HACKER MANIFESTO

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This is a small essay written in 8 January 1986  by Loyd Blankenship a hacker who went by the handle (or pseudonym) of "The Mentor". He wrote this after he was caught. It was published in the "Phrack" hackers magazine. <br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b>                                      </b><br /><b>                                            The Conscience of a Hacker</b><br /><br /><br /><pre>Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager<br />Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...<br /> Damn kids. They're all alike.<br /><br /> But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain,<br />ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what<br />made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?<br /> I am a hacker, enter my world...<br /> Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of<br />the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...<br /> Damn underachiever. They're all alike.<br /><br /> I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain<br />for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms.<br />Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."<br /> Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.<br /><br /> I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is<br />cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I<br />screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...<br /> Or feels threatened by me...<br /> Or thinks I'm a smart ass...<br /> Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...<br /> Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.<br /><br /> And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through<br />the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is<br />sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is<br />found.<br /> "This is it... this is where I belong..."<br /> I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to<br />them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...<br /> Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...<br /><br /> You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at<br />school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip<br />through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or<br />ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us will-<br />ing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.<br /><br /> This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the<br />beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying<br />for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and<br />you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek<br />after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color,<br />without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals.<br />You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us<br />and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.<br /><br /> Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is<br />that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.<br />My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me<br />for.<br /><br /> I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual,<br />but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.<br /><br /> +++The Mentor+++</pre><pre></pre><pre>go to <a href="http://www.phrack.org/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">www.Phrack.org</span></b></a></pre></div>

HACKER MANIFESTO

This is a small essay written in 8 January 1986  by Loyd Blankenship a hacker who went by the handle (or pseudonym) of "The Mentor"...

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