by Steven Levy
As was the case with Gates, Zuckerberg is often accused of turning his back on hacker ideals because he refused to allow other sites to access the information that Facebook users contribute. But Zuckerberg says that the truth is just the opposite; his company piggybacks on—and builds on—the free flow of information. “I never had this thing where I wanted to have information that other people didn’t,” he says. “I just thought it should all be more available. The world was becoming more open and more access to information was really good. From everything I read, that’s a very core part of hacker culture. Like ‘Information wants to be free’ and all that.”
A previous generation of hackers—and I—worried that the world of commerce would choke off innovation and stymie a burgeoning cultural movement. But hackerism has survived and thrived, a testament to its flexibility and its power. According to computer book publisher Tim O’Reilly—who fosters hackerism through his Foo Camp "unconferences“—the hacking culture will always find new outlets. (It’s no coincidence that this new edition of Hackers is under the O’Reilly imprint.) Big business may stumble upon and commodify hackers’ breakthroughs, but the hackers will simply move on to new frontiers. “It’s like that line in Last Tango in Paris,” O’Reilly says, “where Marlon Brando says, ‘It’s over, and then it begins again.’”
The current frontier for hackers, O’Reilly says, is not the purely mathematical realm of ones and zeros, but actual stuff—taking the same tear-it-down-and-built-it-anew attitude that programmers once took to compilers, and applying it to power-generating kites and body parts. (O’Reilly publishes Make magazine and runs the Maker Faire festivals, celebrations of this DIY spirit.) “DIY is really another word for hacking,” he says. But even this area, he points out, has begun the shift towards entrepreneurship. O’Reilly says the action now is in DIY biology—manipulating cell’s genetic code in a way a previous generation of hackers manipulated computer code. “It’s still in the fun stage.”
Just ask Bill Gates. If he were a teenager again, he’d be biology hacking. “Creating artificial life with DNA synthesis. That’s sort of the equivalent of machine language programming,” says Gates, whose work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has led him to become a didactic expert in disease and immunology. “If you want to change the world in some big way, that’s where you should start—biological molecules. Those are all pretty deep problems that need the same type of crazy fanaticism of youthful genius and naiveté that drove the PC industry, and can have the same impact on the human condition.”
In other words, Gates expects hackers to be the heroes of the next revolution, too. Sounds good to me.
—Steven Levy May 2010
Appendix D. Notes
The main source of information for Hackers was over a hundred personal interviews conducted in 1982 and 1983. Besides these, I refer to a number of written sources.
Part One
Chapter 1 Some of the TMRC jargon was codified by Peter Samson in the unpublished "An Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language," circa 1959. This was apparently the core of a hacker dictionary, kept online at MIT for years, which eventually was expanded to The Hacker Dictionary by Gus Steele et al. (New York: Harper & Row, 1983).
Chapter 1 Samson’s poem printed in F.O.B., the TMRC newsletter, Vol. VI, No. 1 (Sept. 1960).
Chapter 1 “. . . stories abounded . . .” See Philip J. Hilts’ Scientific Temperaments: Three Lives in Contemporary Science (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982).
Chapter 2 For IBM background, see Katharine Davis Fishman’s The Computer Establishment (New York: Harper & Row, 1981).
Chapter 3 In addition to personal interviews, some information on Spacewar was gleaned from J.M. Garetz’s article, "The Origin of Spacewar!" in Creative Computing Video and Arcade Games, as well as the same author’s paper, “Spacewar: Real-time Capability of the PDP-1,” presented in 1962 before the Digital Equipment Computer Users’ Society, and Stewart Brand’s "Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums,” in Rolling Stone, Dec. 7, 1972.
Chapter 3 “What the user wants . . .” McCarthy quoted from his Time Sharing Computer Systems (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962).
Chapter 4 How the Peg Solitaire game works is described in "Hakmem,” by M. Beeler et al. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AI Lab Memo No. 239, Feb. 1972).
Chapter 4 Gosper’s memo is part of “Hakmem,” above.
Chapter 4 Simon is quoted from Pamela McCorduck’s Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1979), a book I found extremely helpful for background on the planners of the AI lab.
Chapter 6 Donald Eastlake’s report was "ITS Status Report" (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AI Lab Memo No. 238, Apr. 1972).
Chapter 7 Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1976).
Chapter 7 Bruce Buchanan quoted in the “Introduction to the Memo Series of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory” (Stanford University Heuristic Programming Project, Report No. HPP-83–25).
Chapter 7 Besides the “Mathematical Games” column in the October 1970 and November 1970 Scientific American, Martin Gardner writes at length on Conway’s LIFE in his Wheels, Life, and Other Mathematical Amusements (New York: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1983), which mentions Gosper prominently.
Part Two
Chapter 8 Benway’s message and other electronic missives on the system were found in Community Memory’s extensive scrap-books kept on the project.
Chapter 8 Felsenstein’s quote from his four-page “Biographical Background Information,” dated Jan. 29, 1983.
Chapter 8 Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100 (New York: Signet, 1954).
Chapter 8 A first-person account of Albrecht’s activities in the early 1960s is found in "A Modern-Day Medicine Show,” Datamation, July 1963.
Chapter 8 “. . . the possibility of millions . . .” See John Kemeny, Man and the Computer (New York: Scribners, 1972), quoted in Robert A. Kahn, “Creative Play with the Computer: A Course for Children,” unpublished paper written for the Lawrence Hall of Science. Berkeley, California.
Chapter 8 “. . . dymaxion . . .” See Hugh Kenner, Bucky: A Guided Tour of Buckminster Fuller (New York: Morrow, 1973).
Chapter 8 Back issues of PCC, generously provided by Bob Albrecht, were particularly helpful for information about early seventies Bay Area hacking.
Chapter 8 Ted Nelson, Computer Lib/Dream Machines (self-published, distributed by The Distributors, South Bend, Ind., 1974).
Chapter 8 Brautigan’s poem is in The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (New York: Dell, Laurel, 1973). Reprinted with permission.
Chapter 8 “. . . a manipulator . . .” William Burroughs in Naked Lunch (New York: Grove Press. 1959).
Chapter 9 Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1973).
Chapter 9 “. . .in honor of the American folk hero . . .” See Felsenstein’s paper. “The Tom Swift Terminal. A Convivial Cybernetic Device,” Journal of Community Communications, June 1975.
Chapter 9 For background on the evolution of the microchip and its effect on the Silicon Valley, see Dirk Hansen’s The New Alchemists (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982).
Chapter 9 “Moore seemed to get the money . . .” See Thomas Albright and Charles Moore, “The Last Twelve Hours of the Whole Earth,” Rolling Stone, July 8. 1971. Maureen Orth followed up the story for Rolling Stone in “Whole Earth $$$ Demise Continues” (March 16, 1972).
Chapter 9 The leaflet was reprinted in the first issue of Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter (HBCCN), which I found invaluable for research in this section.
Chapter 11 Pittman’s article was published in The Second West Coast Computer Faire Proceedings Jim Warren, ed. (Palo Alto: Computer Faire, 1978).
Chapter 11 “When [Marsh] had little else . . .” Felsenstein’s article, “Sol: The Inside Story,” appeared in t
he first issue (July 1977) of the short-lived ROM magazine.
Chapter 12 The Esquire article. “Secrets of the Black Box,” by Ron Rosenbaum, is reprinted in his Rebirth of the Salesman: Tales of the Song and Dance 70’s (New York: Delta, 1979).
Chapter 12 “The winning isn’t as important . . .” An unpublished interview with journalist Doug Garr.
Chapter 12 Some of the Draper information was drawn from Donn Parker’s Fighting Computer Crime (New York: Scribners, 1983).
Chapter 12 “Fidel Castro beard . . .” See Paul Ciotti, "Revenge of the Nerds,” California, July 1982.
Chapter 12 “Prepare for blastoff . . .” See Elizabeth Fairchild, “The First West Coast Computer Faire,” ROM, July 1977.
Chapter 12 Nelson’s speech is reprinted in The First West Coast Computer Faire Proceedings, Jim Warren, ed. (Palo Alto: Computer Faire, 1977).
Part Three
Chapter 14 The Carpetbaggers (New York: Pocket Books, 1961).
Chapter 14 The letter was printed in Purser’s Magazine, Winter 1981.
Chapter 15 “One participant later explained to a reporter . . .” The reporter was from Softline, another Tommervik publication, this one started with funds from the Williamses. Both Softline and Softalk provided considerable background information on the Brotherhood.
Chapter 16 “. . . towel designers . . .” See John F. Hubner and William F. Kistner, “What Went Wrong at Atari?”—an article reprinted in InfoWorld, Nov. 28, 1983, and Dec. 5, 1983. Other background on Atari from Steve Bloom’s Video Invaders (New York: Arco, 1982).
Chapter 19 “. . . interviewed in an article . . .” See Lee Gnomes, “Secrets of the Software Pirates,” Esquire, January 1982.
Appendix A “does not mean . . .” Stallman stored several “flames” (impassioned writings) on the MIT computer system, including “Essay,” “Gnuz,” and “Wiezenbomb.” The quote is from his autobiographical “Essay.”
Appendix A “that they give back all extensions . . .” From Stallman’s “Essay.”
Appendix A “It is painful for me . . .” “Essay.”
Appendix E. Acknowledgments
I’m indebted to many people who assisted me in various ways while I was working on Hackers. First, to the people who agreed to be interviewed for the book. Some were veterans of this sort of journalistic exchange; others had only spoken to interviewers on technical matters, and hadn’t spoken of the personal or philosophical nature of hacking before; others just hadn’t spoken to people like me. Almost all spoke freely and candidly; I think it not coincidental that hackers are as free in conversation, once they get started, as they are with sharing computer code. Many of the following consented to multiple interviews, and often follow-up calls to verify facts or clarify technical details.
My conversations with them were the backbone of the book, and I would like to thank, in alphabetical order, Arthur Abraham, Roe Adams, Bob Albrecht, Dennis Allison, Larry Bain, Alan Baum, Mike Beeler, Dorothy Bender, Bill Bennett, Chuck Benton, Bob and Carolyn Box, Keith Britton, Lois Britton, Bill Budge, Chuck Bueche, David Bunnell, Doug Carlston, Gary Carlston, Marie Cavin, Mary Ann Cleary, Bob Clements, Tracy Coats, David Crane, Edward Currie, Rick Davidson, Bob Davis, Jack Dennis, Peter Deutsch, Steve Dompier, John Draper, Dan Drew, Mark Duchaineau, Les Earnest, Don Eastlake, Doug Englebart, Chris Espinosa, Lee Felsenstein, LeRoy Finkel, Howard Franklin, Bob Frankston, Ed Fredkin, Gordon French, Martin Garetz, Harry Garland, Richard Garriott, Lou Gary, Bill Gates, Bill Godbout, Vincent Golden, Dave Gordon, Ralph Gorin, Dan Gorlin, Bill Gosper, Richard Greenblatt, Margaret Hamilton, Eric Hammond, John Harris, Brian Harvey, Ted Hoff, Kevin Hunt, Chris Iden, Jerry Jewell, Robert Kahn, David Kidwell, Gary Kildall, Tom Knight, Joanne Koltnow, Alan Kotok, Marc LeBrun, Bob Leff, Mike Levitt, Efrem Lipkin, David Lubar, Olaf Lubeck, John McCarthy, John McKenzie, Robert Maas, Patricia Mariott, Bob Marsh, Roger Melen, Jude Milhon, Marvin Minsky, Fred Moore, Stewart Nelson, Ted Nelson, Jim Nitchals, Russ Noftsker, Kenneth Nussbacher, Rob O’Neal, Peter Olyphant, Adam Osborne, Bill Pearson, Tom Pittman, Larry Press, Malcolm Rayfield, Robert Reiling, Randy Rissman, Ed Roberts, Steve Russell, Peter Samson, Bob Saunders, Warren Schwader, Gil Segal, Vic Sepulveda, David Silver, Dan Sokol, Les Solomon, Marty Spergel, Richard Stallman, Jeff Stephenson, Ivan Strand, Jay Sullivan, Dick Sunderland, Gerry Sussman, Tom Tatum, Dick Taylor, Robert Taylor, Dan Thompson, Al Tommervik, Margot Tommervik, Mark Turmell, Robert Wagner, Jim Warren, Howard Warshaw, Joseph Weizenbaum, Randy Wigginton, John Williams, Ken Williams, Roberta Williams, Terry Winograd, Donald Woods, Steve Wozniak, and Fred Wright.
I would like to particularly thank those of the above who gave me extraordinary amounts of attention, people who include (but are not limited to) Lee Felsenstein, Bill Gosper, Richard Greenblatt, Peter Samson, Ken Williams, and Roberta Williams.
During the course of my research I was benefited by the hospitality of institutions that included the MIT Computer Science Library, the Stanford Library, the Computer Museum, the Lawrence Hall of Science, and the University of California Library.
On my travels to California and Cambridge, I benefited from the hospitality of Phyllis Coven, Art Kleiner, Bill Mandel, and John Williams. Lori Carney and others typed up thousands of pages of transcripts. Viera Morse’s exacting copy editing kept me linguistically honest. Magazine editors David Rosenthal and Rich Friedman gave me work that kept me going. Good advice was given by fellow computer scribes Doug Garr, John Markoff, Deborah Wise, and members of the Lunch Group. Support and cheerleading came from my parents, my sister Diane Levy, friends Larry Barth, Bruce Buschel, Ed Kaplan, William Mooney, Randall Rothenberg, David Weinberg, and many others—they know who they are—who will have to accept this insufficient mention.
The book was also a product of the enthusiasm and patience of my agent, Pat Berens, and my editor, James Raimes, who encouraged me mightily. Those terms also apply to Teresa Carpenter, who coped magnificently with the book and its author through the long process of research and writing.
Finally, thanks to Steve Wozniak for designing that Apple II on which I wrote the book. Had it not been for the revolution which I address in Hackers, my labors might have continued for another year, just to get a clean draft out of my typewriter.
Appendix F. About the Author
Steven Levy is a senior writer for Wired. Previously, he was chief technology writer and a senior editor for Newsweek. Levy has written six books and had articles published in Harper’s, Macworld, the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, Premiere, and Rolling Stone. Steven has won several awards during his 30-plus years of writing about technology, including Hackers, which PC Magazine named the best sci-tech book written in the last twenty years, and Crypto, which won the grand ebook prize at the 2001 Frankfurt Book festival.
Index
A note on the digital index
A link in an index entry is displayed as the section title in which that entry appears. Because some sections have multiple index markers, it is not unusual for an entry to have several links to the same section. Clicking on any link will take you directly to the place in the text in which the marker appears.
Symbols
25th Hacker’s Conference, Afterword: 2010
8080 chip, Tiny BASIC
A
Acculators, Greenblatt and Gosper
Adams, Roe, Summer Camp
ADD (command), Revolt in 2100
Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA), Spacewar, Life, Life, Life
Adventure Development Language (ADL), The Wizard and the Princess, Summer Camp
Adventure game, Life
Adventure-style games, The Wizard and the Princess, The Wizard and the Princess, The Brotherhood
Albrecht, Bob, Revolt in 2100, Revolt in 2100, Every Man a God, The Homebrew Computer Club, Tiny BASIC
Alchemy and Artificial Intelligence, Greenblatt and Gosper
Algorithm, The Hacker Ethic
Alkabeth game, Applefest
Allen, Paul, Tiny BASIC, Tiny
BASIC, Tiny BASIC
Allison, Dennis, Tiny BASIC
Altair, Every Man a God, Every Man a God, Every Man a God, The Homebrew Computer Club, The Homebrew Computer Club, The Homebrew Computer Club
Altair BASIC, Tiny BASIC
Altair Users Newsletter, Tiny BASIC
Antic chip (Atari), The Third Generation
Apollo 17 moon shot, Life
Apple computer, The Wizard and the Princess, The Wizard and the Princess, The Brotherhood, The Brotherhood, The Third Generation, Summer Camp, Frogger, Frogger, Applefest, Wizard vs. Wizards, Wizard vs. Wizards
Apple Computer Company, Woz, Woz, Secrets, The Brotherhood, Afterword: 2010
Apple II computer, Woz, The Wizard and the Princess, Summer Camp, Afterword: 2010
design, Woz
Apple World, The Brotherhood, The Brotherhood
Applefest, Applefest, Applefest
Arcade games, The Brotherhood
Art of Computer Programming, The (Knuth), Life
Artificial intelligence (AI), The Tech Model Railroad Club, The Hacker Ethic