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The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

phrack.org

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Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#61

Post by anon1m0us »

pound wrote: post #16
oldandcold wrote: post #10

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 yo…

I wouldn't say 'lifted'. They were straight reading manifesto itself, not pretending that it's something else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwozkbmjzC4

It's funny how the hacker says, "Cool" and the reader said, "Cool? It's not cool. It's commie bullshit."

Honest question: Which one is correct?

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#62

Post by rbanffy »

rdiddly wrote: post #49
segmondy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Today's world would be very different had a few things happen slightly differently.

Back in 1986 there was no way to predict the web. Or ISP's or widespread adoption of IP networks. There was no way to predict open source would eventually win.

In 1986 I was using a Minitel system to do banking from home, communicating through a couple BBSs, from an Apple II and an MSX. We were discussing Xanadu, SGML, and the latest issue of BYTE or Creative Computing. Had Microsoft deployed their Microsoft Network globally a few years before they tried, the web would be extremely different.

We were quite lucky. A lot could have gone very wrong.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#63

Post by rbanffy »

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…

Who would imagine we would become the Krell so soon...

I guess that, while trying to connect ourselves so all of us could have a voice, we just invented the machines that brought into reality the worst demons in us.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#64

Post by Zaskoda »

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.

And those hackers became competitive to see who could put the coolest looking intro in front of the hacked/cracked software bragging about who crack it.

And then those intros eventually gave rise to what they called the Demo Scene where "hackers" would gather to see who could write the coolest visual/audio experience under various levels of constraint.

And many of the graphic algorithms derived by hackers in the demo scene gave rise to the algorithms used in today's 3D videocards.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#65

Post by rbanffy »

waisbrot wrote: post #32
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…

I'd agree that the hacker counter-culture that saw technology as a door to Freedom has largely fizzled out and been replaced by hackers who see technology as a path to money. But I cant think of any of the people who were pushing it and are still around today who sold out. Stallman is still a firebrand. I've been reading 2600 again and Emanuel Goldstein hasn't sold out. Who are you thinking of?

I guess @krapp is thinking about the *chan crowd and their echo chambers where white supremacism goes back and forth in a positive feedback loop that, from time to time, gives birth to a violent threat against society.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#67

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

>> Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...

Here's a thought. A smart person realises that everyone around them thinks they're smarter than everyone else around them, and that everyone can't be right at the same time, which must mean that most are wrong. Which in turn means that, to be the one person who is right to think they're smarter than everyone else around them, is really, really rare. And so very unlikely. So the smart person will want to see very strong evidence of their own smarts, before they accept that they are, indeed, smart- and the smarter the person is, the stronger the evidence they will want to see, because the assumption of average smarts will make the high smarts of the smart person appear average to their own eyes.

Bottom line; if you think you're smarter than most kids then you're probably not smarter than most kids. If you actually go out and say it, then chances are you're even dumber than that.

Edit: Also, every kid is bored of the crap they teach us at school. Every. Single. Kid. Some just know how to sit nicely and do as they're told to get ahead in life. Who's the smart kid, again?

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#68

Post by [deleted] »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #67

>> Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me... Here's a thought. A smart person realises that everyone around them thinks they're smarter than everyone else around them, and that everyone can't be right at the same time, which must mean that most are wrong. Which in turn means that, to be the one person who is right to think they're smarter t…

[deleted]

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#69

Post by rdiddly »

rbanffy wrote: post #62
rdiddly wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Today's world would be very different had a few things happen slightly differently. Back in 1986 there was no way to predict the web. Or ISP's or widespread adoption of IP networks. There was no way to predict open source would eventually win. In 1986 I was using a Minitel system to do banking from home, communicating through a couple BBSs, from an Apple II and an MSX. We were discussing Xanadu, SGML, and the latest…

Your point is taken but I think we're coming at it from different places. I think something did go majorly wrong.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#70

Post by robohoe »

rbanffy wrote: post #57
mikeflynn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s entirely lifted/sourced in the movie. They read the last part verbatim in the movie in the scene with the FBI agents in the car.

The movie is underrated. RISC technology is going to change everything. ;-)

RISC is good!
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