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    "LEF US NOW PRA/SE FAhlOUS HACKERS" was ~e headfine in the Time
    magezine story of the Hackers' Conference. Fomous, infamous, and uninown,
    ~ey praised each otl~er w;~ nightlong attentlon and exuberance. kft ro nght
    here: Mike Coffey, Stem Capps, Jahn Draper, Andy Pfer~feld, and Dick
    Heiser, who had ~e ~nal word: "Keep d~igning."
    
    /~/\CIN,
    CON FERENCE ú 1984
    
    "K E E P D E S I G N I N G"
    
    .
    
    HOW THE INFORMATiON ECONOMY IS BEING CREATED AND SHAPED BY THE F1ACKER ETHIC
    
    Edited by Stewart Brand
    
   think hackersÄdedicated,
    innova~ve, irreverent computer
    programmersÄare the most
    interesting and effect~ve body
    or intelbctuals since the framers of
    ~e V.S. Constitution.
    
    No other group thot I know of hos set
    out to liberate a technology and suc-
    ceedeo. Ihey not only did so ageinst
    the octive disinterest of corporate
    America, their surcess forced cor-
    porate Americo to adopt ~eir style in
    the end. In rsorganizing the Informa-
    tion Age aronnd the individual, via
    personal computers, the hackers may
    well hove soved the Americon econ-
    omy. High tech ;s now something that
    
    Photographs by Matt Herron
    
    mass consamers do, rather thon just
    have done to them, and tbot's a hot
    item in the world. In 1983 America
    had 70 percent of the S18 billion
    world software market, and growing.
    
    The quietest of all the '60s sub-
    subcaltures has emerged as the most
    ;nnovative and most powerfalÄand
    most suspicious of power.
    Some of the shyer people you'tl ever
    meet, hackers are alsa some of the
    funniest. The stondard memory of
    the Hackers' Conference is of three
    days and two long nights of nonstop

    





    hilarity.
    These supposed lone wolves, proud
    artistes, in fact collaborote with glee.
    
    Though famous os an a#-male tribe,.
    they have zero separatist jokes in their
    style; they comfortably weicomed the
    fiour female hackers (of 125 tetal) at
    the conference, ond a cougle of
    romances blossomed.
    
    Like the prose of poets, there is
    impressive economy in the conversation
    of hackers, whose lifework is compres-
    sing code, ofter all. What follows is
    an only-mildly-edited transcrigt of one
    morning discussion on The Future of
    the Hacker Ethic, moderated by Steven
    Levy. Thirty-six wices are heard. Some
    are- millioneires, some are qulte poar.
    In how they treat ench o~er, you
    connot tell the difference. ÄSB ~
    
    Some of the most high-powered pioneers in the computer business were gathered to reassess their origins. In a now intensely
    commercial business, ~ey found they sti~l were wanting to keep the faith in what they variausly colled the hacker drive,
    ~e hacker instinct, the Hacker Ethic.
    
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