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Lush Future #6 - “Hacker Culture Goes Mainstream” 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