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30 CHAPTER 1
progressively younger ages because of access to the Internet, where discussion
about the cultural and technical facets of hacking is common. Many
hackers did not awaken to a consciousness of their “hacker nature” in a
moment of joyful epiphany but instead acquired it imperceptibly. In some
cases, certain books, texts, movies, and places of interaction sparked this
association. Some came to identify their personal relationship to computers
as hacking by, for example, watching a movie (War Games), reading a book
(Hackers) or manifesto (“The GNU Manifesto”), or during interactions
with other people who also called themselves hackers in various locations
such as a user group meeting, conference, math camp, or most especially a
BBS where hackers congregated in droves during the 1980s and early 1990s.
M EETING OTHER HACKERS ON BBSS
A BBS is a computerized meeting and announcement system where users
can upload and download � les, make announcements, play games, and
have discussions. Many were run and frequented by hackers, and hence discourses
and texts about hacking were ubiquitous (Scott 2005; Sterling 1992;
Thomas 2003). 6 While the Internet existed in the 1980s, and its architecture
was open, practically speaking it operated under a lock, with the keys
available only to a select number of hackers, engineers, administrators, and
scientists gainfully employed at research labs, universities, and government
agencies (Abbate 1999). Given this, BBSs played an important role in hacker
history because they were the basis for one of the � rst expansions of hacking
through which hackers could interact autonomously, anonymously, and independently
of of� cial institutions. 7 Although this networked expansion entailed
a movement outward and beyond institutions (such as the workplace
and university), the use of the BBS on a personal computer also represented
an inverse move in the other direction, into the privacy of the home. Prior to
the 1970s and even for much of the early 1980s, most computing occurred
at work or the university.
So long as they could pay the phone bill and temporarily bracket off basic
biological needs like sun and sleep, hackers could explore BBSs to their
heart’s delight, with each BBS independent like a virtual pond. BBSs were
not networked until FidoNet came along, creating a � rst taste of global
networking for those who did not have Internet access. 8 BBSs were exciting,
for they were informal bazaars where one could access and trade rare
as well as sometimes- seedy information. Files traded there spanned lowbrow
conspiracy theory, hard- hitting political news, playful nonsense, low-
grade and more rarely high- octane noir, voyeurism, personal gossip, and one
of the most important cultural goods among hackers, software (including
shareware, warez, and eventually free software). Before free software was
widely known, many young programmers acquired their software primarily