Promises

In this election season, we all know a thing or two about promises.  They are what the politicians feed us in order to get elected.  They almost never are fulfilled and most of us aren't the least bit surprised by that.  Yet the cycle continues time after time.

But there's a different kind of promise out there, one that was exemplified at The Eleventh HOPE this past July.  That promise actually does come to fruition with enough support and nurturing.  We call it the hacker promise.

Oddly enough, and perhaps appropriately so, those involved in political campaigns are scared to death of the potential of hackers.  Why?  It's painfully simple - they fear the truth.  And nothing is more honest than someone who reveals that all is not well when we're constantly told over and over again that it is.

We've all read The Emperor's New Clothes (and if not, we all should) where an honest child does what no other dares do and says out loud that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes at all when everyone else was too scared not to play along with the charade.  Whenever we demonstrate a lack of security, obtain documents that aren't supposed to exist, challenge the status quo, or reveal a lie, we're embarrassing an emperor of one sort or another.  And this is why, however deeply hidden, the general public cheers when it occurs.  The hacker promise once again shows what is true and what is not.  There is no bigger threat for those addicts of power.

You could not have found a more diverse and freethinking group of people than the attendees and participants at The Eleventh HOPE this summer in New York City.  If there had been a single theme, it would have been that of questioning assumptions.  Every system imaginable was subject to being challenged with something better designed to take its place.  That is what hackers do and we're inspired beyond words to see so many people who clearly get this.  Here are just a few instances of our promise and the threat it poses:

• Designing and using strong encryption to protect our privacy is a recurring topic in the hacker world.  Encryption in the hands of the populace is seen as a threat by those in power.
• Taking back access and control to everything from automobile repair to music recordings to food to pharmaceuticals - all currently in the hands of big business with a level of manipulation unprecedented in our history.  Hackers are the ones who will figure out how to either bypass these systems or make them irrelevant.  Again, a huge threat to the system as it stands.
• Demonstrating how almost any lock can be defeated, any key copied.  Our lockpicking talks were among the most popular this year and the techniques displayed were imaginative and scientific.  It may make a lot of companies, governments, and people uncomfortable.  But it's the truth.
• Civil liberties issues have always been at the forefront of the hacker world and the many campaigns and projects that groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union are involved in could fill an entire conference on their own.  But the truth here is that, when mixed with the spirit of rebellion and challenge that already exists in the hacker world, the amount of inspiration gained from their talks was extremely contagious.  It all leads to continued and ever-expanding discussions that those in power would rather not have happen.

We can go on and on with examples, but looking at the HOPE program guide would basically make the same point.  What comes out of a conference like this isn't something as innocuous as a conversation about building better security.  This is about changing the way we think and the way we do just about everything.  Whether it's coming up with a new digital currency, bypassing drug companies and their artificial price controls, coming up with alternative fuels, figuring out a new way to broadcast or receive material that otherwise would be inaccessible, there is no element of our society that isn't in the crosshairs of change.  Yes, designing better security is in there too.  But it's so much bigger than just that.

This is a train that cannot be stopped; there is simply too much momentum at this point.  With every hysterical report of what hackers could be doing to our privacy, with every Congressional hearing about the threat of "cyberterrorists," and with every political campaign claiming they're being targeted by the digital underground, what you're actually seeing is unbridled fear and panic.  Because deep down, all of these people know that if they haven't already lost control, they will fairly soon.  Their system and systems are very powerful and omnipresent.  They too get better, faster, and more encompassing with every year.  But, whether it's today, next year, or a decade from now, they will become unsustainable.  Human ingenuity and the desire for freedom and self-determination always come back up to the surface, regardless of how long they've been forcibly submerged.  What's different now is that we have more tools and platforms than ever before to accomplish this.  What's different is that we're all different, and yet united in this desire.  That means thousands or even millions of ways to achieve a goal rather than just one set of rules handed down from the castle.

This is what the hacker promise represents and, while we're confident and optimistic about the future, it doesn't mean that some very dark days don't lie ahead.  When coming up against such powerful entities on such fundamental issues, it's inevitable that we will be demonized, targeted, and punished for daring to be different.  This is how we know that we're winning.

And we win when we're diverse, when we debate, and when we respect one another.  No political party can ever represent us beyond an issue or two.  We will always think outside the box and come up with ways of doing things that don't follow the rules.  If the emperor has no clothes, if there's a way to defeat security, if there's damning evidence to leak, we will never remain silent, regardless of the political price.  That's the promise of the hacker world that we can never break.