that bad press? Meet it head on! Tell the people
you work with that you're a Hacker, and what that means. If you know
somebody whose work habits, style, or personality make them pretty clearly a
Hacker, tell them so and tell them what you mean by that. Show them this
article!
Meanwhile, have fun finding those solutions, circumventing those
limitations, and making this a better world thereby. You are an Artist of
Technology, a Rider of the Third Wave, and at least you can enjoy the ride!
Bob Bickford is a software consultant who lives in Marin County, California,
often Hacking late into the night, and (usually) enjoying it immensely. His
wife, Greta, only tolerates this because she's an animation hacker and
sometimes does the same thing. Bob can be reached through the Internet.
(An edited version of this article appeared in Microtimes in early 1989. It
was also used, in full, in Tricks of the Internet Gurus (SAMS, 1994);
however, that version contained a serious editing error which caused me to
appear to be contradicting myself -- they promised to correct it, and
judging from the online version of the book, it appears that they did. (Also
available at another site.) Copyright (c) Robert Bickford, 1989, 1992, 1994)
--
Robert Bickford "A Hacker is any person who derives joy from
rab @ well discovering ways to circumvent limitations." rab'86
"I recognize that a class of criminals and juvenile delinquents has
taken to calling themselves 'hackers', but I consider them irrelevant
to the true meaning of the word; just as the Mafia calls themselves
'businessmen' but nobody pays that fact any attention." rab'90
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