hackers

Hacker Ethic

So here we see the culmination and integration of a number of topics that we have been discussing over the past few weeks:

Surveillance: external and now internal (panopticism)
information vs. knowledge (what is worth knowing and why is it worthwhile)
computer as metaphor for human thought
the view of humans as computers or nodes in networks
the relationship between computers and labor

All of this is driven, more or less by 1) free flows of information and 2) the logic of speed.

The ethics barrier: the speed beyond which it is no longer possible to treat persons as ends in themselves but rather as means only.

"The logic of the network and the computer alienate us from direct caring, which is the beginning of all ethical behavior.

Computer user vs. computer

The hacker ethic emphsizes individual creativity and fulfillment. However, there is a tension between this and the free flows of information, markets, labor, etc., which tends to reduce the importance of individuals.