Class 5 - Warez // Culture of Hacking
Apéritif
RFC as koan
Emulator as koan
Themes
- definitions of hacking
- code modification
- sharing
- The Demoscene
- warez scene hierarchy
- “copying is not a crime”
Prompts
- What is a hacker, and how has that term changed over time?
- How has open architecture and source code availability influenced tech history?
Description
Episodes: - S1E10 “1984”, S2E1 “SETI”, S2E2 “New Coke”
The last episode in this block features someone being accused of being a hacker – through hacking into the network, hacking by changing the source code of a game, and hacking by distributing it freely, via copied floppy disks. There are other characteristics of “hacking” in the previous two episodes, too, except they have more to do with “social engineering” practices than changing computer bits.
“Hacking” on games is essential to the culture doing this time, and led to the prominent and influencial demoscene and warez scenes.
Readings
- Allison Parrish, Programming is Forgetting: Toward a New Hacker Ethic
- Gabriella Coleman, “Hacker” (2016)
- Jason Scott A Demoparty in a Browser (May 10 2016)
- Sinclair Target How Much of a Genius-Level Move Was Using Binary Space Partitioning in Doom? (November 6 2019)
- Wilkie, Preserving Digital Art and Games for 100 Years!, !!Con (May 2016)
- Hacker test explainer