-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.30/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.30/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 30 </A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times July 26, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 30 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hackers, Cyberpunks, and the Apocalypse by Randy Danneskj�ld Cyberpunk literature is nothing less than the epic texts of a radical new philosophy of life, the universe and everything. In his book Hackers, Steven Levy has commented on what he calls the hacker ethic - a loosely identified set of beliefs that he can't seem to quite put his finger on precisely, but which pervades hacker communities everywhere. You might find these statements puzzling. What do bits dancing around in electronic circuits have to do with weighty questions of ethics and metaphysics? As it happens, plenty. Life, The Universe and Everything Life, to a hacker, is an integral part of hacking. Life is a laboratory, a place to experiment, shake things up, fiddle with the system till something interesting pops out. No other class of human beings could as a general rule have this much detachment towards their own individual fortunes and misfortunes, except perhaps professional religious ascetics. Every life experience is, to a hacker, just that. An experience - a rich source of information - of intel. He will take it apart, analyze it, get exalted and paranoid over it in turns, to experience it from every angle. Then he will break it right down to its basic educative points, remember those and forget the rest. Remember also that the present generation of hackers, most in their late teens or early twenties, and even the 'oldies' still around, have lived through probably the most dramatic, turbulent phase of human and technological history. Rapid change and an almost bizarre variety of experience is normal. Who better to comment on life in today's technosaturated world than those who are most at home in it? Further, hackers are quite used to playing God. When you're in control of a powerful piece of computing machinery, you're in control of a little universe, with its immutable laws and (if it's a real hackers' computer) a multitude of complex information systems in constant, dynamic interaction. You have the power to create structures and systems of arbitrary complexity, limited only by your own imagination and level of technological mastery. Who better to speculate on the nature of the Universe than someone whose life has been a virtual SimUniverse game since as far back as he1 can remember? Computer programmers are also the greatest generalists since Da Vinci. The core tasks of programming are, as any hacker will tell you, problem-domain independent, and a good hacker can tackle programming jobs in any field. Every competent hacker who's worked on more than a few projects has surely developed highly effective techniques for quickly extracting and representing all the relevant information required to achieve his goals in most any system or situation. "Specialization is for ants" is a favorite hacker slogan. Who better to make grand statements about everything than someone who knows how to instantly specialize in anything? Add to all that the typical hacker's natural curiosity about everything, his unquenchable thirst for higher levels of knowledge and expertise, his sophisticated ability to access, process and analyze information, and you have the makings of a great philosopher. And an opinionated one. Most hackers have very strong views on practically any topic, which they can articulate brilliantly and defend with all the right arguments and references. Making life especially uncomfortable for those who derive their spiritual upliftment and enlightenment from Saturday newspaper supplements and TV talk shows, a hacker will never stand by silently and allow inaccuracy to go unchallenged. The easiest way to recognize the hacker at a dinner party - he's the guy who listens intently and doesn't say a word, except for frequently interjecting 'Not true' and lapsing back into smug silence. He really does believe he has all the answers to life, the universe and everything. The Hacker Ethic So what is the hacker ethic? What is this common ethical philosophy that all hackers above a certain level of sophistication subscribe to? Free software, free markets, and a free society would probably top the list. The hacker way of life generally couples basic humanity with a healthy appreciation of the value of minding one's own business (what could be more interesting anyway?). Hackers usually combine a very benevolent live-and-let-live attitude with a very strong emphasis on personal responsibility and individual effort. Taking the initiative and the risks is almost universally accepted amongst hackers as the only route to the big time2. Most talented hackers are gentle, friendly creatures with a versatile sense of humor. Hackers universally abhor senseless violence, in fact senselessness or violence of any kind. The most pacifist of all varieties of humans, their peace trappings may often make them identify with, and be mistaken for 60s hippies, though there is a lot that sets them apart from people whose experience with virtual reality is limited to the use of psycho-active drugs. Some hackers have experimented with a variety of drugs nevertheless, and all would agree that nothing really beats the high you get from hacking a complex system. Creativity and intelligence are the ultimate trip. Hackers automatically resist and rebel against external authority of any kind. They also love to de-emphasize its importance through humor and practical jokes designed to embarrass rather than wound, because they know that the only way to deal with someone seeking authority is simply not to grant them any. Authorities don't exist in nature, they are created by human beings. We can collapse their authority by collapsing the aura of authority. A bumbling clown has no authority, only amusement value. It is very enlightening to observe an encounter between a pu ffed-up authority and a skinny, fidgety, bored hacker looking for something to entertain himself with. There's only one thing that gets a hacker more irritated than the posturings of bogus authorities - stupidity. The three principal virtues of a hacker, according to Perl lore, are Laziness, Impatience and Hubris . These traits apply in a hacker's dealings with people as well as in his dealings with computers. Laziness, in a typical twist of hacker linguistics means taking the trouble to come up with a one-time solution to a problem rather than having to deal with it every time it occurs. If you irritate a true hacker, he'll take the time out to make sure you understand what you did wrong and why it's in your interest to change your behavior. But if the hacker's laziness doesn't help you, his impatience and hubris will demolish you. Get out of the way. The topic of the elite IRC channel #perl, which is host to some of the world's most talented programmers, is usually a list of things the folks there don't want to waste their time dealing with or even discussing. One of them is 'non-programmers'. The average length of stay of non-programmers on the channel before they are kicked out in disgrace: 30 seconds. Hackers, like Gods, are quick to judge... Judgment Day We are at a crucial point in our evolution on this planet. The point of acquiring sophisticated technology that will no longer sustain a world torn with internal contradictions and conflict. Technology is an amoral force - amplifying the natural intent of human actions for good or evil. Every significant technology has brought with it both horrors and untold benefits. In the Cyberpunk's view, technology is created by hackers3 for the benefit of all mankind - not for destruction or tyranny. No inventor known wanted to see his inventions put to malicious use. Alfred Nobel felt so guilty after inventing gunpowder, he instituted the Nobel Peace Prize. Albert Einstein was so awed and fearful of the powerful forces he had shown how to unleash, he spent the last part of his life campaigning for world peace, eventually ending up winning (inheriting?) the child of Nobel's guilt. As technology advances, advances in human consciousness and civilization must keep pace, because technology in the wrong hands can be devastating. And the greater the level of technology, the greater the damage caused by the lack of a moral society. It might be a cliched observation, but it's true nonetheless: most of us were born into a world that possesses the technology to completely destroy itself. Powerful forces like this are unleashed by man's mind, not his animal instincts. They must be kept under control by the same minds that created them. This is not how it is in our world. Technology invented by pacifist hackers is routinely handed over to illiterate megalomaniacs, military bullies, religious fanatics, psychotic killers. That can't go on forever. It can only happen, with terrible consequences even then, during a civilization's nascent period of technological achievement. Once technology advances beyond a certain threshold, its use by the wrong powers for the wrong purposes will annihilate the entire civilization and the ecosystem supporting it. I would place this threshold, as do most commentators concerned about this issue, at the point where a civilization develops nuclear technology and sophisticated digital information processing systems. Once that happens, the contradiction between technology and morality within the society must get resolved before the second law of thermodynamics, known to hackers as Murphy's Law, leads the civilization inevitably towards the big boom. It's the Nuclear Decision Threshold. And you're in it. It's no surprise that this generation (like all generations) seems well aware of its unique importance in the course of history. Generation 'X', it's called, or GenerationeXt - by Pepsi. For this reason: we are the link between a brutal, uncivilized, destructive, sub-human past and a future of resonance with our own nature as free, intelligent beings and with the natural order of the other elements of our environment. Assuming we are to have any future at all. It's paradise regained, or a world lost forever. No wonder this undercurrent flows through all of Cyberpunk and has started seeping into the "mass mind" of pop culture. Pop culture is indicative of what people believe; therefore of what decisions they will make; therefore it shows glimpses of the future. One of the most popular books of recent vintage, The Celestine Prophesy alludes to a dramatic imminent revolution in human consciousness and our basic concepts of good and evil - an allusion that is playing an increasing role in Hollywood movies as well, witness two of the best SF movies in recent years: The 5th Element and Contact. Incidentally, both films are excellent entertainment and essential survival training for the near future. The year two thousand is on its way, and every brand of psychic from Nostradamus on down has foretold momentous events in store for the coming millennium. The second coming is also scheduled for next week or next month (or soon, anyway). Planet Earth has been at Nuclear Decision Threshold for over fifty years... And it looks like our time's just about up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Footnotes 1. There are no female hackers, it seems (except, notably, Dagny Deb). After much research, Levy seems to concur with this view. I'm hoping it'll be proven wrong. 2. Yes, hackers are the good guys, not crackers, who break into systems to cause chaos or steal money. A proper, historically correct examination of the term hacker would be outside the scope of this article, but for our purposes this definition will do: Someone who takes pleasure in exploring, creating and controlling complex informational, mechanical, biological or other systems. Note that this includes dedicated scientists, engineers, geneticists, and others, not just computer programmers. I usually use the term 'hacker' to mean hackers who are computer programmers, though I sometimes use it in the wider sense as well. 3. Used in the wider sense, see last footnote. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Randy Dannejskold developes free-software solutions for network computing applications. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 30, July 26, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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