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                  >C O M P U T E R   U N D E R G R O U N D<
                                >D I G E S T<
              ***  Volume 2, Issue #2.17 (December 16, 1990)   **
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From: Silicon Surfer / <address deleted>
Subject: Playgrounds of the Mind: Cyberspace
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 90 07:06 EDT

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***  CuD #2.17: File 6 of 7: Playgrounds of the Mind: Cyberspace ***
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             Playgrounds Of The Mind: Cyberspace
                              By
                        Silicon Surfer

Why do hackers hack?  The majority seem to say it's a thrill or a challenge
to get into a system.  Others say that it's a means to learn about
mainframe computers and their various communication networks.

Every year the government and with donations from industry pour millions of
dollars into athletic facilities for it's youth and adult citizens.  There
is even a President's Fitness Council to encourage Americans to exercise
their bodies.  The government and industry does spend millions of dollars
to fight computer "hackers" and fix security holes.  But where are the
playgrounds for the mind?

If the government and industry provided regionally located computer centers
for the young and old computer enthusiasts to use or break into what would
happen?  Industry and the government would have a place to test it's new
software and find security holes.  It would also be developing a young crop
of computer programmers and security experts.  Imagine what it would be
like to develop young adults with years of computer experience, we already
see this result in sports every year during the various professional drafts
and attempts by colleges to recruit players.

And what of the crime of computer hackers?  There would be no excuse if you
were allowed to use or crack a specific computer system.  There would still
be the thrill, challenge and knowledge to achieve, BUT it would be legal.
It would also teach ethics. Imagine a hacker defeating a system and gaining
an account, then only weeks later to lose that account to another hacker
(of course a large increase of computer expertise would be developed by
hackers to defend their own accounts).

And if a hacker broke into a system that was outside the allowed
systems...there would be no excuse except for criminal mischief.

There already exits a network called the Internet that would allow various
playgrounds of cyberspace to be connected.  Today, most high school
districts have minicomputers or mainframe systems (imagine students staying
after school to work and learn with a computer...they would most likely
have to sign up for time...images of the old days of the old hackers of the
70's) that could connect to the Internet.  And what of the computing
resources of community colleges and state universities that could be opened
up to the public.  They already open up their gyms, athletic fields, and
pools to the community, why not their computers?  A perfect example is the
Cleveland Free-Net by CASE Western.  They have developed a computer city
that exists on the Internet and is accessible to anyone at NO cost.  The
EFF wants to encourage the growth and inhabitance of cyberspace. Why not
develop outposts at various academic sites to accommodate the "greenhorns"
that are venturing out into this new and open frontier?  The EFF does not
need to spend vast amounts of money, instead it should provide
encouragement.  They could aid in the development of a program to bring
computers to the people (..help establish a Community Memory
Project...like the one that existed in the late 70's in California).  It
would be easier for the more famous of their members to get donations from
industry of used or new equipment.

But then again it is easier for the government and industry to spend
resources of time and money to monitor and hunt hackers.  It is better to
foster the idea that computer access and knowledge should be the realm of
the few.  That it would be better to complain and wring their hands saying
that the US should do something to regain it's technological edge and by
the way, let's get rid of these dangerous and evil hackers.

Of course the media is of no help. What profit is it to print news stories
or support an initiative like this.  There is no sensationalism in law and
order.  The bed time horror stories of 15 year olds breaking into military
computers and emergency networks would disappear, leaving them instead with
stories of a educated and ethical computer community.

I believe we are at a turning point in the computer culture. We have
reached the cross roads, we can encourage the open development of computer
knowledge by providing open systems or we can make it a crime to pursue
knowledge.  After reading this you might ask what have I done to encourage
computer knowledge? I have taught computer courses for elementary students
while in college and later developed a course outline to use a state
university's mainframe computer to provide accounts and instruction for
high school students (the program although was shot down by the state
university's bureaucracy plan to fight this decision).  That is why I am
posting this article under a handle, to protect any future projects of mine
from misinterpretation.

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