Why I Am a Hacker: Hacking in the Era of COVID-19

by Corey M. Knoettgen (cknoettg@yahoo.com)

I am a hacker.

I have a desire to know more.

Hacking has taken on a position of greater importance in the Era of Coronavirus.  It would be easy to get bogged down by the pseudo-reality presented to us: ever more antagonistic memes pitting Right against Left, only reporting violent incidents, being destructively (instead of constructively) critical of everything. We are not presented with the hidden reality of people working hard and doing the right thing more often than not.

The popular image of a hacker is someone who causes chaos or destruction.  But we are in dire need of real hackers who "mod" reality in such a way that we also serve as peacemakers in a troubled world.  If the current Facebook algorithm operates in such a way that it whips people into hatred and frenzy, we should use every means at our disposal to learn how this algorithm operates.  And then we should discover the means by which we can alter the algorithm, and thereby change the reality.

Given a problem: change the algorithm (or however you want to define the problem), a real hacker will start by asking questions.  How does Facebook accept input?  How can we send new input to Facebook so that we create new output?  The research or reconnaissance phase has begun.

Every hacker begins from a different starting point.  Perhaps you are not yet a skilled Python programmer.  You can always start at a different level.  Perhaps you have not yet learned the power of bots and AI.  So, take a trip to cleverbot.com, and start talking to the bot.  See how it reacts to your input.  Right-click the page and inspect the source code.  Many new questions will come up along the way.  Always keep seeking.  I did not set out to become a hacker, but was driven to it by necessity.  Earlier in life, I was working from a flawed model whereby I was seeking experts for answers to all of my questions.  I slowly came to accept that I must become a hacker myself in order to find the answers to my questions.  Hacking is an iterative process, and rarely linear.  It starts with a simple question, like "how does this work?"  The search for the answer begets more questions, and one day you achieve a goal.  And then later, you realize that your initial goal was too limited, and you discover new goals.

In our earlier Facebook example, we may encounter a statement such as "Facebook uses deep neural networks to target advertising."  That will lead to a new question such as "How do we build a neural network?"  We may discover that we can use a language like Python to build a neural network.  Then we find that we need other modules and libraries like scikit-learn, Anaconda, and others.  We learn about dependencies, we learn about variables, we learn about creating software.  If we take good notes, we slowly start to develop a more methodical approach to writing software.  Then one day our project is complete, and we must find a way to get our AI-powered bot to interact with Facebook.

It is a never-ending process of iterative learning.  Sometimes we will have quick bursts of rapid learning, and then later we will slow down and absorb the information.  Always in fits and starts.  Never give up.  You will face periods of discouragement, but then later get back on the horse and proceed again.

Eventually, a paradox will emerge.  By investigating specific, low-level technical details, we will rediscover big ideas and meta-narratives.  Focusing on the specific and the abstract will lead us back to the general and practical.  Abstract 0s and 1s will start to have real-world impact.

If anyone is interested in a good book about the hacker ethos, you should check out SQL Injection Attacks and Defense by Justin Clarke and others.  The beauty of the book is not in its specifics, but in the process they describe.  Some books will teach you theory.  Some books will teach you regulations and protocols.  Some books will teach you history.  This book will tell you more about how to be a hacker.

There is nothing wrong with chaos and criticism per se.  They, too, can be part of the hacker ethos.  But, let hackers be the force that uses chaos for good.  Become constructive critics instead of destructive critics.