Lush Future #6 - Hacker Culture Goes Mainstream  (with Tom Secker)
Channel: Lush Future
Date: 2014-12-02

Interview with Tom Secker, from SpyCulture & Humanarchy
http://spyculture.com
http://humanarchy.net

Mike was fortunate enough to be able to sit down and discuss with Tom Secker "hacker culture going mainstream" for just over an hour.

Unfortunately, the final 10 minutes of the conversation has been lost due to my being a newbie at this recording thing. 

We look forward to continuing this discussion with Tom in the very near future.

--- Show Notes:

"Hacker culture" intitially began as a community whose only participants were largely considered (even by their peers) to be social-outcast-basement-dwelling-computer-guys (often self-identifying as such).

As a result of both corporate and governmental forces, 'hacker culture' has since been co-opted and integrated into mainstream culture for profit, consolidation of power, and restriction of competing models.

What is 'hacking'?
 Originally, 'hacking' was a term used by the TMRC, or Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT to describe suping up model trains by modifying various parts of the system.

@7:00 "Hackers Wanted [Full Documentary]" via YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKmATihzSTA

"It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. Activities that display playful cleverness have 'hack value'. "
    - Richard Stallman 
https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html

Hackers are also self-admittedly separate from others as a community. For reference, some "Jargon File" (or jargon.txt) definitions from 1988:

REAL USER n. 1. A commercial user. One who is paying "real" money for his computer usage. 2. A non-hacker. Someone using the system for an explicit purpose (research project, course, etc.). See USER.
USER n. A programmer who will believe anything you tell him. One who asks questions. Identified at MIT with "loser" by the spelling "luser". See REAL USER.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon_File

@10:14 Question: Did "spy culture" make "hacker culture" seem cool?

@15:34 "None Of The Hackers The FBI Wants To Hire Can Pass A Drug Test" via Design & Trend
http://www.designntrend.com/articles/14242/20140521/none-hackers-fbi-hire-pass-drug-tests.htm

@18:45 Question: How did "Hackers Wanted" change your perspective?

ClandesTime 024: The Intelligence Industrial Complex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05o67Zhr2P4

Data Is the New Oil of the Digital Economy
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/data-new-oil-digital-economy/

@22:50 Question: Would corporate influence have the same effect as government in terms of affecting main-stream media?

@25:29 "Hacker culture is only one example of how this whole overarching process is working." - Tom Secker

@32:27 Question: When did being a 'hacker' become cool (if it ever become cool)? Can we blame James Bond?

ClandesTime 007: The James Bond Wannabes
http://www.spyculture.com/clandestime-episode-007-the-james-bond-wannabes/

@37:56 Adrian Lamo in "Hackers Wanted"

@47:50 "The Fappening Gets Banned By Reddit, But It Wasn’t The Worst Subreddit On The Site" via Inquisitr
http://www.inquisitr.com/1458377/the-fappening-gets-banned-by-reddit-but-it-wasnt-the-worst-subreddit-on-the-site/

"'The Snappening' Hack May Leak Up to 200,000 Sensitive Snapchat Photos" via Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/snappening-hack-may-leak-200000-sensitive-snapchat-photos-276896