The Hacker's Manifesto / When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth

Both “The Hacker’s Manifesto” and “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” presents hackers as rebels, acting according to their views despite society’s conventional views and misconceptions. In Hacker’s Manifesto they expose themselves as if they were in a whole different social division. They do not follow the limitations that the governments, organizations, and society had established over the use of internet (for security reasons, to protect system information that’s supposed to be confidential and that could be used against a business or government)… Hackers believe they are unstoppable and that any limitation is against (their) freedom of expression. They as well aim to make the point that, as the internet is spread worldwide and it’s impossible to control its use, people cannot stop hackers as a whole…because, either way, they are all spread out everywhere, acting so alike that they can disguise: “You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all.  After all... we're all alike.”

“When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” is an interesting story, which makes us think of technology as a weapon that can be used for destruction. In a selfless world, we might imagine technology used for the common good, to make this world a better one, and be connected worldwide to unite us instead of to divide us more. However, we have created something so big and powerful (technology, the internet…cyberspace), that when we think we control it, the immensity of that technology falls out of our control and starts to control us. I think we might be reaching a time in which technology is power, as if becoming our new social division or standard, meaning how many we have may determine our social status:  The more technology, and the more knowledge you have about technology, the more power you have…and therefore, socially above the rest of society. Throughout this story, a debate emerges on whether the technology should be regulated (as possible) and its use inspected, or if it should be part of our freedom of expression (meaning we may use it as we may want).