Richard Spindler’s Weblog

Punks & Hackers

Hi everyone,

I just recently had that conversation again, where I explained to someone that being a “Hacker” is not about being someone who commits computer crimes, but rather someone who is trying to look behind technology, and to understand and modify how things work. That for me a hacker is someone who likes to program computer software, or other things. As a matter of fact, using the term “Hacker” to describe someone, means that I am speaking very positively, and with deep respect of a person.

However, often people that I talk to have quite a different idea about what a hacker is, which makes me stumble sometimes in conversations, and then I have to stop and actually explain what I meant.

Oh, and I recommend the Hacker How To to find out more about how to define the term “Hacker”.

And also it came to me that with the term “Punk” it is pretty much the same situation. For me it is a term that is associated with quite a positive emotion. A Punk is for me someone who is unable to accept the morals and values that we are indoctrinated with by the mass media and the society. Just looking at all the bad things happening around us, as a Punk you are unable to understand how this should make any sense. You see that on the one hand good ideas are slashed, based on suspicious moral arguments, and on the other hand bad things happen, and nothing is done about it, while morale and ideals simple ignore such issues. And then the Punk decides to drop out of that kind of fake and distorted, incomprehensible world, and starts to create his own, starts to live by rules, ideals and morals that make sense to him.

This attitude towards punk as such, brings me to the term “Steampunk”, which is an idea, or movement that I can very much relate to.

Steampunk (Read here what Wikipedia has to say about Steampunk) is very much founded on the Universe that Jules Verne creates in his books. The idea of a time where humans surrounded themselves with beautiful things, and where manners, decency and gentlemen were still appreciated. Of course Steampunk is about a romanticized version of history, and a fictional alternative future, but that does not mean that the ideas and values are unimportant, or inappropriate for dealing with our current reality. Not at all.

For an idea of steampunk, that I very much agree with, read for example the “Interview with Molly ‘Porkshanks’ Friedrich” in the Gatehouse Gazette, issue 4, page 5.

Also for another inspiration that influenced my idea of Steampunk as a social and cultural movement, read the first part of “Across Realtime” by Vernor Vinge, “The Peace War”. It is not very much “steampunk” in an aesthetic and technological way, but rather about a “slowed down” but still “high tech” based culture. It comes very close to what I would imagine as a sustainable life-stile, that emphasizes cooperation, humility and frugality, but still keeps the curiosity and forward thinking ideals of a high tech culture. While this lifestyle is forced upon people through a fascist regime, in this book, an idea, that I do not endorse, I think you can get some ideas about how a future could look like. A future, where we are not chasing and stressing through our whole lives.

After that little adventure into the social, cultural and economical realms of Steampunk, I will give you some examples of the more aesthetic aspects. Just look at the pages of Jake von Slatt and Datamancer.

There are many more pages on the Internet though, so just have a look yourself.

Cheers,
and have fun
-Richard