E-SPEAIT T12

20th century hacker ethics and ideals are a curious things in my opinion. The fact they are ethics and ideals, means that not every one who practices the art of hacking follow them or care even the slightest about them. In my perspective thinking about them I can't but help imagine the worst case scenario that could exists even with these ideals existing. However, I myself like the way the ethics are set up in a way that provides logical reasoning for our brains to interpret and rationalize why one practice hacking. Going over the seven ethics Pekka Himanen discusses in his Hacker Ethic, I'll explain my thoughts on each are. 

Passion,  a very important motivator that allows for people to continue on practicing and improving on a chosen skill as long as they feel like their drive for it still remains, I sometimes feel like people often rationalize their sunken cost fallacies as passion in order to not feel that their time has not been worth it. 

Freedom, not being constrained by restrictions and having the ability to ass you please on an environment where you have the capability to, provides a strong motivator for hacking in order to feel free in a world where many feel constrained by regulations and laws they face on a day to day basis.

Work Ethic, this one is an interesting one displaying the ideal behind free form work done by one on their own pace and style allowing for a variety of output and results being displayed by an individual. A valid ethic that applies since while you could attempt to assign a sort of standardized way to go about hacking, it itself isn't a set in stone form of practice.

Money Ethic, this ethic of viewing money as means to something else is an ethic that would wildly vary from individual to individual, some may find purpose in greater goal after accruing a sum of monetary value, while others simply live to reach their wishes that would be granted through having their desired income.

Network Ethic, a sort of collective where the goal is to promote and spread freedom while rebelling against censorship and propaganda, is honestly a valid ethic in the fact that humans like to have a sense of belonging allowing them to feel secure in the fact that we are not alone in this massive world.

Caring, this one is a strange one. While you could argue that people hack because the only thing they have devoted the majority their attention and care in is the art itself, you can argue that there are those who could care less about the practice itself and simply utilize it as a tool in order to reap the benefits and prizes it can offer is one is successful.

Creativity, mentioned as returning to the roots of hacking, I can see where this ethic comes into play. Discovering loopholes, cracks, and creating breaches in security or whatever was the object of attention, displaying the ability to utilize whatever resources one has to achieve their goal in a manner that has the possibility of being unique is a tantalizing prospect to consider.

Overall, the ethics of hacking I believe are mostly sound and reasonable, yet when reading through them I find that I never considered what ethics I follow other than what ideals I myself subconsciously have developed over the years through being exposed to many different scenarios, and situations in life, as well as how I followed those ideals to varying degrees. Fascinatingly, I attempted to think about how I act in a day to day basis, and what drives me as a human being, to continue doing what I do, and found that it's rather difficult to put into words and ordered sentences. I believe that not even a thorough collection of ethics and ideals can fully explain or delve into the reasoning's an individual may have.