The Hacker Manifesto
A rather inspirational piece of text that never ceases to inspire..
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.
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.
Comments
1986??
1986?????
where the hell did u get this? or is this some piece of ur own?
i understand the theme of the writing. i'm someone who bitterly hated my school experiences. TRAUMA TRAUMA TRAUMA....but overall i think it's got a way too egotistical tone to it. for some reason i feel irritated as opposed to inspired. and besides, the points forwarded here are those i've already heard one too many times.
so, thanks, but no thanks.
Certain people thrive off knowledge, and for the hacker, the true hacker, thrive off of the knowledge which out-weighs that of the "evil" counter-part. It's the whole idea of "Shit on the little guy to get the profit".
In my experience I've always believed in freedom of knowledge, and as much as our laws tell us we have that, we don't. Hackers are just types of morale-based journalists that use their skills to gain knowledge to beat down the rest of hipocrisy.
Yes, we've heard this thesis and this "rant" time and time again, but lets look at why it's being made time and time again: Noone listens. The preconceptions made by the public on "hackers" are those of Black Hat Crackers, the real criminals invading and perverting boundaries and limits that not necessarily we shouldn't legally cross, but morally we shouldn't.
The sum of the text for me is that noone will listen to our morale dignity, knowing from first hand from being a "hacker" myself, but we'll always shout out that morale dignity.
Hackers are a true misunderstood minority that do not gain the benefit of the doubt that those other groups of misunderstood minorities do.
Uneducation and the unkown breeds fear and mislead judgement. Listen to what this "Hacker Manifesto" has to say, and look into the deeper meaning, and then make your own "irritated" judgement, supriya. Then maybe you could understand yourself in this world, as you claim to do, and then maybe you yourself could write a text aiming to inspire other people about your morale passion.
The feeling still resonates I believe among the new generation of hackers.
This piece was written by a hacker that went by the name "The Mentor" shortly after his arrest. This actually remains a very basic, or colloquial style text but is actually one of the most inspiring texts on the internet.
When you get arrested for hacking, I'm sure you'd want to write the same type of thing.
1986. Yes. 1986. Stop your pretentious whining and wake up to the real problem that exists. Carry on "hacking", but listen to every word this text has to say, and when the authorities finally do legally but imorally pull you in make sure you can quote it word for word in your own head, or you're doomed to believe in what is force fed down your throat by the people you and me both hate.