Hacker's ethics vs Salander ethics
From 05/10 to 30/11
Presentation
This parallel activity has the form of an open workshop, a discussion around two similar works:
- The novels of Stieg Larsson, the Millennium trilogy
- The hacker ethic, an essay of Pekka Himanen
We would like to put face to face two ethical models as a discussion topic: the personal ethic that Larsson has created for Lisbeth Salander, on one hand, and on the other the hacker's ethic that Himanen has compiled and which, reproducing his own words, "means a challenge for our society and for each one of us".
Objectives
The Stieg Larsson novels (the first one is already a movie) have been translated into different languages and are currently bestsellers. Its protagonist Lisbeth Salander, a repeated victim of physical, psychological and administrative abuses, manages to survive thanks to her competent hacker skills. The wide diffusion of that trilogy could have had an impact within the social imagery about what is and what do hackers do. Meanwhile, several actors and opinions are making an effort to separate the concept of hacker form its negative connotations (more close to the word 'cracker') and instead give visibility to which could be considered an innovation method and a work ethic. The vision that these novels transmit could supose a backward movement in relation to this purpose, but it could also be a starting point of reflection on the possibility of building an own ethic from the total social isolation of a battered person.
Pekka Himanen presents a hacker's ethic in his book which could mean a possible takeover of the role of the protestant ethic related to work. According to Himanen, a hacker isn't a criminal, a vandal or an informatics' pirate with high technical skills (which he prefers to call crackers), but a person who could work under pressure and is enthusiastic about what he is doing. The word "hacker", form this perspective, could be extrapolated to other fields, for instance the scientific one.
Larsson has created a personal ethic for the Salander character who shows some ethical aspects of hacker ethic's which are described by Pekka Himanen, but which at the same time shows other meanings. Stieg Larsson presents a survival ethic which is built from social exclusion, while Himanen suggests a hacker ethic's based on series of values, for instance social awareness, passionate creativity or responsible concern.
We think that putting these two ethic models face to face can provoke an interesting discussion. We are looking for opinions about: people who defend the hacker term (and the concepts reflected by the main character of the Millenium trilogy) and people who see in this a new frivolous and negative point of view around the programmer community and other invividuals who are passionate about what they are doing.
Do you want to join?
Instructions
If you want to participate in this activity by sending your opinion, you just have to access to the discussion webpage and follow the instructions.
Further reading
Pekka Himanen. (2001) The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age. Random House.
Random House.
1st chapter avaiable online
Found it in LIBRARIES: CCUC ˇ Xarxa Biblioteques Diputaciķ Barcelona
If you need more information about the context of the two books, you can take a look at the related links section below.
