The Hacker Manifesto

by
+++The Mentor+++
Written January 8, 1986


Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...
Damn kids. They're all alike.
But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my world...
Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
Damn underachiever. They're all alike.
I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."
Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.
I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.
And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...
You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

null

Attitude is Everything

Just for a moment, let's talk about cyberpunk and attitude. It isn't just about what you can do. It's about what you _say_ you can do. An example: I went to a tech school for a year and I had an older friend that taught me a lot of stuff about computers. I don't know nearly as much as him but because I know where to use it on and who to tell about it, I'm known as a cyberpunk while my friend is still just a computer scientist. Why is that? People only term other by what they know about you. If I predict that I will crash the system at certain time, say like... in 10 seconds, I will be considered an asshole by those who know about it if I tell them. But if I anonymously wall it, I'm considered a cyberpunk. (Wall means to broadcast to everyone.) If I break into someone else's account, pull some stuff off a Usenet group like alt.sex.duct.tape.gerbils, and send it to all the teachers saying "I wrote this." it won't do much good to have it go unknown who did it. That's why aliases are important. You must develop a character who does these 'pranks' so to increase your image. But you, as a person, are only considered a cyberpunk to those who you reveal it. I'm well known for my nickname, Gonzo. My other nicknames are not so well known. I don't want any connection between them. Gonzo is the playful hacker. Another is the deadly hacker. The other is the cypherpunk. If the association was made, zzzzzt, I'm in trouble. So remember, it's not who's the best with a program, computer, phone, etc but who announces it the best WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT!! If you are good at that, you can be a good cyberpunk.

-- The Great Gonzo