The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

Why not call it the [edit] phreaker manifesto? Particularly when it's on a magazine called Phrack?

Related: A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence

Written by John Perry Barlow (of Grateful Dead fame and more)

There was a time when "hacker" meant "a wizard's wizard";

and a time where it meant a digital vandal over POTS lines;

and a time where reclaiming the word "hacker" became fashionable;

and important computer hackers began quietly wearing the word;

and then there was the time where marketers became growth hackers and musicians became harmony hackers.

But the digital vandals never fully wrested away the word from AI lab wizards;

Ruby on Rails hackers never recovered it from the digital vandals;

and harmony hackers never even intended to break away from this sedimentation of connotation;

and investment funds and hackers both posted and read "hacker news";

and no one disavows anything.

Hackers...the movie. "their only crime was curiosity". I suspect that line was lifted from this.

As for the Manifesto itself, for the most part, looking back, this rings true. I was there... in the 80's...with colourful boxes, acoustic couplers, and pages and pages of phone numbers. I never had the sense of community this document describes...it seemed like a much more solitary pursuit, but you picked up things if you know where to look...and clearly, trails were blazed by those that went before. To paraphase Dali... It wasn't better than drugs, It was drugs.