Many people think of hackers as science geeks who illegally break into computers and steal information. Although this type of activity represents one small aspect of what some hackers actually do, it fails to convey the spirit and intent of hacking and the motivations that impel people to do it. Bona fide hackers are not destructive, so they do not destroy or damage valuable data, nor are they trying to steal billions of dollars from Swiss bank accounts. On the contrary, hacking is by nature a parasitic activity, where the hacker needs the host system in order to get the information he wants:
àin procuring access to a system, the hack does not aim at destroying the host on and which it operates. To do so would mean nothing less than a form of suicide. This exigency, which is fundamental to all parasitic endeavors, has been codified in one of the (un)official hacker commandments: ôthou shalt not destroyöàHacking is content to be neither a friend nor an enemy. Either position serves to reconfirm and justify the system in which and on which it operates (Gunkel 7).
Hackers are a community of people with their own attitude and culture whose real intent for most hacks is to find out how something worksùand have fun doing it. They are the people who, when young, were found by their mothers taking apart the family toaster or their fatherÆs Timex watch, just to figure out what makes it work. As adults, hackers are drawn to computers for similar reasons. Computers are fun to take apart and made to work as one desires; they also provide a means of tapping into massive stores of interesting and potentially useful information.
A hallmark of true hackers is that they are always looking for the best way to do something. Code that works is not good enough; they refine it until it becomes the best it can beùôelegantö code, it is often termed. Renowned computer professor John McCarthy, who taught in the days of punch car...