Editing Hacker ethic (section)

==History==
The hacker ethic originated at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in the 1950s–1960s. The term "[[hacker]]" has long been used there to describe college pranks that MIT students would regularly devise, and was used more generally to describe a project undertaken or a product built to fulfill some constructive goal, but also out of pleasure for mere involvement.<ref>''Hackers''. pg 9</ref>

MIT housed an early [[IBM 704]] computer inside the Electronic Accounting Machinery (EAM) room in 1959. This room became the staging grounds for early hackers, as MIT students from the [[Tech Model Railroad Club]] sneaked inside the EAM room after hours to attempt programming the 30-ton, {{convert|9|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} computer.
[[File:Great Dome, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aug 2019.jpg|thumb|The Hacker Ethic originated at MIT.]]
[[File:Hacker111.jpg|thumb|Hackers in action]]

The hacker ethic was described as a "new way of life, with a philosophy, an ethic and a dream". However, the elements of the hacker ethic were not openly debated and discussed; rather they were implicitly accepted and silently agreed upon.<ref>''Hackers''. pg. 26</ref>

The [[free software movement]] was born in the early 1980s from followers of the hacker ethic.  Its founder, [[Richard Stallman]], is referred to by Steven Levy as "the last true hacker".<ref>See the title and content of the Epilogue to [[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution]]</ref>

Richard Stallman describes:

<blockquote>"The hacker ethic refers to the feelings of right and wrong, to the ethical ideas this community of people had—that knowledge should be shared with other people who can benefit from it, and that important resources should be utilized rather than wasted."<ref>[http://memex.org/meme2-04.html MEME 2.04] (1996)</ref></blockquote>

and states more precisely that hacking (which Stallman defines as playful cleverness) and ethics are two separate issues:

<blockquote>"Just because someone enjoys hacking does not mean he has an ethical commitment to treating other people properly. Some hackers care about ethics—I do, for instance—but that is not part of being a hacker, it is a separate trait. [...] Hacking is not primarily about an ethical issue. <br />[...] hacking tends to lead a significant number of hackers to think about ethical questions in a certain way. I would not want to completely deny all connection between hacking and views on ethics."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-hack.html| title = The Hacker Community and Ethics: An Interview with Richard M. Stallman, 2002}}</ref></blockquote>The hacker culture has been compared to early [[Protestantism]] {{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}. Protestant [[Sectarianism|sectarians]] emphasized individualism and loneliness, similar to hackers who have been considered loners and nonjudgmental individuals. The notion of moral indifference between hackers characterized the persistent actions of computer culture in the 1970s and early 1980s. According to Kirkpatrick, author of ''The Hacker Ethic'', the "computer plays the role of God, whose requirements took priority over the human ones of sentiment when it came to assessing one's duty to others."
[[File:Protestant majority countries (2010).svg|thumb|Where protestant ideals and mannerisms became popular.]]

According to Kirkpatrick's ''The Hacker Ethic:''

"Exceptional single-mindedness and determination to keep plugging away at a problem until the optimal solution had been found are well-documented traits of the early hackers. Willingness to work right through the night on a single programming problem are widely cited as features of the early 'hacker' computer culture." 

The hacker culture is placed in the context of 1960s youth culture when American youth culture challenged the concept of [[capitalism]] and big, centralized structures. The hacker culture was a subculture within 1960s counterculture. The hackers' main concern was challenging the idea of technological expertise and authority. The 1960s hippy period attempted to "overturn the machine." Although hackers appreciated technology, they wanted regular citizens, and not big corporations, to have power over technology "as a weapon that might actually undermine the authority of the expert and the hold of the monolithic system."