...................................
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. 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? I am a hacker, enter my world...Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter
than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...Damn underachiever. They're all
alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth
time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it
in my head..." Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike. I made a discovery today. I
found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake,
it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...or feels threatened by me...
or thinks I'm a smart ass...Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike. And then it happened... a door opened
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. "This is it...this is where I belong..." I know everyone here...even if I've never
meet them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all... Damn kid.
Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike... You bet your ass we're all alike...
we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that
you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or
ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but
those few are like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now... the world of the
electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing
without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you
call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you
call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias...
and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to
us and try to make us believe it's or our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a
criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say
and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you
will never forgive me for.
I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop
us all. After all, we're all alike.
Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...Damn kids. They're all alike. 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? I am a hacker, enter my world...Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter
than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...Damn underachiever. They're all
alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth
time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it
in my head..." Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike. I made a discovery today. I
found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake,
it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...or feels threatened by me...
or thinks I'm a smart ass...Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike. And then it happened... a door opened
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. "This is it...this is where I belong..." I know everyone here...even if I've never
meet them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all... Damn kid.
Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike... You bet your ass we're all alike...
we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that
you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or
ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but
those few are like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now... the world of the
electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing
without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you
call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you
call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias...
and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to
us and try to make us believe it's or our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a
criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say
and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you
will never forgive me for.
I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop
us all. After all, we're all alike.