This series of posts is a compilation of the foundational texts, mailing lists, online communities, books and essays of the cryptographic movement and hacker culture.
In this post, we’ll dive into some of the early documents of the hacker culture: The Jargon File and The Hacker’s Dictionary.
We’ll also have a look at the first book about them: Hackers – Heroes of the Computer Revolution.
Last but not least, we’ll see the creation of the hacker group that will have the most significant impact on society: The Cult of the Dead Cow.
If you’re new to this corner of the Internet history, you may want to start reading this post.
Still here? Let’s dive right in!
Talking Like Hackers
The Jargon File (1975)
Raphael Finkel, a computer scientist from Stanford, compiled the first version of what came to be known as ‘The Jargon File.’
In the beginning, the text file titled ‘AIWORD.DOC[MAP,RF]’ was simply a compilation of technical jargon and abbreviations used by young programmers and academics at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL).
