The Computer Underground Essays (9957 words) - Hacker Culture

The Computer Underground THE BAUDY WORLD OF THE BYTE BANDIT: A POSTMODERNIST INTERPRETATION OF THE COMPUTER UNDERGROUND Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas Department of Sociology Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115 (5 March, 1990) An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Society of Criminology annual meetings, Reno (November 9, 1989). Authors are listed in alphabetical order. Address correspondence to Jim Thomas. We are indebted to the numerous anonymous computer underground participants who provided information. Special acknowledgement goes to Hatchet Molly, Jedi, The Mentor, Knight Lightning, and Taran King. ABSTRACT The criminalization of "deviant acts" transforms social meanings into legal ones. Yet, legal meanings are not necessari- ly social meanings. The legitimacy of statutory social control generally requires that one accept the realist textual readings of those with the power to interpret and stigmatize behaviors as inappropriate. "Moral crusades" that lead to definitions of criminalized deviance tend to reduce the meanings of polysemic acts to unidimensional ones that limit understanding of both the nature of the acts and their broader relationship to the culture in which they occur. This has occured with the criminalization of computer phreaking and hacking. In this paper, we examine the computer underground as a cultural, rather than a deviant, phe- nomenon. Our data reveal the computer underground as an invisi- ble community with a complex and interconnected culture, depen- dent for survival on information sharing, norms of reciprocity, sophisticated socialization rituals, and an explicit value sys- tem. We suggest that the dominant image of the computer under- ground as one of criminal deviance results in a failure to appre- ciate cultural meaning. We conclude by arguing that there are characteristics of underground activity that embrace a postmoder- nist rejection of conventional culture. - ii - THE BAUDY WORLD OF THE BYTE BANDIT: A POSTMODERNIST INTERPRETATION OF THE COMPUTER UNDERGROUND Hackers are "nothing more than high-tech street gangs" (Federal Prosecutor, Chicago). Transgression is not immoral. Quite to the contrary, it reconciles the law with what it forbids; it is the dia- lectical game of good and evil (Baudrillard, 1987: 81). There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say (Steinbeck, 1939:31-32). The criminalization of "deviant acts" transforms and reduces social meanings to legal ones. Legal meanings are not necessari- ly social meanings. Most deviancy research tends to reproduce conventional social ideology and operative definitions of normal- ity within its concepts and theories. On occasion, these mean- ings represent a form of "class politics" that protect the power and privilege of one group from the challenge of another: Divorcing moral crusades from status group competition while denying that cultures are linked to social class- es has undermined attempts to link lifestyle politics to group struggles (Beisel, 1990: 45). Once a category of behaviors has become defined by statute as sanctionably deviant, the behaviors so-defined assume a new set of meanings that may obscure ones possessed by those who en- gage in such behaviors. "Computer deviants" provide one example of a criminalized type of "lifestyle politics." The proliferation of computer technology has been accompa- nied by the growth of a computer underground (CU), often mistak- enly labeled "hackers," that is perceived as criminally deviant by the media, law enforcement officials, and researchers. Draw- ing from ethnographic data, we offer a cultural rather than a criminological analysis of the underground by suggesting that it reflects an attempt to recast, re-appropriate, and reconstruct the power-knowledge relationship that increasingly dominates the ideology and actions of modern society. Our data reveal the com- puter underground as an invisible community with a complex and interconnected cultural lifestyle, an inchoate anti-authoritarian political consciousness, and dependent on norms of reciprocity, sophisticated socialization rituals, networks of information sharing, and an explicit value system. We interpret the CU cul- ture as a challenge to and parody of conventional culture, as a playful attempt to reject the seriousness of technocracy, and as an ironic substitution of rational technological control of the present for an anarchic and playful future. Stigmatizing the Computer Underground The computer underground refers to persons engaged in one or more of several activities, including pirating, anarchy, hacking, and phreaking[1]. Because computer underground participants freely share information and often are involved collectively in a single incident, media definitions invoke the generalized meta- phors of "conspiracies" and "criminal rings," (e.g., Camper, 1989; Zablit, 1989), "modem macho" evil-doers (Bloombecker, 1988), moral bankruptcy (Schwartz, 1988), "electronic trespas- sers" (Parker: 1983), "crazy kids dedicated to making mischief"

The Improved Elevator Invention of Alexander Miles

The Improved Elevator Invention of Alexander Miles Alexander Miles of Duluth, Minnesota patented an electric elevator on October 11, 1887. His innovation in the mechanism to open and close elevator doors greatly improved elevator safety.  Miles is notable for being a  black inventor  and successful business person in 19th Century America.   Elevator Patent for Automatic Closing Doors The problem with elevators at that time was that the doors of the elevator and the shaft had to be opened and closed manually. This could be done either by those riding in the elevator, or a dedicated elevator operator.  People would forget to close the shaft door. As a result,  there were accidents with people falling down the elevator shaft. Miles was concerned when he saw a shaft door left open when he was riding an elevator with his daughter. Miles  improved the method of the opening and closing of elevator  doors and the shaft door when an elevator was not on that floor.  He created an automatic mechanism that closed access to the shaft by the action of the cage moving. His design attached a flexible belt to the elevator cage. When it went over drums positioned at the appropriate spots above and below a floor, it automated opening and closing the doors with levers and rollers. Miles was granted a patent on this mechanism and it is still influential in elevator design today. He was not the only person to get a patent on automated elevator door systems, as John W. Meaker was granted a patent 13 years earlier. Early Life of Inventor Alexander Miles Miles was born in 1838 in Ohio to Michael Miles and Mary Pompy and is not recorded as having been a slave. He moved to Wisconsin and worked as a barber. He later moved to Minnesota where his draft registration showed he was living in Winona in 1863. He showed his talents for invention by creating and marketing hair care products. He met Candace Dunlap, a white woman who was a widow with two children. They married and moved to Duluth, Minnesota by 1875, where he lived for more than two decades. They had a daughter, Grace, in 1876. In Duluth, the couple invested in real estate, and Miles operated the barbershop at the upscale St. Louis Hotel. He was the first black member of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce. Later Life of Alexander Miles Miles and his family lived in comfort and prosperity in Duluth. He was active in politics and fraternal organizations. In 1899 he sold real estate investments in Duluth and moved to Chicago. He founded The United Brotherhood as a life insurance company that would ensure black people, who were often denied coverage at that time. Recessions took a toll on his investments, and he and his family resettled in Seattle, Washington. At one time it was believed he was the wealthiest black person in the Pacific Northwest, but that did not last. In the last decades of his life, he was again working as a barber. He died in 1918 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007.