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
solutions, 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
circumvented. 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.
