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The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

phrack.org

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Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#41

Post by rdiddly »

Self-important much? I have little stomach for this kind of thing and that includes the "Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace" because there's nothing separating your supposed wizardry from everyone else. Anyone can learn to use all of your magical tools just by R-ing TFM. And that's exactly what they've done, all the usual hucksters, narcs, and plain unimaginative lame-asses (or maybe hired someone to do it for them), and as a result, you have today's world. It was only a matter of time. Wealth and power are more unequal than ever. There's your revolution.

Anyway, if working with computers is where you find meaning, great, but if you're going to break into shit, at least have the balls to own it instead of professing it's nothing more than curiosity, and throwing out the old "I blame society" trope like you're Charlie Manson. Because A) You're not even as ambitious as he was, and B) It's lazy & wussy in both cases. I keep thinking of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYItTxqTc38 "I went to your institutional learning facilities!" (Get red pen, cross out 3 words, write "schools" and a note: "Be concise. You sound like a cop.")

Everybody smart has to deal with all the same things. One of the benefits of going to a nice college is that you're around other smart people. Not because it's nice, but because it's humbling. All the twerps who were the smartest in their class in the town of West Assingville, quickly find out that they're just one among millions, and not even that stellar. So, hopefully you'll do something worthwhile with what you've got. Teach others maybe.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#42

Post by dpeck »

Jldevictoria wrote: post #39
dpeck wrote: post #35

so much angst, but for folks around here of a certain age this brings back a lot of fond memories of a time when the internet still felt wild and limitless.

This was my impression too. Most of it sounds like the kind of stuff that kids who who think too much of their intelligence spout off in grade school. It's kinda cringey to everyone else.

you have to put it in context, a lot of the folks reading this were the smart kids (usually ones with a chaotic bend) in their grade school.

In 1995 when it was quoted in Hackers, and already 10 years old at the time, there were only about 40M people online worldwide. It was extremely uncommon to meet other people your age who understood anything about your "passion". That probably did lead a lot of us to get a little deep in our own head as we explored a new world while coming of age ourselves.

It was another time and understandable for it to be "cringey" for some who weren't exposed to it young and nostalgic for people who were. At the end of the day its probably best not to overthink it.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#43

Post by segmondy »

rdiddly wrote: post #41

Self-important much? I have little stomach for this kind of thing and that includes the "Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace" because there's nothing separating your supposed wizardry from everyone else. Anyone can learn to use all of your magical tools just by R-ing TFM. And that's exactly what they've done, all the usual hucksters, narcs, and plain unimaginative lame-asses (or maybe hired someone to do it for…

You must be kidding me, you do realize this was written 33 years ago? By teenagers and the world view and landscape was very different then?

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#46

Post by _fqqr »

RandomGuyDTB wrote: post #26
krapp wrote: post #12

And then decades later, those hackers built the infrastructure for systems of surveillance and control that would have just been a wet dream for those "1950's technobrains," and modern hackers embrace racism and extremism rather than transcending them, and complain that the internet liberating humanity from the shackles of corporate information and communication control has just caused the normies to ruin its quirky…

Maybe modern underground hackers are embracing racism and extremism. But think about the disconnect between the media's reporting of hackers and what hackers actually were even twenty years ago. A hacker is, according to the news, whatever makes society hate them more. I doubt anybody smart enough to break something miles away with just a keyboard is stupid enough to believe one race is more or less than another. Dis…

> I doubt anybody smart enough to break something miles away with just a keyboard is stupid enough to believe one race is more or less than another.

Unfortunately there's a lot of evidence showing the contrary.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#47

Post by Chris_Chambers »

Jldevictoria wrote: post #39
dpeck wrote: post #35

so much angst, but for folks around here of a certain age this brings back a lot of fond memories of a time when the internet still felt wild and limitless.

This was my impression too. Most of it sounds like the kind of stuff that kids who who think too much of their intelligence spout off in grade school. It's kinda cringey to everyone else.

It would be immediately dismissed as incoherent incel rambling today and seen only by the 6 people who downvoted it immediately when it was submitted.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#48

Post by Chris_Chambers »

RandomGuyDTB wrote: post #26
krapp wrote: post #12

And then decades later, those hackers built the infrastructure for systems of surveillance and control that would have just been a wet dream for those "1950's technobrains," and modern hackers embrace racism and extremism rather than transcending them, and complain that the internet liberating humanity from the shackles of corporate information and communication control has just caused the normies to ruin its quirky…

Maybe modern underground hackers are embracing racism and extremism. But think about the disconnect between the media's reporting of hackers and what hackers actually were even twenty years ago. A hacker is, according to the news, whatever makes society hate them more. I doubt anybody smart enough to break something miles away with just a keyboard is stupid enough to believe one race is more or less than another. Dis…

Racism isn’t believing one race is “more or less” than another, it’s believing there are differences between races.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#49

Post by rdiddly »

segmondy wrote: post #43
rdiddly wrote: post #41

Self-important much? I have little stomach for this kind of thing and that includes the "Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace" because there's nothing separating your supposed wizardry from everyone else. Anyone can learn to use all of your magical tools just by R-ing TFM. And that's exactly what they've done, all the usual hucksters, narcs, and plain unimaginative lame-asses (or maybe hired someone to do it for…

You must be kidding me, you do realize this was written 33 years ago? By teenagers and the world view and landscape was very different then?

Absolutely realize that. Not getting how that should change anything. It was the height of arrogance 33 years ago, and a "teachable moment" for which I'm 33 years late. The changes to the landscape that you refer to, I refer to. I lived them. Today's world was the inevitable outcome. Though I didn't realize that until about 1994.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#50

Post by kragen »

reaperducer wrote: post #24
thanatropism wrote: post #8

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…

and a time where it meant a digital vandal over POTS lines; Well, those were "phreakers." In the 70's, "hacker" was a person who "hacked" out the credits from public domain software and put their own name in it for resale. And you bought it anyway because software was so hard to come by.

This is not something I have ever heard of; in the US in the early 1980s we shared software at user group meetings and in BBSes.
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