Disecting The Hacker Manifesto

Conscience of a Hacker is an essay written by Lloyd Blankenship in 1986 under the pseudonym The Mentor. The Mentor was a member of the original hacker group known as the Legion of Doom, which was well known and is still one of the most recognized hacker groups in history.

Widely considered the most influential piece of literature on the hacker subculture, Conscience of a Hacker, which later became known as The Hacker's Manifesto, was written while Blankenship was serving a prison term and was published by the popular Phrack e-zine "Volume 7, Issue 3." The Hacker's Manifesto has made numerous appearances in several literature pieces and movies, including the movie Hackers (1995). It has been copy-pasted into numerous articles, white-papers, forum postings, boards, and all manner of internet publications.

But what does it really say?

(Image by Freddy 'Blade Genexis' Garcia)

It has been speculated by many what this essay really meant, but never have I seen it explained by a hacker who embraces the mindset and subculture to his core. In recognition of The Mentor's brilliantly worded essay that has shaped and so accurately defined the hacker mindset, this is my attempt to explain from a hacker's perspective exactly what was meant.

Despite being in prison at the time of writing, Conscience of a Hacker was never a piece written in anger, nor was it an admission of guilt. In 1986, the subculture of hackers was just blossoming, and the field of computer security had yet to be adequately defined. Then, hacking was an activity considered solely reserved for cyber-criminals and pranksters. It had yet to be considered a beneficial field of study. A social stigma had been created that threw hackers into an extremely negative light. To the rest of the world who did not and could not appreciate computers and the internet as we did, we were addicts, delinquents, criminals, and yes, terrorists.

(Clip from Hackers (Film, 1995))

The one good thing I can say about this movie, despite my mixed feelings about it, it certainly did capture the hacker mindset and desire to be recognized as something more than just a criminal. Though fictional, this moment in this movie did capture a very large majority of public opinion about hackers. Law-enforcement, for the most part, could not see computer hackers as anything more than that.

Blankenship wrote the Hacker's Manifesto mostly out of idle boredom and for the sake of his friends that ran the Phrack e-zine. His publication shortly followed the film "WarGames" starring Matthew Brodrick. This film, which intended to make hacking seem cool, instead sparked a public panic about hackers, thinking that they could start a nuclear war like what happens in the movie. (Apparently, people didn't get the memo that not everything they see in films is real.) This was just another in a long series of events that sparked a great deal of disdain and discomfort about the word "hack." 

Because of this, Blankenship wrote the Hacker's Manifesto as his way of sparking a social revolution, to change the perspective of society about hackers, and to empathize with others like himself who were suffering under the societal norm that ostracized them. He wanted to explain what hacking meant to him, to hackers, and what it should mean to the world.

_________________________________________________________________________________

What is the Hacker Manifesto?

The Hacker Manifesto embodies the identity and most fundamental ideas of what it means to be a hacker. Young hackers start as just computer addicts. The older generations who barely use or are outright frustrated by computers cannot hope to understand the kind of  joy we get from using one. With computers, we can reach across the world in a matter of seconds. That is amazing!

"Another one got caught today. It's all over the papers. 'Teenager arrested in computer crime scandal.' 'Hacker arrested after bank tampering'. Damn kids. They're all alike."

Blankenship begins the essay describing the general public opinion about hackers and the "Generation X" that is primarily concerned with the growing love for technology and becoming absorbed in a world they cannot and do not want to understand.

"But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?

A challenge is delivered to society and the authorities about whether they are willing to understand how and why a hacker is created. The point is more deliberate than you may think, because then, there was no understanding. Hackers were hackers; criminals were criminals. The world saw us as one in the same. The next few paragraphs, obviously, is a story of a young man, smarter than average. Like so many who possess the gift of intelligence, he is punished for his excellence because he does not follow the norm. He does not fit in the box that his teachers and peers want to stuff him into. With time, he grows bored and frustrated with the ease of it all, and because he does not fit within the norm, there is a subconscious disdain for him.

"Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike."

They assume the worst of him.


He discovers his passion for computing, programming, networking, and gaming. It's the one place where he can escape into something that he understands, and that understands him back.

"Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike."

But others do not understand...

"And then it happened... A door to a world... Rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought.... A board is found.

The underground bulletin board systems (old versions of web forums) where the early hackers gathered were a haven of knowledge and a community that could not have existed without the internet and the determined users of it that made it the way it was - free. It was our escape. And the lucky few who found this place filled with people like them found contentment and the knowledge they had been looking for so long.

"Damn kid, tying up the phone line again."

If you think it's as simple as a phone-call, you are painfully mistaken. The infrastructure that spans our globe like a giant spiderweb of information highways, transmitting and receiving tiny electric signals by the millions at the speed of light, is more complex than any but the most patient and dedicated student can hope to understand. The greatest travesty is that the older or unaware minds who do not understand it will belittle, rather than praise, the bright minds that can.

" 'This is it. This is where I belong.' I know everyone here. Even if I never meet them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again, I know you all... "

Of all the people in the world, the only ones who understand are the ones like us - the addicts, the damned kids, the gamers, and the geeks. 

The Hacker's Manifesto exemplifies the frustration and the weariness of the minority which is treated like a nuisance. Our only escape from "the day-to-day incompetencies" is the cyber-world. It is our retreat from the mundane, the one refuge we can go to that has what we want. Knowledge.

"We've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak."

The real hacker is an idealist, hoping to live in a world where knowledge is spread out before us like a banquet. We beg the question, "Why so many secrets? What is it that you do not want us to see/know?"

"Those that were willing to teach found us willing pupils. But those few are like drops of water in the desert." 

Hackers are not pranksters, they are tinkerers, researchers, and scientists. We break things down to build them up. We do what is unorthodox or difficult because we love the challenge, pushing the limits of what can be done, and flex the rules about what should be done like rubber. We share our knowledge freely without any other expectation than you will share it with others.

"We make use of a service for free what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons. Yet you call us criminals. "

Shortly before the time of writing, the internet was not controlled by datacenters and massive network backbones. The internet was a stream of computers, ordinary home computers, all linked together in a massive chain that branched in all directions and met more links that branched further. It was run by hackers, even if they did not define themselves that way. We never needed Internet Service Providers, they simply bought all the wires and funneled them to one place to make money. Yes, they made it easier, but they also made it expensive. It never had to be that way. 

Thankfully, that is changing, very slowly, but gradually. You now know it as 'The Internet of Things." You can thank the pirates and hackers for that. 

"We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias...  And you call us criminals."

Behind a computer, we are not what we look like, we are what we say, what we think, and what we do. On the web, we are more honest about the real us than two lovers in the physical world are. 

"You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us, and try to make us believe it is for our own good, yet we're the criminals."

Make no mistake, governments are a necessary evil. It it is not your friend. They govern people because people cannot govern themselves. Hackers are different. We value each other and ourselves by our reputation, our skills, and our ethics. There are harsh penalties for breaking the unwritten rules of our world, but here, everyone is free. We govern ourselves, and we do it well. 

"Yes, I am a criminal... "

We will wear this label you place on us because we know what it means. You fear us, and you do not understand us. You label things to control them and keep them unorganized, but you will find  out just oh so difficult it is to control us. 

"My crime is that of curiosity. "

I am not satisfied with the answers you give. I am not content with the reality you place before me. I see through the veil that you want to cover my eyes with. 

I question you; therefore, I am a threat. 

"My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like."

I am more honest, and more insightful than you can ever hope to be. I ignore the superficial generalities and seek the details, the things that matter. 

I am different; therefore, I am dangerous. 

"My crime is that of outsmarting you, something you will never forgive me for."

I call out your lies. I point out your deficiencies. I defeat your opinion with fact. You distract the crowd, while I show the truth. I can beat you at every turn, and try as you may, your every attempt to stop me ends in failure. 

I am free; therefore, I am your enemy.

"I am a hacker. This is my manifesto. You may stop this individual but you cannot stop us all. After all, we're all alike."

Every true hacker embraces the hacker ethic in one way or another. We support free speech, freedom of information, press, fairness, and most importantly, we value honesty and knowledge where it can be found. 

Ours is an ideal that seems impossible, but nevertheless this is, in fact, our manifesto. We demand something better of each other and expect everyone to abide by the simple rule of 'Do no harm.'

We realize we are not normal, and we like it that way. We do not want normal, we want better. We are always striving for the best possible result without ever being satisfied. We push the boundaries of what can and should be done.

We do not submit to people that say we should fall in lime, obey the rules, don't make waves, and listen to what we're told. 

That is what being a hacker means. That is our manifesto.