INTRODUCTION - Hacking: The Art of Exploitation - page 2

The rules for this problem are well defined and simple, yet the answer
eludes many. Like the solution to this problem (shown on the last page of
this topic), hacked solutions follow the rules of the system, but they use those
rules in counterintuitive ways. This gives hackers their edge, allowing them to
solve problems in ways unimaginable for those confined to conventional
thinking and methodologies.
Since the infancy of computers, hackers have been creatively solving
problems. In the late 1950s, the MIT model railroad club was given a dona-
tion of parts, mostly old telephone equipment. The club's members used this
equipment to rig up a complex system that allowed multiple operators to con-
trol different parts of the track by dialing in to the appropriate sections. They
called this new and inventive use of telephone equipment hacking ; many
people consider this group to be the original hackers. The group moved on
to programming on punch cards and ticker tape for early computers like the
IBM 704 and the TX-0. While others were content with writing programs that
just solved problems, the early hackers were obsessed with writing programs
that solved problems well . A new program that could achieve the same result
as an existing one but used fewer punch cards was considered better, even
though it did the same thing. The key difference was how the program
achieved its results— elegance .
Being able to reduce the number of punch cards needed for a program
showed an artistic mastery over the computer. A nicely crafted table can hold
a vase just as well as a milk crate can, but one sure looks a lot better than the
other. Early hackers proved that technical problems can have artistic solu-
tions, and they thereby transformed programming from a mere engineering
task into an art form.
Like many other forms of art, hacking was often misunderstood. The few
who got it formed an informal subculture that remained intensely focused
on learning and mastering their art. They believed that information should
be free and anything that stood in the way of that freedom should be circum-
vented. Such obstructions included authority figures, the bureaucracy of
college classes, and discrimination. In a sea of graduation-driven students,
this unofficial group of hackers defied conventional goals and instead pursued
knowledge itself. This drive to continually learn and explore transcended
even the conventional boundaries drawn by discrimination, evident in the
MIT model railroad club's acceptance of 12-year-old Peter Deutsch when
he demonstrated his knowledge of the TX-0 and his desire to learn. Age,
race, gender, appearance, academic degrees, and social status were not
primary criteria for judging another's worth—not because of a desire for
equality, but because of a desire to advance the emerging art of hacking.
The original hackers found splendor and elegance in the conventionally
dry sciences of math and electronics. They saw programming as a form of
artistic expression and the computer as an instrument of that art. Their desire
to dissect and understand wasn't intended to demystify artistic endeavors; it
was simply a way to achieve a greater appreciation of them. These knowledge-
driven values would eventually be called the Hacker Ethic : the appreciation
of logic as an art form and the promotion of the free flow of information,
surmounting conventional boundaries and restrictions for the simple goal of