Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

Part OneTrue HackersCambridge:The Fifties and Sixties1The Tech Model Railroad ClubJUST why Peter Samson was wandering around in Building 26 in the middle of thenight is a matter that he would find difficult to explain. Some things are not spoken.If you were like the people whom Peter Samson was coming to know and befriendin this, his freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the winterof 1958-59, no explanation would be required. Wandering around the labyrinth oflaboratories and storerooms, searching for the secrets of telephone switching inmachine rooms, tracing paths of wires or relays in subterranean steam tunnels ... forsome, it was common behavior, and there was no need to justify the impulse, whenconfronted with a closed door with an unbearably intriguing noise behind it, toopen the door uninvited. And then, if there was no one to physically bar access towhatever was making that intriguing noise, to touch the machine, start flickingswitches and noting responses, and eventually to loosen a screw, unhook atemplate, jiggle some diodes and tweak a few connections. Peter Samson and hisfriends had grown up with a specific relationship to the world, wherein things hadmeaning only if you found out how they worked. And how would you go aboutthat if not by getting your hands on them?