Hackers (They're Not What Most People Think)

One of the most egregiously abused words in recent years has been the word hacker. The term hacker was coined in the 1950s at MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club (http://tmrc.mit.edu/hackers-ref.html). The term was used to describe members of the club who were are exceptionally clever at problem solving. When MIT got a computer, a subset of the model train club also became part of the computer club, and they brought the term hacker with them to describe programmers who were exceptionally clever and playful at solving problems using computers.

The abuse of the term began in the mid-1980s with a misunderstanding by a journalist writing about computer security-breaking who interviewed the hackers at MIT's Artficial Intelligence Lab. The writer wrongly attributed the term hacker to computer security breaking, and published it in a paper. Then the mainstream media picked this up and it has perpetually misused the term ever since.

The unfortunate consequence of this confusion is the inadvertent vilification of all people who have ever been given the honorific of hacker. This is why intelligent people are fighting back by using the word correctly. Even Mark Zuckerberg uses the word correctly, as he demonstrated in his “hacker way” manifesto to investors before his company went public.

A clever and playful chef can be referred to as a “food hacker.”

A clever and playful writer can be referred to as a “word hacker.”

A computer security-breaker is generally neither clever nor playful (although there are exceptions), so it's incorect to call him a hacker. He is more properly referred to as a cracker (think “safe-crackers” who crack safes).

To refer to crackers as hackers is to overgeneralize. It would be like calling all NASCAR drivers Asian just because you saw one or two Asian NASCAR drivers. Imagine a young racing fan seeing Dale Earnhardt and saying, Look, mama! It's an Asian!

I sort of have to disagree on security-breaker being not generally clever, it really is a skill to be able to execute and perform exploitations of a system and that not everyone can do this without learning a great deal. I think this is a misconception between cracker and script kiddies, where script kiddies are like sheep who can only follow on what others have already done and use tools that were created as proof of concept which in turn gets created over and over again by other programmers (stealing others credit) and released into the wild.Even for a safe cracker, there is skill needed to do such a thing. Breaking a combination would be more skillful than using explosives to break in. Although not technically skillful in using explosives it still may have required some calculation in ensuring that it would actually work. I think I would have more chance getting into a safe using explosives than cracking the combination. So it seems that the knowledge that proves it works can be considered the skill. However, even those who can theorise potential probability can also be considered in the same group, even if no proof exists. It just fascinates their ideas and people either truly understand it or play along like they do.I think the issue here is the need to categorise people and although I feel this is being a stereotype it's not suitable to just put people into single categories. I have faced problems with being stereotyped and it's because people know me from one thing or the other. I'm good with computers, good at programming but I'm also good at boxing and playing the guitar. The people who have seen me box and play guitar, may not even know that I'm good with computers and those who have seen me on a computer may not know that I can box or play guitar and this is where I get categorised as a person who can only do one of those things when my knowledge actually reaches further than computing. Maybe I just need to walk into the ring holding a laptop and a guitar so that everyone can see what I am like outside of the ring.Cheers,MC

to be a hacker is perfectly fine... i think when one becomes a cracker, that's when you break the laws