__NOTOC__ ''The Conscience of a Hacker'' (also known as ''The Hacker Manifesto'') is a small essay written January 8, 1986 by a computer security hacker who went by the handle (or

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

) of The Mentor (born

Loyd Blankenship Loyd Blankenship (born 1965), better known by his pseudonym The Mentor, is a computer hacker and writer. He has been active since the 1970s, when he was a member of the hacker groups Extasyy Elite and Legion of Doom. Writings Hacker Manifesto ...

), who belonged to the second generation of hacker group

Legion of Doom The Legion of Doom is a group of supervillains who originated in ''Challenge of the Super Friends'', an animated series from Hanna-Barbera based on DC Comics' Justice League. The Legion of Doom has since been incorporated into the main DC Univers ...

. It was written after the author's arrest, and first published in the underground hacker ezine ''

Phrack ''Phrack'' is an e-zine written by and for hackers, first published November 17, 1985. Described by Fyodor as "the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine," the magazine is open for contributions by anyone who desires to publish remarkabl ...

'' and can be found on many websites, as well as on T-shirts and in films. Considered a cornerstone of

hacker culture The hacker culture is a subculture of individuals who enjoy—often in collective effort—the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming the limitations of software systems or electronic hardware (mostly digital electronics), to a ...

, the ''Manifesto'' asserts that there is a point to hacking that supersedes selfish desires to exploit or harm other people, and that technology should be used to expand our horizons and try to keep the world

free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

. When asked about his motivation for writing the article, Blankenship said,

I was going through hacking withdrawal, and Craig/Knight Lightning needed something for an upcoming issue of Phrack. I was reading ''
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress ''The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress'' is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein about a lunar colony's revolt against absentee rule from Earth. The novel illustrates and discusses w:libertarian, libertarian ideals. It is r ...
'' and was very taken with the idea of revolution.

At a more prominent public event, when asked about his arrest and motivation for writing the article, Blankenship said,

I was just in a computer I shouldn’t have been. And ada great deal of empathy for my friends around the nation that were also in the same situation. This was post-
WarGames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows Dav ...
, the movie, so pretty much the only public perception of hackers at that time was ‘hey, we’re going to start a nuclear war, or play tic-tac-toe, one of the two,’ and so I decided I would try to write what I really felt was the essence of what we were doing and why we were doing it.

In popular culture

The article is quoted several times in the 1995 movie ''

Hackers A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

'', although in the movie it is being read from an issue of the hacker magazine '' 2600'', not the historically accurate ''

''. The Mentor gave a reading of ''The Hacker Manifesto'' and offered additional insight at H2K2. It is also an item in the game '' Culpa Innata''. A poster of the Hacker Manifesto appears in the 2010 film ''

The Social Network ''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book ''The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networking web ...

'' in the Harvard room of

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...

. ''The Hacker Manifesto'' is mentioned in

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...

's autobiography '' Permanent Record''.

Amplitude Problem Juan Irming (born December 14, 1974), also known as Amplitude Problem, is a Swedish-American musician and producer currently based in Los Angeles. While the former hacker has had a long career in music beginning in the underground demoscene in Eu ...

's 2019 album ''Crime of Curiosity'', featuring The Mentor himself, YTCracker,

Inverse Phase Brendan Becker, known by his stage name Inverse Phase, is an American video game composer and chiptune musician, using Atari, Commodore, and Nintendo hardware. He also speaks and hosts workshops on video game music, chiptunes, and composing ...

and

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...

maintainer King Fisher of TRIAD is dedicated to ''The Hacker Manifesto''. Each song title is a phrase from the essay.

References

External links

*
Hacker's Manifesto at Phrack Magazine
{{Authority control 1986 documents Hacker culture Hacking (computer security) Manifestos Texts about the Internet Texts related to the history of the Internet Works about computer hacking

In popular culture

See also

References

External links