Why do we hack? by Hex Edit

Why do we hack? By Hex Edit 
 
Subtopic: Article     Last modified: Feb 27 2001 02:55:26     Font: +1/-1
 


Why do we hack? Is it to alter webpages and leave some type of
cybergang inner-city graffiti? Is it to laugh in the face of over paid,
under qualified sysadmins? Well for myself, and everyone I associate with,
the answer to both of those would be no. So then, why do we do it? To seek
knowledge? Perhaps… That is definitely an overused and somewhat groundless
excuse. We seek knowledge and wisdom every waking moment. Every breath we
inhale leases us another 3 seconds of learning. Yes breaching a network's
security does without a doubt involve learning. Yet do we not, on
occasion, breach systems using exactly the same the same method as we have
used previously? So in that case, why do we do it? If you have broken one
NT box by guessing the Administrators password, why would we do it again
to a different NT machine? Have we not already learned how to use an IPC$
share to gain the name of the re-named Admin account? We already know how
to glean hidden shares from the afore mentioned null connection. What are
we learning from repeating the task? Nothing. So why then? I suppose the
first few times, is in the hope that you will run into a new challenge.
And sometimes we do, but is it often enough to chalk it all up to the
great quest for knowledge? I personally wonder if that is true. Mabey as
much as we shudder to admit it, it all comes down to two reasons. One is
simply because it is there, and because we can. The other is slightly more
sinister… We are voyeurs. We want to know what interesting stuff is on the
other side. Whether we are corporate voyeurs, or peeping toms rifling
through some hapless 98 users hard drive. Sir Edmond Hillary once said,
when questioned as to why he wished to climb Everest, " Simply because it
is there." Are we really that shallow? Do we do this all simply because we
can? Is the great quest for knowledge nothing more than what we tell
ourselves to appease our conscience? Yet on the other hand I feel that
there must be more to it. Mabey we really do have a primal thirst for
information that isn't readily available to us. Perhaps we have a hidden
side, that no one ever sees. A side that nothing ever senses but our
keyboards. A darker vampiric, hematophagous side that thirsts for the live
giving hemoglobin of information. A part of us so powerful it has altered
our very genetic state. Have we evolved past the majority of our peers?
Have we become demi-gods of a brave new "virtual" world?

If you could imagine for a second, that we were to carry the same
abilities and powers into the real world. What would we see? You are
having and annoying conversation with someone you dislike, in heartbeat
they vanish from site. You could instantly alter every part of your
appearance, as to be totally unrecognizable, or to appear to be someone
else entirely. Any company or person you wished, with a wave of your hand,
they would lose the ability to communicate with anyone else in the world.
You could be a ghost, and ethereally pass through any locked door or alarm
system. You could grab any piece of information you desired from that home
or office, and pass back through it's locked doors, with out any trace. 

Would these abilities not elevate us above normal human status? Is coding
not the act of creation on a God like scale? " I wrote a little telnet app
yesterday." Would translate, " Well you know, it took me a couple of
hours, but I built this nifty little machine that allows me to instantly
teleport myself to anywhere in the world." If that is the translation for
writing a telnet app, what would everyone think of the guys that wrote
Half life? J 

So then back to our lives in this virtual world. Are we Gods? No. To us
there is only one true God. And that is the Internet herself. All of her
protocols, and operating systems. All of her routers, switches, fiber, and
servers. Every tiny part of her, that communicate so eloquently together,
as to create a whole. A whole entire being, that we all reside within.
This is our God. This is whom we choose to worship. So what are we then my
Hacker brethren? We make up less than 1% of all who reside within. Are we
priests? No, I would place that label on the sysadmins, and helpdesk
jockeys who instruct the herd. Perhaps we are Demons? Do demons not belong
to the darkside, to the anti-God? If the Internet is our God, who is our
Devil? Is it possible to have a positive without a negative, a Ying
without a Yang? We must have an anti-God, yet what? I am not sure I know
the answer. Could it be all that seek to control her? All that seek to
bend our God to their gluttonous financial and controlling gain? It sounds
plausible, and don't we battle against these powers? Do we not war against
the very idea of governments and corporations altering our brave new
world? If we are warriors of our God, would that not make us Angels?


Thousands of years from now, our descendants may read their bible and
understand how we all fought gallantly against the forces of darkness to
ensure they lived in a world free of tyranny and oppression. They would
read how the few battled fearlessly against the many, how we couldn't
fathom the far-reaching consequences of our actions. They would marvel at
how many of us were captured and destroyed, with out even knowing why we
had to fight.

So mabey we really don't need to grasp at an ethereal "why". It may all be
pre-ordained, mabey we are just meant to do what we do, and it will all be
revealed further down the long treacherous road. Then again…

It is possible we are all just vitamin E deficient, socially inept humans,
with a burning desire to wreak havoc, and feel power and respect we aren't
afforded in our daily lives. Perhaps it is none of these things, yet that
isn't for me to decide. I personally like the idea of throwing down my
gauntlet, and standing as an avenging angel bedside my God. Ready to war
against all that would seek to harm her.


Hex_Edit

08/02/99