Reading 01: Can Hacker Ethic go mainstream?
In the first section of the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, we get introduced to the first “True Hackers” and everything it takes to be one. We hear about these geniuses at elite universities like MIT and Stanford that have the access to multi-million dollar machines to experiment with.
These “True Hackers” invented the hacker culture and worked on many compelling projects, but there is unfortunately a feel of exclusivity when it came to the hacker culture of the first section. If you wanted to be a “True Hacker” and have the same access as other “True Hackers”, you would need to be associated with one of a handful of universities.
However, in the second section of the book, “Hardware Hackers”, access to computers started to creep closer to the mainstream. Computers started to become less expensive and more ubiquitous. Ed Roberts and MITS marketed their $397 Altar 8800 in Popular Electronics, Lee Felsenstein and Bob Marsh created their SOL that cost under $1000, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak came out with a machine for $666.66. Many more people were able to access computers and take up hacking for themselves.
But as the hardware spreads to more and more people, is it still possible to maintain the same ideals of the Hacker Ethic?
On one hand, the simple proliferation of computers helped to work towards satisfying the first principle of the Hacker Ethic. More and more people had the access to computers to experiment hands-on. This is extremely important and is what the “True Hacker” would want.
If you agree with or believe in the Hacker Ethic, you should be all for increased access to computers because it indicates a net good for society. More people can benefit from the fifth and sixth principle of the Hacker Ethic. The can experience the art and beauty created by others on their computer as well as create some of their own to share with others. Additionally, they can leverage computers to potentially change their lives for the better.
However, the unfortunate result of computers going somewhat mainstream was that some major players seemed to no longer believe that “all information should be free” as the Hacker Ethic dictates.
This is certainly apparent with the Altair BASIC incident described in the book. Paul Allen and Bill Gates created this version of BASIC specifically for the Altair 8800 and wanted to charge people to buy their own copy of it. However, many hackers did not want to wait for their order of Altair BASIC to ship to them or didn’t desire to pay for it at all. Eventually, people started to duplicate and share Altair BASIC with one another for free. As a result, Bill Gates went on a tirade against hobbyists that would decide not to pay for software in his infamous open letter.
Bill Gates certainly didn’t believe all information should be free, and he was not the only one. The book describes the West Coast Computer Faire as a point that signaled the takeoff of the computer industry. However, this also meant the downturn of the Hacker Ethic. Companies decided to keep all of their software and hardware specs secret because they believed it was better for their business in that it gave them an advantage over competition. People didn’t freely share information with one another so much.
The spreading of computers into the mainstream was very important and resulted in a much larger effect on the world, but not without the cost of compromising some ideals. However, I don’t believe fully compromising the ideal of free information was necessary as many of the companies did.
Companies kept their development of hardware and software extremely secret to deal with competition, but that’s not the only way. This idea of secrecy comes very much from Western values, as China’s businesses run to a large extent without the same ideas of secrecy and owning information. Without getting in the muck of the advantages and disadvantages of each belief, it’s simply to say information perhaps needs not be so heavily restricted.
But regardless, the proliferation of computers to the general public was necessary and an extremely good thing for society and even hacker culture, even if some no longer felt compelled to adhere to Hacker Ethics.
