. . : : The Hacker's Manifesto : : . .

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 a 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've listened to the teacher

explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand

it. "No, Mrs. 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 do. If it makes a mistake, it's because

I screwed 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 exist without skin color, without nationality, without

religious bias... And you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs,

you wage wars, you murder, you 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.

+++The Mentor+++