Hackers: Heroes of The Computer Revolution - Levy's Description of Hacker Ethics and Principles

Levy's Description of Hacker Ethics and Principles

First and foremost to Levy's principles is the concept of the hacker ethic and the popularization of them to popular culture. In Levy's own words, the principles dictate;

  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!
  2. All information should be free.
  3. Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
  4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race or position.
  5. You can create art and beauty on a computer.
  6. Computers can change your life for the better.

The hacker ethic deals with the idea that individuals are performing a duty for the common good, an analogy to a modern day 'Robin Hood'. The hacker communities as a result are prided on the fact that they are the rebellion against authority figures that restrict this level of computer freedom. Hackers are only judged by their ability as opposed to the various systems in places that currently dictate authority, such as schools and universities. Mostly the hacker ethic idealizes the notion of hacking being an art-form, something revered as opposed to disputed and frowned upon. Popularized by 'phreakers' in the 1970s and 1980s, this is something that is not only evident, but also widespread among the growing community. As Manuel Castells, another lecturer involved in the field of computing, it is something that reflects not only on this community, but also of the wider social, political and financial world. In a sense, hacking is something that should affect everyone, but it is whether or not the interpretation that is given to hackers by Steven Levy compared with negative stereotypes of the media that dictate this perception.

Read more about this topic:  Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution

Famous quotes containing the words description, hacker, ethics and/or principles:

    To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    The Hacker Ethic: 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!
    All information should be free.
    Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
    Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
    You can create art and beauty on a computer.
    Computers can change your life for the better.
    Steven Levy, U.S. writer. Hackers, ch. 2, “The Hacker Ethic,” pp. 27-33, Anchor Press, Doubleday (1984)

    If you take away ideology, you are left with a case by case ethics which in practise ends up as me first, me only, and in rampant greed.
    Richard Nelson (b. 1950)

    With our principles we seek to rule our habits with an iron hand, or to justify, honor, scold, or conceal them:Mtwo men with identical principles are likely to be seeking fundamentally different things with them.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)