From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (tao master of existential angst)
Subject:  The Hacker Crackdown (was Re: REQUIRED READING: B. Sterling)
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Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 21:48:07 GMT

In article <1992Oct2.042143.22764@netcom.com> frost@netcom.com (John
Frost) writes: 
|Elsewhere on USENET .......
|
|The Scene..... comp.eff.org.news
|
|	As a student of cyberpunk, computers and myriad other things,
|I was more then thrilled to find a Bruce Sterling essay concerning 
|his reflections on his latest book. This is Sterling's first non-fiction
|book and its subject is HACKING.  (did I get that right?)   However,
|this essay is more than a simple reflection on writing, it is a statement
|of Sterling's ethics.  
|
|	I would place this essay, and probably the book (spoken unseen), 
|high onmy list of must-reads for folx interested in cyberpunk.  You can
|read it on comp.eff.org.news  or ftp it from ftp.eff.org .  

Well, for some reason I haven't gotten around to reading that issue of
EFFector Online (I think it was 3.06) that has Sterling's piece, but I
will right after this....

As far as the book goes, it's called The Hacker Crackdown....

I'm only about 150 pages into it (if I didn't have to sleep I'd be
finished) but I must say, Bruce Sterling proves that not only is he a
wodnerful leader among the cyberpunk literary genre, but that he can
also relate cyberpunk (and beyond) to the here-and-now, and that he is
*very* in tune with what the digital underground is all about....I
must say that the book is a very well-balanced platter of sociological
and psychological perspective, emotional and intellectual prose, and
of course, fun and intriguing facts and myths.....

Right now, if I had to rate the Top 5 books regarding hacking as we
know it, it would look like this:

1.  The Hacker Crackdown
2.  Cyberpunk:  Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier
3.  The Cuckoo's Egg
4.  Computers Under Attack:  Intruders, Worms, and Viruses
5.  Hackers

(hmm, ironically that list reads like a de-evolution of the hacker
world, of sorts)....

Well, anyway, I plan on writing a huge review ofthis wonderful book
when I'm finished with it....

BTW - Bruce Sterling also has another new book out I'm currently
reading, called Globalhead, which is a collection of short stories
that, for the most part, have appeared in other
magazines....Sterling's Russian influence (infatuation?) shows through
on this one, and it ranks about equal to Islands in the Net in terms
of my adoration (with only Mirrorshades being higher, but since that's
an anthology, of course, I would say that Globalhead is among
Sterling's best fiction)...The book might be considered very similar
to Gibson's Burning Chrome collection, in that one can really begin to
see a lot of Sterling's influences and the threads common in all his
work.... 

Anyway, if you're a Sterling fan like I am, than it's happy happy joy
joy time...!

(BTW - Umm, I'm not positive, but I think Globalhead is only available
from Mark Ziesing books...If you need the address, it's in my
FutureCulture FAQ [see my sig]).....

|	I found myself agreeing with almost  all of the positions
|Sterling took in this essay, and would be interested  with other readers
|opinions.  Sterling stated that he expects to be considered an 
|authority on cyberpunk and hacking  for  years to come (although he 
|claimed no such authority himself).  

There is no doubt in my mind....Sterling is about the only author out
there really devoting any meaningful amount of his life to studying
these cultural/sociological/psychological/technological issues from
top to bottom, and well he should, being such an authority on
cyberpunk and the motivations of the cyberpunk world and its cast of
characters.... 

In comparison, Hafner & Markoff might be concerned somehwat
sensationalist - somehwat "on-the-moment", Cliff Stoll (who really
isn't an author to begin with) is more like Sherlock Holmes from
Haight-Ashbury on Acid, Steven Levy is fairly anologous to the old
grampa sitting on the porchbench saying "Why these kids today...." and
he doesn't seem to acknowledge (let alone *appreciate* the evolution of
the hacker spirit)...Umm, I haven't read Out of the Inner Circle, so I
can't really comment on that guy (Bill Landreth is it?), but he surely
hasn't had the influence or degree of importance that Sterling has
obtained on these matters....

There just is no other (public) author out three that can possibly
match Sterling's significance in these issues....I imagine the only
way this could be overcome would be if Sterling co-authored a book
with John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor, Craig Neidorf, Patrick Kroupa,
and Steven Levy...

But, single-handedly, Sterling is the obvious leader...

| He also mentions the need for
|a drastic change, a movement, in society.  I wonder if Sterling, Maddox,
|Gibson et al. are ready to  be the leaders, the instigators, of
|this change"

Well, again, I haven't read Sterling's EFFector, but, after I do I'll
comment, but, if you're referring to a movement in terms of real
hacking, real punks, real cyber, then I'm not so sure if Gibson and
Maddox (though certainly wonderful authors with a near-genius vision)
can lead the country on issues like ISDN, virtual reality, the
psychology of hacking, etc.  But in terms of the cyberpunk literary
genre, then, yeah, I'd say they're the leaders...Along with a few
others, part of the (in?)famous Mirrorshades Group....

--
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