Woo! Praise the Heavens for hardware hackers!
My biggest qualms with True Hackers are the elitism and the cold-shouldering of formal education. But mainly, the elitism. As a female in computer science, elitism really pisses me off because it's just another type of discrimination I have to worry about. The hardware hackers are my soul siblings with the desire to "dissipate the aura of elitism... that surrounds the world of technology". As we saw in the book, "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", the hackers had a desire to spread the wealth that was knowledge and love for computers. They worked hard to make computers available for the masses, essentially "de-mystifying" the field, so that their passions could be shared with the rest of the world. Of course, there were the money-hungry people who opposed this, but I think the hardware hackers' dream came true (... I mean, look at us now).
I think the hardware hackers were definitely in line with the Hacker Ethic. In fact, I think they promoted the mindset even more with their desire for extreme decentralization. The Bay Area hackers were everywhere, and communicated via the Community Memory, and even had a club to openly share hacks with others from around the area. However, I think this also forms their main difference: the Cambridge hackers didn't pay much attention to people who didn't come to the machines out of their own curiosity. In other words, they didn't care about converting the 'losers'. The Bay Area hackers did, however, which caused some tension.
As the love for computers was spreading, so was the idea of turning computers into money-growing trees. Man, it sounds like these people were so furious for money that they turned into animals like the short clips in Mean Girls. In the book, Levy clearly details the divide that came to be in the group of hardware hackers. Half wanted to proprietarize, half wanted to maintain the Hacker Ethic of free software. This tension was also in part due to competition, and fear of ideas being stolen and turned into profit. If I was there during that time, I would have felt the same.
But what can we do with these machines that everyone got so worked up on?
A lot. Our whole world is centered around it now.
Think about that: our whole world is centered around it now. Does that not
frighten you? Now add it IoT. If you weren't frightened before, you should be
now.
I clearly think computers and computing can be used for good. Else, I wouldn't be in this field. But, just like everything else you'll find in the world, with some good comes some bad. There are malicious people everywhere, but even taking away malicious people, well-intentioned people can still cause terrible things with computers. For example, automation. I'm sure those hackers and computer scientists had good intentions, like making life more convenient, robust, and more-environmental conscious. But that does not mean there are no bad side effects or consequences: automation takes away jobs and steals a bit of humanity from us.
Just like always, I'm torn. I don't think we should just push aside computing though, in fear of all the bad consequences. Nothing good ever came out of something like that. But I do think people need to be more aware, question authority and question the impact of their actions. I also think people should take a step back from their material items every once in a while, get a good look at the bigger picture. I've always wanted to go completely off the grid one day: live in the mountains with no internet. That would be fun and introspective. More people should think about doing something like that.