The hacker ethic of early days

 Actually, it was a surprise for me to find out the origins of the word “hacker”. Unfortunately, as with many other examples, it has become the face of something that only harms and spreads disaster. At first, innocent explorers became the number one criminals that can steal the wealth of a whole country. In today's blog, I’ll try to show my opinion about six hacker ideals.

1. Access to computers - and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works - should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!

Let us consider the current world’s situation – propaganda indeed performed a great role in converting people into zombies. Probably the number of such individuals could be fewer if everybody had access to the internet. Their only source of any kind of information is TV, which is highly manipulative and is controlled to spread misinformation. On Internet, on the other hand, is easier to ban some resource than actually control it. And still, there are hundreds of ways to evade the restriction. Maybe only a small amount of such residents, but will change their minds toward democracy.

2. All information should be free.

A couple of years ago I used to say that it should be done. But now it is much clear to me. People should have the ability to make a profit in the digital world: online courses, art objects, books, and access to some kind of data should be provided after some subscription or purchase. Otherwise, it is considered piracy and is punished.

3. Mistrust authority - promote decentralization.

I can only agree here, as we are now fighting for democracy – everywhere should be so. Even on the Internet.

4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.

That is what, I’m 100% agreed with. The fact is that many hackers are underaged but commit crimes, that can’t be imagined by most adults. The only criterion should be the action and followed consequences. Nothing else.

5. You can create art and beauty on a computer.

We can discuss this topic for a couple of days, but everybody will agree with this statement. We have our own definition of beauty, usually, it differs due to age, mentality, and intelligence. I may say that the Java program that I have created is a beauty and nobody can argue with me. It is my point of view and it should be respected. But about real examples of art, we now can see different implementations of it. The most recent is NFT art, which is a kind of unique art object that is treated as a painting for example.

6. Computers can change your life for the better.

Hmm… That is not a thing that is completely true for me. There are millions of examples of the opposite. We can be misled to a criminal part of the Internet and can be involved in some illegal interactions. However, it is only a small part of all actions on the Internet, so there are many things that benefit society and individuals.

All in all, we can not judge something by only one incident, everything should be evaluated in total. I’m sure that in the way of developing the digital world, people will receive more positive than negative outcomes.