On Apr 22, 2006, at 12:33 PM, Karen Lofstrom wrote:
I was under the impression that "hacker" came from "neat hack" used
as a term of approbation for a program, or a method, that achieved
superior results with nothing more than an improved algorithm.
Supposed to have been used at MIT by members of the model train
club that got involved in computer (Stephen Levy, _Hackers_)
Hackers are those who espouse and behaves according to the hacker
ethic. In my mind, ESR gets it completely wrong: http://
www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker-ethic.html, but those of you who
know me will anticipate that I think ESR is a huge loose.
The term "hacker ethic" was coined by journalist Steven Levy and used
for the first time in his book, "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer
Revolution". In Levy's book, the hacker ethic is in large parts
based on the values of the "old school" hackers at MIT Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory. (The model railroad (not "model train")
club grew into the Lincoln Lab, not AI. To this day TMRC has a
different definition for "hacker" (http://tmrc.mit.edu/hackers-
ref.html))
Among the hackers profiled by Levy was Richard M. Stallman, whom Levy
at the time called "the last true hacker". RMS doesn't like the way
the book came out, so you may want to draw your own conclusion.
In Levy's summary, the principles of the Hacker Ethic are:
Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something
about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total. (Always
yield to the Hands-on Imperative!)
All information should be free.
Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as
degrees, age, race, or position.
You can create art and beauty on a computer.
Computers can change your life for the better.
More recently, in 2001, Finnish philosopher Pekka Himanen publshed a
Manifesto opposing the hacker ethic with Protestant work ethic. In
Himanen's opinion the hacker ethic is closer related to the Virtue
ethics found in the writings of Plato and of Aristotle. I quoted
from this book in my October "open pizza" presentation.
Himanen's 'The Hacker Ethic' illustrates some of the commonly held
philosphies of hacker ethic. With the hacker ethic itself typically
birthing a discussion arising in reference to the definition of a
hacker as an individual capable and willing to infiltrate, exploit,
or otherwise bypass security restrictions for some purpose. It is the
intentions of the hacker, and their purpose which are deemed either
ethical, or unethical based on the so called hacker ethic.
Hackers themselves tend to have little patience for incompetence.
Thus, were one to damage a system in an attempt to infiltrate it,
even with good intentions, it may be considered unethical by the
hacker community in that an individual without the necessary skill to
accomplish the task at hand none-the-less attempted it (and failed).
Right now I think the "Merrie Monarch Festival" is as important as
anything in the computer world.
