A Hacker Ethics
The modern understanding of computer science is a constantly mutating beast. The individuals who’ve been driving the Information Age’s technological innovation are known as “hackers.” Most people understand a hacker as someone who breaks into computers and commits data-theft. This is a gross misconception that I intend to ebb and erode away, slowly, like waves over a rock.
Back in the history Where the word hacker come from …
Free access to computers
In 1960, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students of computer science referred to those among them who could manipulate code and programs to do incredible, unfathomable things “hackers.” They could read code like a children’s book, understand it, create, modify and manipulate it to do whatever they wanted or something for which it was not intended.
Their goal was simply this: “knowledge for knowledge’s sake." The first Hackers at MIT were the geeks before people knew what geeks were. They dedicated their studies to creating new things and helping people to understand what could be done with computers.
They created a fundamental change in how the world would forever communicate, share information, teach, learn and deliver news. They changed how companies, and indeed the world, would function. They did it with one simple belief: “Information should be free."
Incidentally, The C Programming Language became the standard of operating system and application development in 1972. It remains a standard today, thanks to people like Dennis Ritchie and the first hackers of the world.
The Hacker Ethos
Hacker Ethics have evolved a lot since the days at MIT. But, hackers’ mission has remained much the same: finding, sharing, and creating information and knowledge.
I can tell you this much: it has nothing to do with breaking into computer systems for profit. According to Steven Levy, author of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution:
- Sharing – Freedom of Information
- Openness – Reveal source code so that it can be learned from and improved upon like open source softwares
- Decentralization – The internet belongs to the people
- Free access to computers – Access to information ensures freedom of speech and responsibility of governments
- World Improvement – Nothing should ever be wasted, and everything can be simplified or automated
The tenets of the Hacker Ethos may seem very idyllic in a corporate, money-focused society. Yes, the open source community continues to thrive despite the fact that its members create most of their software with no expectation of reward or return, other than seeing it improve the lives and jobs of others. Everyone who follows the Hacker Ethic can proudly assert that they, in some way, shape or form, contribute their knowledge and skills to the improvement of humanity.
The Hacker Ethic, despite all the controversial misconceptions, ensures that information remains in the hands of the individual, not rationed out at the behest of government, law and corporate authorities.
"The internet is a wonderful creation of science and an opportunity for the world to express and reach out to its inhabitants like never before."
It’s only in the most oppressive nations where the internet is censored and restricted, all for the purpose of control. A world with a free internet without control is not as scary as an internet filled with only content that its owners want us to see. Because of this, The Hacker Ethic exists to protect this freedom of speech and the expectation of privacy, not to abuse it.
Hacker Ethics are a very broad topic. Ethical hacking is an even more precise one that deserves a full book to be adequately understood. It is a beautiful art, just as there is beauty in electronics and computers, which take years to develop and master. The world is slowly coming to understand that hackers and criminals are no longer (and never were) synonymous with each other. We aren’t quite there yet.
The world is constantly changing, not always for the better, but I firmly believe that computers can always be used to make things better, faster, simpler and drive education and understanding beyond the imagined boundaries of our minds…
…all thanks to a few geeks at MIT, the first hackers, and the ethical revolution they started.