NMA 2050

I find the text’s title alone to be interesting – “A Hacker Manifesto [ version 4.0 ],” because of the number of the version, which suggests that Wark’s manifesto is not final and it constantly upgrades, just like the fast and ever-changing world of the Internet.

Mark attempts to portray hackers as people who create and bring in something new to the world. He argues that hackers are “hacking the new out of the old” and it is not always a good or a great thing, but it is usually new.  It may enhance and bring something new to culture, art, science, and philosophy or “any production of knowledge where data can be extracted from it.” He tries to justify the actions of hackers which are often harmful for millions of Internet users. In the third statement Mark acknowledges that  hackers have identity problems, by writing that they can be described as a class that “has yet to hack itself into manifest existence as itself.” Although these statements seem to be valid, I feel like they give an excuse to sometimes silly, irresponsible and often random behavior of the hackers. Calling hackers creators in my opinion is a bit of a stretch – the hacker community is not unified or cohesive and I do not think that it ever will be. Yes, the advanced knowledge of code is indeed powerful and it may result in creating something new. However, that powerful knowledge can also cause a lot of trouble if it is not in good, responsible hands.

Wark McKenzie provides interesting and unique perspectives on topics such as property, class, production or information from a hacker’s standpoint.  I find the statement: that “information wants to be free but is everywhere in chains. Information is the potential of potential” to be very true. With easier access to information, we would have more potential to grow as a society.