Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking

the value of individuality coupled with the constant need for the help of other hackers points to a subtle paradox that textures their social world. The tension between individualism and collectivism, in particular, is negotiated through the extremely well-developed and common penchant that hackers have for performing cleverness, whether through technological production or humor. Hackers do not treat all forms of expression, technology, and production as original and worthy expressions of selfhood. Instead, one must constantly manifest, in the face of one’s peers, a discriminating and inventive mind by performing its existence through exceptionally ingenious and clever acts. By contributing a shining, awe-inspiring sliver of their creative self in a domain otherwise characterized by a common stock of knowledge and techniques, hacker utilize humor or clever code to perform their craftiness, and thus momentarily differentiate themselves from the greater collective of hackers.
    While this chapter describes the ethnographic expression of humor and cleverness among hackers (which might be valuable and interesting in its own right), it does so at the service of other, analytic goals. Examining humor and cleverness will allow me to more richly demonstrate how tensions (say, between individualism and collectivism) arise through the course of technological practice, and how hackers partially resolve them. Taking a close look at these frictions takes us a long way toward understandingthe social context under which these hackers labor and why free speech ideals—in contrast to those of intellectual property instruments—resonate with their experiences. The friction between individualism and collectivism (and its articulation in meritocratic discussions) helps, for one, underwrite a dynamic social environment in which hackers labor. Second, this tension speaks directly to issues of authorship, selfhood, creativity, and intellectual property in a way that extends, contrasts, and critiques the dominant intellectual property regime.
    The analysis opens by examining the pragmatics and aesthetics of hacking, by which I mean the constraints and properties of their technological activities, and contrasting the writings of two hackers, Espe and Da Mystik Homeboy (DMH). Understanding the pragmatics of hacking is necessary to grasp the contradictions/tensions that mark hacking along with what I call the poetics of hacking: the extreme value hackers place on ingenuity, craftiness, and cleverness. I will explore these largely through the angle of humor. The final section revisits the tension between individualism and collectivism. Hackers assert a form of individualism that valorizes self-expression and development among peers engaged in similar acts of technological production, while tightly entangled with each other through constant collaboration.
    Hacker Pragmatics
    PYTHON: REACHING A TRANSCENDENTAL SPACE
    I remember when I found python, back in the 1.52 days [1.52 refers to a version number]. 2 I was an unemployed slacker living in a student co-op. I’d sit in a (since disappeared) cafe in Berkeley and write reams of more or less useless code, simply for the joy of it. I’d reach some sort of transcendental state fueled by relevant whitespace, clear syntax, and pints of awfully strong, black coffee. In those days I first felt the pure abstract joy of programming in a powerful way—the ability to conjure these giant structures, manipulate them at will, have them contain and be contained by one another. I think I learned more in those couple of months, thanks to Google and a free ricochet connection, than in my previous years in CS [computer science].
    Eventually, however, it became clear I had to get a real job. Flaky freelance contracts which never paid sucked so hard. So, I hemmed and hawed and was conflicted and finally got a job, and it involved perl. It was, perhaps, a worst-case perl scenario. A very rapidly growing website, a few developers with vastly different styles, a lack of real communication, and a pronounced lack of appreciation for namespaces. From my high tower of control and purity, I’d been thrown into a bubbling pool of vaguery and confusion. Cryptic variables would pop out ofthe aether, make an appearance in a 2000 line CGI [Common Gateway Interface], and never be heard from again. Combating naming schemes would meet where different spheres of developer influence overlapped—$postingTitle and $PostingTitle