Hacker Culture Applicability in Modern World (Week 12)

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 The entire community of hackers regardless of their purpose has a common belief that information should be free. This idea was initially established in the book “Hackers” by Steven Levy in 1984 [1]. In his book, Levy highlighted The Hacker Ethic which is a set of beliefs that is similar to hacker culture. This ethic was initially created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sometime around the 50s-60s. Furthermore, the term “hacker” back then was a way to characterize college pranks planned by MIT students, and it was used for describing a project initiated or a product made to satisfy some goals as if it was not enough the pleasure for pure engagement [2].

The Modern World

On the other hand, when it comes to my opinion, I believe that the “Hacker Culture” is something rather special, especially in the modern world. Without the “Hacker Culture”, there would be many gaps in the security of the many software applications. In addition, they see these gaps as an issue to be solved which requires many security specialists to challenge this culture by offering them harder problems. In the following paragraphs, I will concentrate on the practical applicability of the few ideas about “Hacker Ethic” in the modern world.

To give some opinions regarding the ideas in the modern world, I would like to introduce you to the “seven” that were proposed by Dr. Pekka Himanen in his Hacker Ethic:

1.     Passion

2.     Freedom

3.     Work ethic

4.     Money ethic

5.     Network ethic

6.     Caring

7.     Creativity

As I see it, the existence of the “Hacker Culture” will be highly dependent on the presence of passion. The motivation is what will push so-called hackers to look for new vulnerabilities and so on. To give you an example, I used to not like going to the gym. I would always say to myself that there is a possibility to go to the gym the other day; however, after a few years, I realized that a gym is a place where you can explore new things, where you can develop yourself. Now I have that motivation that pushed me to wake up every morning and attend the gym. In the same way, hackers are interested in the new challenges that await them.

The creativity in the modern “Hacker culture" is more than ever. This allows them to come up with new ways of exploring different systems. Additionally, the creativity itself can be seen from the simple times like using a candle for lighting the house to the time in which the same process is made with an electrical current (the lamps). Looking back to these moments we can frankly say that from now on, the significance of a good imagination will ever grow.

Conclusion

            In summary, it can be said that the “Hacker Culture” has been a vital part of history and will ever continue to be. In addition, the ideas introduced by Dr. Pekka Himanen are still applicable in the modern world that consists of “Hacker Culture”.

 

References

[1]

C. Castiglione, "The Hacker Ethic: Understanding Programmer Culture," Learn to code in 30 Days, 7 August 2020. [Online]. Available: https://learn.onemonth.com/the-hacker-ethic/. [Accessed 6 March 2022].

[2]

"Hacker ethic," Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic. [Accessed 6 March 2022].

 

 

 

 

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