A Hacker's Apology

When I say "hacker," I'm pretty sure I know what pops into your head. He's a pale adolescent outcast shrouded in 3 AM darkness in his parents' basement. He's the scraggly haired unshaven eastern european, cuffed and escorted by FBI agents, sqinting in the sun he's seen all too infrequently. He's the sociopathic savant who, in a feat of nerd machismo, broke into the credit card company's computers and looted millions of dollars.

Hopefully I can change your perception. If you take nothing else from this post, remember what I am about to say. A hacker is not a cyber criminal. Let me explain.

I am in no way defending so called hackers who illegally gain access to other people's computers. This is obviously wrong and should be punished. What I am claiming is that the term is misused in today's vernacular. Wikipedia correctly ennumerates three distinct subcultures of computing whose members are referred to as hackers. However, the media and the public in general use the word hacker exclusively to refer to only one of these groups--criminals. This simplification comes at the expense of the other two usages which more closely mean technical virtuoso.

Two distinct groups of early computing pioneers can plausibly claim to have invented the term. The first is the computer hardware hobbyist culture that developed in the Bay area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This group included technological icons such as Steve Wozniak and was largely responsible for the personal computer revolution. They were so called hardware hackers. With in their institutions, such as the Homebrew Computer Club, they used the term almost reverently to refer to their most technically capable members. Specifically, a hack was a clever solution to a difficult problem. Often it broke the rules--but in an elegant way. Rather than making a system more convoluted, a the broken rule made it more simple and demonstrated insight on the part of the hacker. Hackers were respected and law abiding members of this community.

The second group of computer pioneers to adopt the term were the members of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. The AI lab at MIT is legendary for laying the foundations of computer science. Members of the lab used the term in much the same way as the hardware hacker--to denote technical brilliance and express respect. In this context a hack was often an unconventional use of a system causing it to perform some useful function for which it wasn't designed. Once again, the hackers in this community were law abiding citizens.

How did the term hacker come to be so misunderstood? The answer probably has something to do with the fact that hackers themselves are misunderstood. Though almost everyone uses software on a daily basis, a relatively small portion of the public actually understands what computer programming entails. For hackers it can be almost a transcendental experience and is the pinnacle of intellectual challenge. To say the least, most people don't see eye to eye with this opinion.

The term hacker is still used extensively within the technical community in the context of its more benign definitions. I have seen job descriptions that list "low level graphics hacking" as a plus, for example. Other times, people have asked me what I've been "hacking on lately." Obviously the intended meaning in these cases is not the one that is commonly assumed. Next time you hear the word, think to yourself whether it was used in its intended context or whether its been hijacked to mean something else entirely. If you really want to be a nonconformist, start using it yourself. You might be surprised at your new found geek street cred.