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The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

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131–140 of 141 posts

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#131
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give some examples?

The Chaos Computer Club scene in Germany, The Warsaw Hackerspace, NYC Resistor, Helsinki Hacklab, ... All of them are community supported, non-profit and doing some fairly advanced stuff in some domain areas (security, electronics, machining, ...).

Do you an opinion on the London Hackspace?

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#132
post #118

Maybe because I grew up in a different background (80s and 90s in Japan), but I always found the "Hacker" culture bizarre. What's with their "underground" theme, after all? Black backgrounds and skull figures and that kind of stuff. Their attitude is pretty much the same as the locker-room culture, which isn't cool either. Gangs and pirates (and ninjas and yakuzas for that matter) were never considered "cool" among t…

I think the idolizing of "underground" themes in the hacker subculture had a lot to do with the surrounding American culture, of that era and even further back to its origins. The entertainment industry, like Hollywood films, glorify the outlaw, the rebels, from Star Wars to the Wild West, the "counter-culture", rock music, punk, heavy metal.. That climate influenced generations of adolescents, many of whom never grew out of it, carrying these values into adulthood. It spread around the world too.

This influence can clearly be seen in the startup scene, at least in earlier days: jock/locker-room culture, rebellious and "disruptive", seeing a company as a gang of pirates.. It's very American - as one of them myself, I love this attitude in some ways, but, having lived in a few other cultures, I also understand that it has aspects of teenagers' mentality and behavior.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#133

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…

The history of hacker culture is not as simple as the "hacker" vs "cracker". The hacker culture has two distinct branches: the academic insiders, and the social outliers, those two have significant different culture. Both of them can be described as the hacking culture, it was just than the access to computers were very limited at the time. The insiders were those who was privileged to work inside institutions - they…

Thanks for this great comment.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#134
post #128
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We were more innocent at that time. I miss that.

Not really. If I recall correctly, hackers like Phiber Optik and Acid Phreak were thinking Barlow was a corporate spy/shill. And in response published Barlow's credit record.

We should have seen through the optimism of the time. Humans are... messy.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#135

>> 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…

And yet there are marked variations in raw intelligence, with people of exceptional ability hearing similar messages of herd-keeping mediocrity their entire lives, and having to overcome them.

This is probably better than getting a pass to completely ignore social consensus and becoming a supervillain, but the crab bucket doesn't need to be repeated on HN.

Monkeysphere dynamics play out exceptionally hard when it comes to computer security, because a single kid can easily end up putting egg on the face of a tie-wearing cert-touting "CIO".

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#136
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Chaos Computer Club scene in Germany, The Warsaw Hackerspace, NYC Resistor, Helsinki Hacklab, ... All of them are community supported, non-profit and doing some fairly advanced stuff in some domain areas (security, electronics, machining, ...).

Do you an opinion on the London Hackspace?

Only was there as a visitor for an hour or two. Seemed nice, not sure about their attitude towards SV bullshit.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#137
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

that's not a hacker but also an agent. and a bit of trivia - person who plays him is Marc Anthony (musician, ex-husband of Jennifer Lopez)

ah, I was trying to place him. Nice one

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#138
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...

> If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...

> My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

These quotes are too individualistic to be "commie".

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#139

>> 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…

Not sure what your school experience was like, but for me it wasn't a bunch of equally intelligent students all thinking themselves above average. I'm happy to be in a career now where I feel surrounded by people who make me feel stupid; back then, it was very different. In high school, I never got less than an A with minimal effort, while everyone around me struggled. I don't say that to brag--I was just a big fish…

Yes. And there are also narcissists who believe they are so special, normal rules don't apply to them. And when I read the manifesto as a whole, I get that vibe more then then the smart bored kid vibe.

I mean in all seriousness, it was not learning nor existing without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias why "they called us criminals".

That claim is manipulative at best.

Re: The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)

#140
post #122
post #118

Maybe because I grew up in a different background (80s and 90s in Japan), but I always found the "Hacker" culture bizarre. What's with their "underground" theme, after all? Black backgrounds and skull figures and that kind of stuff. Their attitude is pretty much the same as the locker-room culture, which isn't cool either. Gangs and pirates (and ninjas and yakuzas for that matter) were never considered "cool" among t…

Just out of curiosity, what was considered cool?

Anime girls and cutesy animals. (I bet this is hardly a surprise to people today.)
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