Hackers and their Way of Life

Introduction:
Before engaging on a discussion on the social construction of a hacker, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what exactly is a hacker? The Jargon file, a collection of hacker slang derived from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, defines a hacker as 'A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.' We shall see that a hacker as several other distinguishing qualities in addition to these. We explore the hacker ethic through a view of the life of Adrian Lamo, listed second in the top 10 hackers of all time by the CIA.

The Homeless Hacker:
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Lamo gained widespread notoriety after breaking into the internal computer network of The New York Times, adding his name to the internal database of known sources and conducting research on its high profile subjects. Two years and a lawsuit later, he was convicted and sentenced to two years of probation along with a large amount of money in damages. Within this time, he had already gained popularity in hacker circles for gaining access to restricted areas in the Microsoft, Yahoo and WorldCom servers. Dubbed the 'homeless hacker', he used Internet connections at hotels, coffee shops and libraries to perform his intrusions. Lamo is a typical example of a hacker, someone who tries to stretch the limits and explore the capabilites of a computer system. He would fall into the black hat category - someone who uses his knowledge for nefarious and destrucive purposes. Nowadays, hackers tend to disassociate themselves from these people, instead referring to them as 'crackers'. So what do hackers gain from their exploitation and breaking in to computer systems?

Social Construction of the hacker:
Accorinding to Bryan Pfaffenberger in his article on the 'Social Meaning of the Personal Computer' tries to explain the strange motives in the new subculture emergent in the 60s. He says that hackers experience a feeling of technically induced ecstasy. Such a feeling can only be experienced an expert programmer and someone who has complete mastery of the system they are working on, as Sherry Turkle maintains after her experiences with the game of 'Adventure'. Hackers try to improve the system in order to gain its acknowledgement and approval.
Another aspect of hackers is their desire to be in control. Lamo's ex-girlfriend has descibed him as 'very-controlling', saying he had once used a stun gun on her. Sherry Turkle explains this by asserting that hackers, being able to predict correctlty the actions of a computer through their mastery over it, are at a loss while facing the real and unpredictable world. This leads them to leading lonely and isolated lives with their computer, resulting in their anti-social image.

Hacker - a flawed personality?
Turkle maintains that writing off hackers as juvenile or childish destroys any attempt to understand them. To her and others, the hacker is not an inherently flawed personality. Many of us, in our desire to make knowledge free and our mistrust of authority have unknowingly associated with the hacker ethic. Hackers, in their own way, are human and just as romanticists escape into nature, hackers find soul in the machine. Many of the hackers are those who are aware of their bodily defects and have failed at establishing meaningful relationships. However, this is not always the case. In my opinion, hackers still lead content and fulfilled lives - both in their own world and those who even return to a normal life, wiser from their experiences. In my opinion, Steve Wozniak - phone phreaker, hacker and co-founder of Apple is a prime example that hackers are not so different from the rest of us and can find acceptance in our society.