Hacking is just a set of tools to bend the rules. You might already be a hacker and not even know it.

Picture the word ‘hacker,’ and the most predictable images of scrolling lines of green DOS-era Matrix code glowing onto a black-hoodied figure in a dark basement come to mind

‘Real’ hackers hate this.

Etymology of the term ‘hacker’ aside, which can mean anything from a horse for hire, cheap labor, or a rough-cut job,  the word has since evolved significantly from its origins, now encompassing a range of activities and motivations, from benign systems explorations to malicious & intrusive attacks.

This article isn’t going to cover the different types of hats that computer hackers wear. Instead I am here to tell you about its history, and that without coding, you can become a hacker in your own expertise by adopting the original ethos and outlook to problems.

In my earlier post In Support of Creative Hackathons, I briefly went over the history of the hacker, and in this article, I’ll further define and reapply the term to help explain how we can embrace the it in its purest form, and how you can be (or already are) a hacker too.

Modern Hacker Roots

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), ‘hacker’ was coined by members of the Tech Model Railroad Club where railfans gathered to build sweet model train systems. The club consisted of sub-groups with specific tasks; a group choosing the train models, scenery designers, but of course it was the "Signals and Power Subcommittee” who were the real troublemakers in the group.

The technological siren singing them ashore was a IBM 704, which they used to program the train operation and schedule. When one of their members Jack Dennis joined the MIT faculty, accessibility to a TX-0 on loan from the Department of Defense’s Lincoln Library was available to other members & tinkerers.

The access to this multi-million dollar machine helped fundamentally shape new ways of thinking for the computer enthusiasts by learning the inner workings of these early machines, and their obsessions became even more deeply rooted in shaping this new technology. Members during this era went on to shape technology in places like Xerox, which pioneered the iconic graphical interface we’re all accustomed to,  and ARPAnet, where the concept of the internet first emerged.

Eventually this group had their own language with enough lingo to publish its own dictionary. They still use hacker’s original meaning to this day:

[A hacker is ] someone who applies ingenuity to create a clever result, called a "hack". The essence of a "hack" is that it is done quickly, and is usually inelegant. It accomplishes the desired goal without changing the design of the system it is embedded in. Despite often being at odds with the design of the larger system, a hack is generally quite clever and effective. *source

Match my Phreak

As the computing landscape evolved, the adoption also expanded. In the 1970s, the term encompassed anyone who exploited systems for curiosity or intellectual challenge.

John Draper aka Captain Crunch was an infamous phone phreaker who discovered that a toy whistle from a 1960s Cap'n Crunch cereal box could be used to manipulate the phone system by producing a 2600 Hz tone.

I won’t go into the details of how phone phreakers cracked into the telecom system, but these predominantly young, male mischief-makers found a playground once they got in.

Steves Jobs & Wozniak later started their first venture together in the early 70s when they built and sold optimized blue boxes (based on the Cap’n’s original prototype) to other students at UC Berkeley for around $150 each. 

Phreakers & hackers used bulletin board systems (BBSes) to collaborate, share knowledge, and develop their skills in a rapidly evolving technological landscape amongst themselves and each other. These local systems were  also used to tap into their network of computer & technology enthusiasts by  broadcasting locations for local meet-ups or even as a dating service. It was like the local internet.

BBSes provided access to software, tools, and other resources that were vital for both phreakers and hackers. Users could download programs, share tips on obtaining hardware, and learn about new vulnerabilities, enhancing their capabilities. The more skilled you were as a hacker, the more exclusive the BBS you were invited to.

These systems were incredibly influential in computing, particularly around ideas of portability, the development of the C programming language, and UNIX.

Hackers vs Crackers

Early hacker culture was characterized by a spirit of innovation and a desire to understand and improve technology. The word itself carried a positive connotation and emphasized curiosity in problem-solving. It distinguished hackers from average users who only learned the minimum necessary to operate systems. They were the prodigies of early computing, true wizards at play! 

Malicious hackers were known as ‘crackers’, and dismissed by the community as lazy or irresponsible scammers. They were simply people who broke things, often to exploit systems for their own benefit. Let’s put it this way: a hacker is an automotive engineer. A cracker is someone who knows how to hotwire a car.

As someone who had a library of warez and did some light cracking due to unlimited internet access as a kid, I can tell you it didn’t take a ton of technical know-how if you know where to look; just some lite code/script kidding, a web shell, time, and pure will.

Despite its roots in innovation, hackers were often portrayed as malicious figures in mainstream media, overshadowing the original meaning of the term once associated with creativity and problem-solving.

Through the 80s and 90s, the word began to acquire negative connotations as its misuse was popularized as a blanket term for anyone who breaks into computer systems, regardless of their motives. It led to the conflation of hacking with illegal activities, exacerbated by the rise of the internet, mainstream media, and the continuance of cybersecurity attacks.

While some narratives celebrate hackers as a digital Robin Hood-types who expose vulnerabilities for the greater good, others depict them as threats to national security and privacy. You can see this through two early depictions in the 1995 movies, The Net and Hackers, where The Net is solitary & sober with serious consequences, Hackers is a more youthful, playful illustration of a subculture enjoyed in a group. This duality illustrates the complex relationship society has with this new technology, and to a certain degree, the individuals who create or manipulate it.

A New Viewpoint - Everyone’s So Creative!

As rapid advancements in digital technologies paired with more accessible interfaces surged in the ‘90s, the internet experience opened to more people of diverse backgrounds & skillsets. Artists began to explore their relationship to technology in their practice with tools like Adobe Photoshop, and open-source alternatives like GIMP, which now allowed them to manipulate images, paving a way for new & emergent types of expression.

Diving deeper into hacker culture, artists became drawn to the irreverent hacker mindset of playfully and cleverly manipulating systems to operate in unintended ways. They saw parallels between the hacker approach to manipulating systems, as artists also saw themselves as infiltrating cultural systems to supplant them from the inside.

The idea of "artists as culture hackers" resonated, and the net.art movement of the 90s was born. Adopting the hacker moniker aligned with their subversive agenda of questioning and disturbing the online experience as they played with interfaces and tools to express themselves. Net.artists also further built their own online subcommunities and defined themselves through networked collaboration. They saw themselves as operating on the fringes of art and society, using the internet & technology as the medium.

The net.art movement ran parallel to the rise of "hacktivism”, a form of activism by hacking as a means of protest, targeting organizations for social change or to reveal sensitive information. Typically, they deface official websites, create Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), leak data, and dox people. While some view hacktivists as digital vigilantes fighting for justice, others see them as cybercriminals who disrupt services and invade privacy, as illustrated with the public’s complicated relationship to figures like Julian Assange or the hacktivist group Anonymous.

Hackers Outside of Computer Systems

The hacker mind-set is not confined to this software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music — actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them ‘hackers’ too — and some claim that the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in. *source

Whether we realize it or not, we have already widely-reclaimed the term ‘hacking’. Through our adoption of terms and practices like life hacks, biohacking, growth hacking, social engineering, urban hacking, or even jailbreaking a phone or modding a console, there are already ways we hack everyday.

The spirit of hacking exists in jazz musicians. There’s an old joke that you have to be a really good musician to be a mediocre jazz musician, and I took that seriously. I grew up a classical musician and went to school for it, learning the systems of music making and intricacies of my instruments. So when I started exploring jazz, I hacked my classical music structure knowledge, turned it on its head, and let my deep musicality rip over new patterns and sounds.

The BTS ARMY, my favorite unknowing proto-hacktivist group,  has been involved in several instances of DDoS attacks, primarily targeting police departments or apps that aimed to surveil or intimidate protesters, particularly during the Black Lives Matter movement. You might remember them flooding racist hashtags on social media or police surveillance apps with BTS content, or reserving huge amounts of tickets to political rallies so attendance was shockingly low. This is non-technical hacking where the system gets so inundated with requests, its original function becomes obsolete.

That energy was good and we should keep channeling it.

Lasting Cultural Impact

But if you think of cultivating hacker attitudes as just a way to gain acceptance in the culture, you'll miss the point. Becoming the kind of person who believes these things is important for you — for helping you learn and keeping you motivated. As with all creative arts, the most effective way to become a master is to imitate the mind-set of masters — not just intellectually but emotionally as well. *source

Raising myself as a rebellious classical musician shaped me into the multitool hacker I am today. My thirst for substantial research on systems is a necessary precursor to f*cking said system.

Most people participating in crypto today have some hacker spirit in them. We are, in some way, hacking existing societal systems to maneuver around them with technology. While the obvious parallels to financial systems are the most prominent use case of crypto, as an artist, the hope of alternative funding, provenance, and curation are paving a way for curious minds like mine to use technology to disrupt the archaic systems of the art and entertainment industries. There are use cases in every vertical, and each one tells a story of using technology to improve existing systems.

If this resonates, I encourage anyone inquisitive to use these tools to create better systems for yourself and your communities. I regularly read up on technical topics like  EIPs, new infrastructure solutions, and possibilities in ecosystems other than Eth to piece together what I can use under the hood for my own specific needs.

If nothing else, feed your inner hacker the knowledge to work through stagnant systems.

This is your alarm call to make your own autonomous path.