Date: 09-Nov-83 1141 PST From: Dick Gabriel Subject: Hackers To: su-bboards@SU-AI About a month ago I became fed up with the way journalists and others had changed the definition of the word, `hacker.' I wrote the following essay, which I am I am trying to get published somewhere or other. Enjoy: `Hacker': The De-Evolution of a Word `Hacker.' I've often wondered how new words arise and old words change their meanings. Now I have experienced it. Most everyone now knows that `hackers' have something to do with computers, but the meaning has taken a turn for the worse. When I was growing up with computers, a `hacker' was someone who was good at constructing programs or computer systems. To be called a `real hacker' was a great compliment. Now look at a recent news story on the Milwaukee ``414s'': Other experts, however, said it won't be that easy to deter all hackers, a term used to refer to people who gain access to computer systems for fun . . . . Time was, when I was introduced to some computer professionals and said, ``well, I'm just a hacker,'' they'd smile with relief: I was just one of the boys and not a stuffy academic. Now if I happen to mention, ``oh, spent the night hacking,'' and a cop's within earshot, I'm likely to find a set of fingers around my collar and a couple of knuckles in my ear: I'm off to jail on a felony count -- 5-10 years, hacking. A recent book on slang written by hackers, ``The Hacker's Dictionary,'' contains these entries: HACKER n. 1. A person who enjoys learning the details of programming systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. . . . 6. A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to discover information by poking around. Hence ``password hacker,'' ``network hacker.'' Even though definition 6 has negative connotations, it suggests a mischievous prankster rather than an Al Capone or a Machine-Gun Kelly. And the term `hacker' is qualified, by `password' for instance, if meant pejoratively. Where did the term originate? Hacking is an activity in which one plays with programs, seeing what one can do, exploring the limits of one's abilities, not necessarily with any particular goal in mind. Hack around: To do nothing in particular; to wander about; to idle. This is from the ``Dictionary of American Slang''; the phrase was popular around 1965, when computer science was beginning to mature. ``What are you up to?'' ``Not much, just hacking around with this program.'' The artist trying new techniques; the composer noodling on the piano; the physicist toying with new theories. The hacker hacking around with his program. Some hackers ARE weird. The first hacker I ever saw -- you couldn't meet this guy -- worked at a prestigious Eastern university. He washed his hair once a month, slept next to the computer, and sent his laundry God-knows-how-frequently to his mother in New York City to wash and mail back. But he was an expert and extremely productive programmer, certainly not a criminal. Why would the word `hacker' change its meaning? Recently certain people have been breaking into computers and doing damage. I can easily imagine some impressionable cub reporter hearing from a computer-center manager, ``Some hackers broke into our system and deleted the welfare-check files.'' He thinks: Criminals break into things, and the manager said ` . . . hackers broke in . . . ,' so hackers are criminals, right? I'm waiting for some other equally bright reporter to hear, ``Three entrepreneurs embezzled $930,000 from the company they formed, Megabucks Inc.'' Then the world will have a new synonym for a business criminal: entrepreneur. Has a nice ring to it, eh? I first noticed the meaning of `hacker' drifting in 1976 when Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT wrote the book ``Computer Power and Human Reason.'' He says: I have already said that the compulsive programmer, or hacker as he calls himself, is usually a superb technician. . . . His skill is . . . aimless, even disembodied. . . . His skill is like that of a monastic copyist who, though illiterate, is a first-rate calligrapher. Weizenbaum goes on to paint an exaggerated picture of compulsive, even psychotic, behavior, belying a deep suspicion, if not hatred, of hackers. That hackers are the masters of one of the great tools of science is as if apes operated electron microscopes. Donn Parker of SRI International isn't just suspicious of hackers; he seems to hate them openly and extremely. In his book, ``Fighting Computer Crime,'' he makes a list of computer criminal types. In this list the `system hacker' is placed between the deranged person and the career criminal. In 1976 Weizenbaum wrote: They work until they nearly drop, twenty, thirty hours at a time. Their food, if they arrange it, is brought to them: coffee, Cokes, sandwiches. If possible, they sleep on cots near the computer. . . . [T]heir uncombed hair [testifies] that they are oblivious to their bodies. . . . [Their] excitement rises to its highest, most feverish pitch when [they are] on the trail of a most recalcitrant error. . . . Compare this with what Parker wrote in 1983: Hackers are often addicted to their computer capers. They will give up food, sleep, and other bodily functions sitting at terminals for hours when they are on a hot trail to the innards of an operating system. Parker seems to be quoting Weizenbaum, but adds malicious intent at every turn. Parker talks to the press, and the press quotes away. People on the outside using insiders' jargon to ridicule insiders. Weizenbaum, Parker, and others have taken the respectful term of the hacker and turned it against him. What have we lost through the misunderstandings of reporters or the simplistic analyses of computer-crime detectives? We've lost a good word for an expert programmer who is not necessarily well-trained or formally educated in computer science, but who is enthusiastic about his work and perseveres where others might give up. I consider myself a `hacker,' but I've legitimized it quite a bit: I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University, and I recommend this situation highly. I make part of my living by sitting across from a businessman, placing my sheepskin on the high-gloss mahogany, sliding it towards him, and carefully folding into my wallet the cash he pushes back. Sometimes I have to ramble on about `continuation-passing semantics,' but usually it's more like ``That won't work; try it this way.'' But now a hacker is merely a computer vandal. Instead of a useful word for a new type of person, we have a colorful synonym for a mundane type of criminal. So now I tell the casual acquaintance that I'm a Computer Scientist, and thus legitimize my hobby and passion. I miss being known as a hacker, but don't want to be misconstrued as a Bad Guy. Maybe I'll go into business and become an entrepreneur.