---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lifehacker <email在lifehacker.com>
Date: 2010/10/27
Subject: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience
To: danielzhang0212在gmail.com



<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=32e6306b27&e;=fd8bf867cb>
By Adam Dachis
Why We Hack: The Benefits of
Disobedience<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=0e04621753&e;=fd8bf867cb>

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience] Sometimes disobedience is
necessary and good when rules fail us, and it's at the core of why we hack.
Hacking is a means of expressing dissatisfaction, confounding the mechanism,
and ultimately doing better. Here's why it's so important.

Much of today's entertainment focuses on vigilantes, serial killers, and
traditionally bad people. The common thread? They all promote disobedience
as a virtue. How do you relate to a serial killer like
Dexter<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=ad78631cbe&e;=fd8bf867cb>?
You do it because he murders other serial killers--read: *bad people*. He
does something wrong because good behavior won't accomplish what needs to be
done. (*See also:
Batman<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=d476d6dec1&e;=fd8bf867cb>
*.) It's this same mentality, this same brand of unrest, that fuels all
kinds of disobedience. In particular, it's why we hack.

*What I Mean When I Say "Hack"*
Hacking can be defined a few ways, from the more innocent type of life
hacking we generally talk about to the darker side of the spectrum where
people are actually carrying out highly illegal actions. Here, we fall
somewhere in the gray middle, where hacking disobeys companies, circumvents
copyright laws, and challenges people to do more with what they're given.
Hacking is a brand of disobedience that both expresses dissatisfaction with
the status quo and does something to change it. This is the kind of
hacking--and disobedience--that's beneficial and good.
The Reasons for Disobedience

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience]

It's hard for a lot of people to justify disobedience because it often
involves breaking rules, if not the law. There's always at least a shred of
incorrectness to disobedience, even if it's committed for all the right
reasons. Hacking gets a bad reputation for those reasons as well, and to
really understand why hacking is so important it's necessary to look at its
roots: civil disobedience

Though certainly not the first instance, the idea of civil disobedience was
popularized by Henry David
Thoreau<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=def4514b91&e;=fd8bf867cb>in
his aptly titled 1848 essay Civil
Disobedience<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=85121be011&e;=fd8bf867cb>.
Wikipedia summarizes the thesis nicely:

It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy
their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such
acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice.

Why It Matters

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience] We've seen numerous
examples of the benefits of civil disobedience over time, from Gandhi's
campaign for independence from the British Empire (e.g.: the Salt
March<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=fd717e2830&e;=fd8bf867cb>),
to the Civil Rights
Movement<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=037e7901d1&e;=fd8bf867cb>in
1950s and 60s America (e.g.: Rosa
Parks<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=03ceb15d7a&e;=fd8bf867cb>),
to the more recent Gay Rights
Movement<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=ad2a3b9121&e;=fd8bf867cb>.
With issues that have been around for some time it's easy to see,
historically, how each group is denied rights and, at strategic times, chose
disobedience as a means of fighting back. It all seems obvious now, but
oppression and disobedience aren't necessarily all that different. For
example, the Nazi party came to power because of civil unrest. Disobedience
was a key component in Hitler's rise to power. For a more contemporary
example I won't make comparisons to current political movements, because
nothing is quite on the level of the third reich, but instead offer up
something that's a little controversial:

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience] Take Antoine Dodson's (of
Bed Intruder fame<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=049a7c3c43&e;=fd8bf867cb>)
new iPhone app<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=71d4e0fc0a&e;=fd8bf867cb>that
takes sex offender tracking a lot further by identifying sex offenders
through the wonders of augmented reality. The general assumption is that sex
offenders are bad people and knowing their locations allows us to stay safe
and keep our loved ones safe. The problem, however, is that sex offender
databases suck. They suck because the definition of a sex offender is so
broad that it includes people like Wendy
Whittaker<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=1d2ea674dd&e;=fd8bf867cb>(full
text at The
Economist<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=a0d4bb2d66&e;=fd8bf867cb>)
who engaged in sexual activity with another minor who was below the age of
consent. While there are definitely bad people who belong on such a list,
there are plenty--like Wendy--who do not. We're catching too many dolphins
with our tuna nets, so to speak, and its these sorts of unjust and
ineffective laws that define oppression. It's our often emotional reactions
that let people in desire of power (in this case, politicians) step in,
willing to be so tough on sex offenders that they'll throw a net to catch *
anyone* vaguely criminal, and slowly turn us into willingly oppressive
people without even knowing it. While it feels like disobedience, it's not.
This is one of many reasons why disobedience is necessary.
Why We Hack

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience]
So what does this all have to do with hacking? Let's look at two examples:
Napster and Apple. Napster was really the beginning of the music sharing
movement, which largely revolved around stealing copyrighted music by
trading it online with others. The Recording Industry Association of
America<http://gawker.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=479f872978&e;=fd8bf867cb>(RIAA)
quickly stepped in and made major efforts to catch and sue as many
music thieves as possible. In some cases they caught people they were after,
but many people were sued by the RIAA despite their infraction either being
minor<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=a2d331cd68&e;=fd8bf867cb>or
possibly
non-existent<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=48763d8b44&e;=fd8bf867cb>
.

It is, again, the same situation: a group of people react emotionally, act
without thinking, and hurt innocent people in the process. Despite the
oppressive nature of the RIAA, file-sharing services were an incredible
example of positive disobedience. They demonstrated the desire for
purchasing and sharing unprotected digital music online, created the market
for portable media players, and have reoriented the music industry more
towards the benefit of the consumer. While the RIAA's witch hunt brought a
number of casualties in the process, the immense change brought by the
existence of music file sharing services--a simple act of
disobedience--changed an entire industry.

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience] That inevitably leads us
to Apple, iTunes, and iOS. Apple quickly recognized the desire for people to
buy and trade music legally, so they released the iPod and iTunes. A music
store quickly grew as part of iTunes so people could legally purchase
digital audio content. Initially, this content was locked down by digital
rights management (DRM) copy protection, but dissatisfaction with its
limitations eventually moved the music industry away from using it
all-together. Today, you can buy music on iTunes and virtually any online
music store with no DRM, leaving you the choice to share it with as many
people as you want or simply keep it to yourself. What you do with your
music is now your choice.

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience]Apple recognized the
problem with complex user experiences and attempted to create simpler,
easier-to-use products. Their idea with iTunes had less to do with the legal
consumption of music and more with the convenience, and they've applied this
paradigm to all their products. With more and more people using computers
and the internet, Apple's strategy has been to build the hardware and
software that was the easiest to use. As a result, over the years, Apple has
created two things: some pretty impressive hardware and software, but also a
locked down platform that purportedly protects us from
viruses<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=fcd577765e&e;=fd8bf867cb>,
pornography<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=de595fcc4a&e;=fd8bf867cb>,
and other things Apple believes we don't want.

While no one can argue that Apple's been successful doing this, many of us
who love their products but want the ability to do more are fed up. Lively
communities for building Hackintosh
Macs<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=01d3a32a2b&e;=fd8bf867cb>and
doing
amazing things with jailbroken iOS
devices<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=9b209011c1&e;=fd8bf867cb>demonstrate
the desire for the
*option of openness*. When we purchase a product, said product should not
make an effort to prevent us from using it in the way we want. Somewhere
along the line, people started believing that when Apple says you shouldn't
jailbreak your iPhone, it was actually against the law to do so. That's simply
not the case<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=3c2b0f808a&e;=fd8bf867cb>
.

We hack because we want to do better. We hack because we want to demonstrate
the desire for greater possibilities. We hack because we're sick and tired
of being caught in a net designed for other people. We hack because it's
fun. With the internet becoming the world community, hacking is our form of
civil disobedience. It's our way to passionately tear down and rebuild,
confound the mechanism, and express dissatisfaction through improvement.
It's about doing better, not breaking the law.

[image: Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience]
In addition to hacking, the Do It Yourself (DIY) movement is a kinder form
of disobedience. We've grown into a society where processes are so
streamlined and tailored to the customer's convenience that we don't need to
make anything anymore. Instead we can work longer hours at our jobs and come
home to a house cleaned by a robot vacuum and sit down to eat the seventh
take out meal of the week. It's not that these conveniences are inherently
bad, but when something breaks (as a Roomba often does), you have to be
prepared to vacuum yourself. At those times, you're reminded how it's
important to know how to clean, how to fix things around the house, and how
to cook so you can do it when you need to or want to. There are so many
things we've neglected to learn or have forgotten because convenience has
stripped them of their relevancy. The DIY movement stands behind the belief
that forgetting how to do things is, culturally, a *bad* thing.

The need for disobedience comes in many forms but it all stems from being
denied something we sorely need in our lives. While it's not always the
right answer, it's hugely important. We need to keep on hacking so long as
we're angry, frustrated, and dissatisfied with the status quo. We can sit
around and complain, or we can *do better*. For me, it's a pretty easy
choice.
[image: Number of
comments]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=4ed718608c&e;=fd8bf867cb>

   -
   <http://us1.forward-to-friend1.com/forward?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=8d8d139fd5&e;=fd8bf867cb>
   - Share this:
   -
   <http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=0902d2e758&e;=fd8bf867cb>
   -
   <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=b605953255&e;=fd8bf867cb>
   -
   <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=d818b5926e&e;=fd8bf867cb>

  October 26th, 2010 Top Stories

   - [image: How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy
   Steps]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=7c3de187cc&e;=fd8bf867cb>
How
   to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy
Steps<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=c9d1224cb9&e;=fd8bf867cb>
    - [image: Lifehacker Faceoff: iLife '11 vs. Live Essentials
2011]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=f888a1df4a&e;=fd8bf867cb>
Lifehacker
   Faceoff: iLife '11 vs. Live Essentials
2011<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=c09b5cd5cf&e;=fd8bf867cb>
    - [image: Use Benford's Law to Catch (or Pull Off) Fake
Numbers]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=4cb3cc631e&e;=fd8bf867cb>
Use
   Benford's Law to Catch (or Pull Off) Fake
Numbers<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=69412421a3&e;=fd8bf867cb>
    - [image: InstantFirefox Brings Google-Instant-Like Search to
Firefox]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=a53621045f&e;=fd8bf867cb>
InstantFirefox
   Brings Google-Instant-Like Search to
Firefox<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=c605ef7dbd&e;=fd8bf867cb>
    - [image: How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network's WEP Password with
BackTrack]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=c0ce687497&e;=fd8bf867cb>
How
   to Crack a Wi-Fi Network's WEP Password with
BackTrack<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=038ea9147e&e;=fd8bf867cb>

 More Stories on Lifehacker
>><http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=06fdbfe21e&e;=fd8bf867cb>
danielzhang0212在gmail.com: Change your e-mail
address<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/profile?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=4d0e8247ac&e;=fd8bf867cb>|
Unsubscribe<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=4d0e8247ac&e;=fd8bf867cb&c;=8d8d139fd5>
 Gawker Media, 210 Elizabeth Street, Floor 4, New York, NY 10012
Terms of use<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=dcd1236cba&e;=fd8bf867cb>
 | Mailing List
Policy<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id;=f4143bd973&e;=fd8bf867cb>



-- 
*张明蔚*
-------------- 下一部分 --------------
一个HTML附件被移除...
URL: <http://www.zeuux.org/pipermail/zeuux-universe/attachments/20101027/7c0cbcd2/attachment-0001.html>