Reading 00
What is a hacker?
The entertainment industry has given us many ideas of what the popular perception of a hacker is.
Of course, Rami Malek’s portrayal of the character Elliot Alderson in the series Mr. Robot is one of the more recognizable popular images of a hacker in recent years. Computer security analyst by day and dark hooded hacker by night.
This image of a hacker is ubiquitous in popular culture and tends to be the common perception of a hacker.
Young. Hoodie clad. Criminal. Probably male. And often white.
Hollywood doesn’t have the most diverse or even accurate characterization of what a hacker is, but fortunately we can also explore some other ideas of what makes a hacker.
From the first section of the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy and from our discussions, we can find another characterization of what makes a hacker.
Hackers were people that spent long hours dedicated to the craft of creating a new hack, an elegant or interesting method of achieving or creating something that’s often but not necessarily technologically related. Many of them devoted huge portions of time to this pursuit while blocking out or ignoring most else.
Furthermore, Levy’s description of hackers and hacking culture also comes from the hacker ethic that he describes.
These principles stress the importance of freedom of technology and information, the benefits and beauty of computers, and a distrust for authority.
This all seems to fit pretty smoothly with my preconceptions of what a hacker is, especially the ideas of free access to computers and information and anti-establishment.
Additionally, I appreciate and understand these sentiments. While the ideals of decentralization and freedom of information stemmed mostly at the beginning of hacker culture from the difficulties of getting access to the different mainframe computers since personal computers had yet to exist, they easily translate to the internet age. It’s my belief that these ideals are what makes the internet so special and valuable and that they should be fought for.
So in this way, the Levy’s idea of a hacker resonates with me. However, I don’t think I would ever be accepted as a “True Hacker” in those circles described in the book. I’m probably more of a “loser in my thinking” as David Silver described about the people at Stanford.
Although I do find times where I get fully immersed in my work on a new project and just can’t be bothered by anything else, it’s not necessarily the norm. I’m fairly diversified in my interests, which means I’m not fully dedicated to the hacking craft. I’m more of a hacker dabbler if anything, but certainly not a “True Hacker”.
Shifting gears a bit, there was one part of the hacker ethic I skipped mentioning earlier. Specifically, this part describes hacker culture as a meritocracy.
Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race or position.
I respect the ideals that they want a culture in which people are judged solely based on their skills. However, I do take issue with the reality of how it’s used in the book.
Of course, women are not well-represented in the book’s hacker culture or talk of the “True Hackers”. In fact, sex is not at all mentioned in the above quote from the hacker ethic, as we discussed in class. Margaret Hamilton is mentioned in the book and she’s an incredible person, but she’s not included as part of the hacker culture.
Additionally, the discussion of this hacker culture as a meritocracy misses a huge point about the effects of privilege. These are all very privileged kids studying at MIT that have access to resources that most people simply don’t, especially not at the time this was happening. So, by judging people by only their hacking abilities, they are at an enormous advantage.
Therefore, it’s not really a meritocracy at all.
It’s only even kind of a meritocracy within the very specific demographic of males at MIT, and even then there’s likely not an even playing field.
The ideals of technological freedom and decentralization are very progressive and make hacker culture appealing, but they should be accompanied by appropriately progressive social values as well.
