Mirroring the Future
When this issue is released, our fifth conference will have been held in New York City. We named it, fittingly, The Fifth HOPE. For those unfamiliar, HOPE is an acronym for Hackers On Planet Earth. This also marks the tenth anniversary of the first HOPE conference in 1994, the first time ever that hackers gathered in such large numbers in the United States. And of course, we're also in the midst of our 20th anniversary here at 2600, founded somewhat ironically in 1984.
We see a certain symmetry in all of these events and anniversaries. But more importantly, we see symmetry in the goals and ideals expressed every day in the hacker community as they relate to those of the human race in the 21st century. The things we see as important, the technology we find ourselves playing with and designing, the limits we constantly test and push, and the freedoms we instinctively stand up for - these are all being mirrored in the "real" world on a daily basis.
Most of us never intended for things to become so serious, much like we never intended for this publication to be of interest to more than a very narrow portion of the populace. To this day, hackers are born out of the curiosity that relatively few people feel towards technology and they move forward through the determination of wanting to figure something out or make it work better. That's really all it is and all it has ever been. No pressing desire to change the world, no compelling need to be the focal point of the media, and certainly no wish to be fashionable. Events, however, have an odd way of changing one's focus and altering the path.
Anyone who could have predicted the explosion of technology in the past 20 years could have also predicted the social consequences and conundrums that came along with it. Obviously when everyone gains the ed to operate the equivalent of a printing press via the Internet, authority figures everywhere will start to clamp down on what can be said and how. When digital technology allows perfect copies of audio and video to be created and shared, the status quo is going to be threatened and panic will ensue. When computers and databases become more and more integrated, our private information will be shared by more and more entities. And it will become increasingly difficult to remain anonymous as we move closer to a society that demands accountability for one's every move, purchase, and transgression.
Every one of these issues is of great concern to the vast majority of people in our present society. Suddenly the technology that made us curious - and got many of us labeled as weird for taking such an abnormal interest in it - is changing the very nature of the world. And to those people who didn't take an interest before, a lot of these sudden changes and all-encompassing issues are extremely disconcerting. They are to us as well, although anyone paying attention would know that the changes were anything but sudden. They are part of a pattern, one which is continuing and one which will only grow worse in time, so long as people remain ignorant and convinced that they lack both the intellect and ability to do anything about it.
As we well know, that is one of the greatest weapons any agent of oppression can possess: the ability to convince people that they can't make a difference and that certain things are inevitable. We're here to tell you that anyone can make a difference and nothing is a certainty. With that in mind, now is as good a time as any to take a look at the developments going on around us and decide if that is really the direction we want to be heading in.
Why does this responsibility fall upon the hacker community in particular? Two reasons. We understand how a lot of the technology used to implement these changes really works. Which means we know the weaknesses and the potential abuses from both outside and within. And we also have a history of standing up to authority - whether it's the authority that tells us not to ask questions or the authority that locks us away in prison for using technology in a way that wasn't quite authorized.
The hacker spirit has proven very difficult to crush over the years. Even if one voice is silenced for revealing information, another will soon take its place. No matter what the restrictions or penalties surrounding a particular bit of technology, you can bet that hackers somewhere are figuring out ways to defeat it in the public arena. It's just that now there are a great many more people paying attention to the results.
Hacking has never been as relevant and as important as it is today. While many of us are still kids playing with toys and experimenting there's a whole other aspect that the entire world is watching. If our privacy is at risk, our safety is in danger, or our rights are gradually being extinguished, odds are the abuse of technology plays some part in this. Ironically, hackers are frequently viewed in the mainstream as the ones who abuse high tech. But even those subscribing to this notion can see the logic of paying attention to what hackers uncover. To ignore this is to walk blindly into unknown territory.
So we find ourselves in a very different world than when we started in 1984 or even when we held the first HOPE conference a decade ago. We've become far more dependent on technology for nearly every aspect of our lives and technology is being used intrusively on a steadily increasing basis. If we have the expertise to uncover information on how it all works, then we also have the obligation to our fellow citizens to make it all public. Twenty years from now, the world will be a very different place. We have the ability to educate others and influence the changes that transpire along the way.