READING 1

"The Practice of Everyday Life"
Michel de Certeau

Let us try to make a *perruque* in the economic
system whose rules and hierarchies are repeated,
as always, in scientific institutions. In the area of
scientific research ... working with its machines and making
use of its scraps, we can divert the time owed to the
institution; we can make textual objects that signify
in art and solidarities; we can play the game of free
exchange, even if it is penalized by bosses and
colleagues when they are not willing to "turn a blind
eye" on it; we can create networks of connivances and
sleights of hand; we can exchange gifts; and in these
ways we can subvert the law that, in the scientific
factory, puts work in the service of the machine and,
by a similar logic, progressively destroys the requirement
of creation and, by a similar logic, and the "obligation to give."
I know of investigators experienced in this art of diversion,
which is a return to the ethical, of pleasure and of invention
within the scientific institution. Realizing no profit, (profit
is produced by work done for the factory), and often at a
loss, they take something from the order of knowledge in
order to inscribe "artistic achivements" on it and to carve
on it the graffiti of the debts of honor."

READING 2

http://manifest.net.ru/manifest_en.html

beka (a 17 year old hacker, probably somewhere in Russia)

Manifest

We are those, the Different. Technological rats, swimming in the ocean of information.

We are the retiring, little kid at school, sitting at the last desk, in the corner of the class room.

...

We are those that see reality in a different way. Our point of view shows more than ordinary people can see. They see only what is outside, but we see what is inside. That's what we are - realists with the glasses of dreamers.

...
Some people do not care much about what happens globally. They care about what happens around them, in their micro-universe. These people can only see a dark future, for they can only see the life they live now. Others show some concern about the global affairs. They are interested in everything, in the future in perspective, in what is going to happen globally. They have a more optimistic view. To them the future is cleaner and more beautiful, for they can see into it and they see a more mature man, a wiser world.

We are in the middle. We are interested in what happens now, but what in what's gonna happen tomorow as well.
 ...

Information is POWER!

We all live in a sick world, where hatred is a weapon, and freedom - a dream.
...

We go ahead, they pull us back again. Society suppressses us. Yes, it suppresses the freedom of thought. With its cruel education programs in schools and universities. They drill in the children their view of things and every attempt to express a different opinion is denied and punished.
...
In what a worlds, how different from this, could we live now, if people were making jumps and not creeps.
...

We live on the right spot, but not in the right time. ... Some, trying to find their own world, the world of a Hackers, and finding it, build their own world. Build in their thoughts, it changes reality. Others simply get accustomed to the world as it is. They continue to live in it, although they dislike it. ... They have no other choice but the bare hope that the world will go out of its hollow and will go ahead. ...What we are trying to do is change the situation. We are trying to adjust the present world to our needs and views. To use maximally what is fit and to ignore the trash. Where we can't, we just live in this world, like Hackers, no matter how hard, when society fights us we fight back.

The Hacker Ethic

In the basement of Diane's grandfathers house, there are many old tools. I would call them antiques, but that might convey the sense that they are not used. Nothing would be further from the truth. Erwin has a tool for just about any manual task you can imagine, and knows their uses intimately.

One tool in particular has always fascinated me. It is an electric drill press from the 1930's. It is the typical safety horror you would expect from such a specimen. Exposed gear train spinning at several hundred RPM, etc. But with some caution, this sturdy power tool works wonderfully. In fact, it works quite a bit better than the original manufacturer could have hoped. For some time after world war II, Erwin's brother outfitted this drill press with the transmission from a Model T ford. [Erwin enforms me, upon reading this, that the transmission is from an original Ford V8, not a Model T. Should have checked.] Now one can choose from 3 forward speeds and one reverse, all with the convenient flick of a rather large lever.

This modification is a perfect example of a hack.

Now let's put some common mis-conception to rest. A hacker is not a teenage computer criminal intent on breaking into the computers of the pentagon or your credit card company. The proper term for this is a cracker, or more simply a crook. Nor are hackers intent on downloading thousands of songs and movies from the Internet without paying. The proper term for that is piracy or theft.

The term Hacker goes back to a time before one could break into a computer. In the 1950's computers where rare and jealously protected resources. Operating a computer meant laboriously punching dozens of holes into each of hundreds of cards, then feeding them to a card reader. A single misstep meant a ruined, buggy, program. One then had to begin from scratch. Not a process that lends itself to stealth of any sort.

It was in this era that the members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's , Tech Model Railroad Club first used the term hacker to denote some one who “took wild pleasure merely being involved in the solving of complex problems”.ⁱ Soon as the first transistor based mainframe computers came into use, (coincidently installed just downstairs from the TMRC's club house), the members adopted them to solve signal and control tasks on their model railroad. The Tech Model Railroad Club remains as a Mecca to Hackers to this day.

Hacking is simply the process of applying ingenuity to practical problem solving, and delighting in the process.

So why would I talk of a hacker ethic?

Our two reading s talk about a world view that is not familiar to most of us.

In the first; Michel de Certeau admonishes us to make “la perruque” or literally a wig of our work.ⁱⁱ That is to subvert the mechanism of production to suit our needs, and in doing so elevate our roles above “mere” consumers. More on this later.

In the second reading; we hear the thoughts of a 17 year-old Russian Hacker. He talks of a way of viewing the world that not only makes one want to Hack, but almost dictates a spirit of revolution.ⁱⁱⁱ

But again, how do we go from a particular technological preoccupation to an ethical system?

Hackers are people that see the world as a collection of fascinating problems that need to solved, and because of their peculiar mind set, consider it their job to solve them. They approach this job not with trepidation, but with relish. For what ever benefit may come of solving such problems, the most valuable thing is the knowledge they gain in the process. For a Hacker's greatest pride is in their practical knowledge.

Accumulation of knowledge for hackers is often seen as sort of currency. Your net worth within the community of hackers is measured in skilz. It is a sort of Technological meritocracy. This gives rise to a curious question. If knowledge is the currency of your wealth, how do you spend it?

It is certainly possible to exchange knowledge for money. One can seek employment that makes use of ones talents, and many Hackers do. After all, unless your field of expertise is agriculture, the fruits of ones hacking skilz is seldom edible. Alternately, one can produce intellectual property; trade secrets, patents, and the like. This too can be very profitable.

However seeking monetary compensation for ones skilz is not the highest form of enrichment that the Hacker seeks. Rather, a Hacker wants to exchange their knowledge and skilz for more of the same. Employment in a commercial enterprise and/or the production of Intellectual Property necessitate a proprietary approach to knowledge. “I must conceal my knowledge from others.” says the corporate engineer, “so that I can leverage it into a product that is not easily duplicated.” This is abhorrent to the Hacker mindset.

Instead the Hacker wants to demonstrate their mastery: “Look what I can do!” Says the hacker, “I have created my own shortwave broadcast station, using only a box of toothpicks, a razor blade, a wad tissue paper. and of coarse, my mad skilz. What you don't believe me? No problem here is how you can do it too!” Full discloser is the key to credibility, within the hacker community.

Now the interesting thing about the transfer of knowledge is that there is no immediate compensation. The knowledge is offered simply for recognition, the hope that others will find it useful, and the anticipation that others will offer their knowledge in a similar fashion. The hacker community is a form of gift culture. The main product is know-how, and credit is accrued for giving. The community as a whole, indeed anyone who wishes to partake of the knowledge, is enriched. Often ones contribution is so unique or esoteric that only a few dozen others will find it of use, (software to run a USB thumb drive on the old DOS operating system anyone?). Sometimes Hundreds-of-millions of people will find your contribution wildly useful, (The Linux/GNU operating system, running of most of the Webs servers, is a product of hackers). Hackers gain in reputation based on both the popularity and usefulness of their work.

Because Hackers like to think of their culture as a meritocracy, and as they have a perhaps over-developed sense of value of their own intellectual endeavors; duplication of effort is considered an absolute evil. Eric S. Raymond venerable and eclectic proto-hacker once wrote: “No problem should ever have to be solved twice.”^iv His point is not that you shouldn't feel free to reinvent the wheel, but that if you figure out how to build a wheel, you owe it to the rest of us to publish your work. That way we can get on with inventing the bicycle, unicycle, tricycle, and Segway Human Transporter. This raises the human need to share knowledge to an imperative.

In 1984 Stewart Brand, editor of The Whole Earth Catalog, a quintessential handbook for hackers of all stripes in the 1970's and 80's, famously said “Information wants to be expensive...”. That is to say that it is hard won and very valuable. But Brand continues, “Information wants to be free.”^v There have been countless riffs on this quote over the years. The English language make this contention ambiguous: There is 'free as in beer' and 'free as in speech'. But this is an ambiguity that Brand is comfortable with. Information wants to be cheap. Disseminating information is becoming very inexpensive. (it is worth noting that Brand actually made these remarks pre-web.) Also Information wants it's liberty. The nature of communication is asymmetrically wighted towards wider dissemination. It is very hard to take back a piece of information once it is known by others.

The great enabler the Hacker knowledge economy has of coarse been the Internet. The World Wide

Web, and befor it Usenet, and Gopher, vastly accelerated the development of Hacker culture. These forums also favored the computer Hacker.

Remember. A Hacker is one who delights in the solving of practical problems. Programmers are not the only hackers. Mechanics, Chemists, Lawyers, Carpenters, Linguists, Artists of all types, anyone who approaches the world with the right mindset is a Hacker.

We have talked about the common elements of Hacker culture, but my talk to day is titled “The Hacker Ethic”. When do a list of traits constitute an ethic? When a community shares a set of common practices or values, these are not in themselves an ethic. But among many Hackers, these common values are not just shared traits, they are values that they have sought to cultivate and exploit towards particular ends.

The last ten years has seen the rise of a movement called Hacktivism. These are Hackers that band together around specific social causes to solve a problem. Examples of this are people that have created software to circumvent political censorship in China; or the 17 person team based at MIT who have deigned and are now distributing millions of $175.00 laptops to children in Nigeria, Libya, and Brazil. These efforts are undertaken openly, fully documented, and shared for the fair use of all. Ultimately, the hope is that others will come along and build on the existing effort.

Hacker also seek to provide imaginative solutions to other serious challenges.

• rural solar powered lighting for student in Tibet so that they might study after sundown.

• Flood warning systems in Central America.

• Solar ovens to replace cancer causing wood burning stoves and...

• Evaporative refrigeration that consume nothing more than a few cups of water a day,

These last two examples from sub-Saharan Africa.

I think there are important values that we might borrow from this culture. Our world is a place of increasing inequity. More and more information is commodified. As we have discussed earlier this is antithetical to 'The Hacker Way'. By freeing information, and dare I say knowledge, some of this inequity may be addressed. But not in the sense of charity. I just spoke of the $175.00 laptops. One of the striking features of these machines is that they are contain within them all the elements to allow their recipients to modify their software, and write their own. The machine truly becomes theirs. The hope is not only that the laptop more fully serves its owner, but that the owner redefines the laptop in a way that its original designer could not.

Our culture; or more precisely, corporate media, and those that have a vested interest in consumer retail; try to deliver to us a finished product. It is not meant that we should engage in any creative process with these products or alter them in any way. Rather we should consume them, and having done so, replace them. That is after-all our proper role in a commercial system. They produce. We consume. The perfect dialectic. No wait dialectic implies a reciprocal interaction. This model has serious implications not only for our physical resources, but for our imaginations and souls.

Michel de Certeau in his book, The Practice of Everyday Life talks about this unidirectional flow of consumption, and says that we have never, and will not openly rebel against it. Rather he points to the concept of “Bricolage” or roughly translated, Do-It-Yourself. The “consumer” re-purposes the consumable and reinterprets it in ways that the producer never intended. This is at the very heart of the Hacker Ethic. A subversion of the centralized cultural authority, recycling it's products to suit ones true needs. The practitioners of Santeria use the colonizer's Christian saints to disguise their African deities.

A far more mundane example might be how some people use Google's mail service as a web based file storage system or as a SPAM filter for their non-Google email account. Neither application is condoned by Google, but both are widely used, and cannot be prevented without Google crippling their own service.

We should not overreach.

• Technology is by no means our savior.

• Meritocracies often trample the needs of the under-resourced.

• Gift cultures sometimes come into direct conflict with the traditional economy around them.

• Open sharing of ideas is often intentionally conflated with theft of Intellectual Property by those with vested interests.

• Establishment “acceptance” of Hackers and their work often leads to the conversion of free information into proprietary trade secrets to be bought and sold.

However in an over-commercialized world of constrained resources, the delight in innovative problem solving, openness, and emphasis on sharing our abilities and knowledge, are traits we might well emulate.