A Hacker Looks at 20

By

Gonzo

It’s 20 years gone by now; a whole generation. In that time I was asked to join a hacker group, had it break up, attended my first 2600 meeting, saw phone calls go from land line to cell to VOIP, cassettes go to CDs to downloads, radio shows find a new home in podcasts, and the notepad went to the iPad. What have we done? How much of the damage was mine?

At the time of this writing, I was living nine miles outside of New York City, and often I would find my mind wandering back to my high school nights, staying up all night, completely cranked up on large amounts of Jolt cola, and slowly winding my way through the H/P/A scene. If we had energy drinks back then, I would’ve been moving faster than the modem to which I had access. What ever the case, it’s time for a serious post-mortem.

So much has happened. In that short time since my early H/P/A days, I saw sex become obsolete because so much of it is available on the Net. Who needs a partner? All we need now is a high-speed connection, and some…alone time.

Art has been greatly damaged. Gone are the days of brush, paint, and palette. One only need take a course on design at the community college level, and now Warhol’s painting of Debbie Harry looks like a cave painting. It’s all CGI now.

Proper discourse has been ruined. We went from a people who knew not to split to split infinitives to being a people who, like, OMG, totally LOL.

Books are now considered quaint by some. E-readers have taken their place.

Cell phones can now find restaurants, play music, get directions, and news. In my day, we could just pick up a receiver, and call someone.

What stays with me most, though, through all the changes, is that the people really haven’t changed. I don’t mean “people” as in civilians, but people as in the ones who have helped make and break the changes. It’s been some ride we’ve all had, no matter how weird things may have gotten.

The people make it. When I was cutting my BBS teeth, I had this great thing which would later become Family. The Family were the ones who taught me things, stayed up all night with me, picked me up when I fell, and kicked me in the ass when I needed it. It’s still like that, though we’re in later stages of our lives. The love of technology is the Mighty Putty that holds us together. We need it, it needs us, and we all need each other. It’s just like the ending of “Annie Hall.” We need the eggs, too.

Maybe we haven’t changed that much after all.

It’s comforting to know that, somewhere, on the other side of a screen or at the end of a phone line, there is Family I know.

“What hath God wrought,” as the telegraph quote goes.

What, indeed.