Hackerdom has become an ever-changing environment (I hesitate to use the word community to describe what hackerdom is today) where today's ingenious hack can become tomorrow's over-exploited script. Children who cannot even code "Hello, World!" in C if their lives depended on it say, "MICRO$OFT SUX!! !! !! !! !! !!1" and proclaim themselves to be hackers. One must never forget, however, that, among the screams of busloads of bored adolescents, a higher calling of hackerdom still exists. I do not refer to the self-styled élite but rather to those who challenge the limits of knowledge to push the computer to do what it was not designed to do. These talented individuals are the true hackers, and they are the forgotten heroes.
These hackers, for whom the word is an honor, have heeded the advice of Peter Scarchild, one of the early hackers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Peter was a member of the Signals and Power Committee of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club and a skilled user of the Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC's) PDP-1:
Peter Scarchild wrote:
The Tech Model Railroad Club was my second home at MIT. Here my love of trains brought me a new passion: computers. At first we used the PDP-1 to make our model railroads more complex, but later we found joy in exploring the computer for its own sake. We were hackers.
Indeed, Peter and his companions at the Tech Model Railroad Club laid the foundation for later works, such as the
"Hacker Manifesto," and
Richard Stallman's GNU Project. To him and surely to his companions as well, hacking is more than a hobby; it was a philosophy:
Peter Scarchild wrote:
I sometimes wonder if hacker may be a deeper philosophy, something like Nietzsche's frei Geist (free spirit). Ours is at first glance a rapture in tinkering. Yet we transcend this to search for the truth in machine. We are the philosophers of the machine, not man.
Peter's wisdom extends beyond machinery. He offers some sagacious advice for hackers dealing with women:
Peter Scarchild wrote:
I have found little time for women in my pursuit of knowledge, pure and applied....I think we must be a different kind of people to prefer intimate knowledge of a machine to intimate knowledge of our society....Nevertheless, I occasionally find myself wondering what the companionship of a woman is like. At these times, I return to one of my books.
Peter also offers some advice for troubled adolescents who are beginning their own exploration of the Internet:
Peter Scarchild wrote:
When I see the price of computers today, I am truly amazed. In the past couple of decades, computing power has entered the home. This has brought with it the potentiality of hacking to a wider spectrum of people. Still, I am disappointed that hackers are considered to be computer criminals, by and large. Because of this, I would like to make a suggestion to the script kiddies who have become today's hackers of sorts: Abandon your scripts! You will learn nothing from them! Instead, install Linux and write some programs. Build your own computer. Read! Wonder! Explore! Only then will you really be a computer hacker.
In a similar vein, Peter offers his opinion about the pathologization of the very characteristics that make a person a skilled hacker:
Peter Scarchild wrote:
Some people have asked me if attention-deficit disorder may have anything to do with becoming a hacker. This begs the question. I do not believe society should be so quick to diagnose the traits that make a child curious and thoughtful a disorder. If anything, the disorder lies with our educational system, which expects students to conform to a passive mode of being taught rather than learning from the child's innate curiosity. Similarly, I have heard some child experts postulate a link between hacking and Asperger's syndrome. Again, this pathologizes curiosity. A child who enjoys learning myriad facts about computing systems should be encouraged to this end and not coerced into behaving as his or her classmates do.
Peter Scarchild reminds us that society needs its eccentrics. Without hackers, scientists, and engineers, technology would not have progressed at all! We should all remember Peter and his fellow hackers, our forgotten heroes.
24 Jun 2005, 5:42 pm
Recently bought a book on Phython (haven't read yet) and a book on PC upgrading and troubleshooting. No point in reading my book on building computers yet, too poor to build anything. And I plan on installing Linux soon. 
