Who is a Hacker?

Introduction

There is no one way to define a hacker. Hackers come in many varieties – Phone Phreakers, Network Hackers, Media Hackers, Hardware Hacker and so on. And while there is no one easy way to define a Hacker, one can observe, from their want for attention and their relentless disobedience of authority in their own pursuit of knowledge, that they are somewhat like a child – this analogy while not covering all the aspects of what it means to be a hacker, encompasses the essential aspects – Hackers ‘Do’ because they are curious, not for a cause, not for monetary gain and sometimes in this pursuit, they get caught as illustrated by Mitnick’s example. When Hackers do things, they bent the technology around them to achieve their goals, they never give into the constraints posed by the technology – infact one might go so far as to say that hackers really are just constraint benders and removers – and consequently are the Teasers at the Margin of technology. So while Hackers wield so much power in their hands (which arises from their juxtaposed tendencies to understand and control while also to be able to let loose and explore) , and when hacking culture gained momentum beginning with 1960s, a new set of ethical principles and a collective cultural view of society or at least how it should be arose in the eyes of the hacker leading to a established hacker subculture.

Ethics of the Hacker (?)

The Hacker ethic is essential to the idea of a Hacker Culture. It comprises of the set of rules and principles one must stick to in any situation, it is not a separate morality in itself but a product of the hacker’s world view. The product borne out of their mechanistic view of the universe and their thirst for understanding and conquering the “machine” - be it computer or telephone or in some cases even other people. 

Take for example Kevin Mitnick, one of the famous 20th century hackers, even though he was accessing proprietary information, he always claimed to do so for the joy of it - to know that he could do it, and when he kept this information, it was not for monetary gain but as a trophy to him, a proof of his abilities and the understanding he had in navigating the system. This highlights another important characteristic of the hacker, their need to feel that they can also influence control on the state of things - in Mitnick’s case, computer network technology, in other words, they feel a need for a decentralised scheme of things. Thus, Hacking is a means for them of ensuring that their world is not controlled solely by external factors. Another, major hacker is Richard Stallmanm, the founder of the free software movement, he became so engrossed with developing and making free the fruits of computer programming that he started the OpenSource movement which helped boost the hacker ideal of sharing and freeness of information. This too is another essential quality of hacker ethic - the idea of freeware and imbuing freedom of use to one’s creative products. 

In Conclusion

Often mistaken as hackers are the crackers who hack things not for the pleasure of understanding but maliciously with intent to injure and use the stolen information for illegitimate purposes, it must be noted that they are not operating in the true spirit of hacking as hacking seeks not to overthrow and control everyone but in it’s truest sense to try to embrace and understand technology and modify it for the better. The hacker is that mischievous and curious child near the sandbox in the playground not the Fist flinging bully near the swings.

Bibliography

1)     Wikipedia: Hacker Ethic, Hacker Culture, Richard Stallman, Kevin Mitnick

2)     Sherry Turkle, Hackers: Loving the Machine for Itself

3)     Pfaffenberger, The Social meaning of the Personal Computer

Barath