The Word "Hacker"
April 2004 To the popular press, "hacker" means someone who breaks into computers.
2004 年 4 月 对于大众媒体来说，“黑客”指的是闯入计算机的人。
Among programmers it means a good programmer.
在程序员中，它意味着一个好的程序员。
But the two meanings are connected.
但这两个含义是相连的。
To programmers, "hacker" connotes mastery in the most literal sense: someone who can make a computer do what he wants—whether the computer wants to or not.
对于程序员来说，“黑客”意味着最字面意义上的精通：能够让计算机做他想做的事的人——无论计算机愿意与否。
To add to the confusion, the noun "hack" also has two senses.
更令人困惑的是，名词“hack”也有两种含义。
It can be either a compliment or an insult.
它可以是赞美，也可以是侮辱。
It's called a hack when
当它被称为黑客时
you do something in an ugly way.
你以一种丑陋的方式做了某事。
But when you do something so clever that you somehow beat the system, that's also called a hack.
但是，当你做了一些非常聪明的事情，以至于以某种方式击败了系统，这也被称为黑客攻击。
The word is used more often in the former than the latter sense, probably because ugly solutions are more common than brilliant ones.
这个词在前一种意义上的使用比在后一种意义上更常见，可能是因为丑陋的解决方案比出色的解决方案更常见。
Believe it or not, the two senses of "hack" are also connected.
不管你相信与否，“黑客”的两种含义也是相互关联的。
Ugly and imaginative solutions have something in common: they both break the rules.
丑陋和富有想象力的解决方案有一个共同点：它们都违反规则。
And there is a gradual
并且有一个循序渐进的过程
continuum between rule breaking that's merely ugly (using duct tape to attach something to your bike) and rule breaking that is brilliantly imaginative (discarding Euclidean space).
丑陋的规则破坏（使用胶带将某些东西固定在自行车上）和富有想象力的规则破坏（放弃欧几里得空间）之间的连续体。
Hacking predates computers.
黑客攻击早于计算机。
When he was working on the Manhattan Project, Richard Feynman used to amuse himself by breaking into safes containing secret documents.
当理查德·费曼参与曼哈顿计划时，他常常以闯入装有秘密文件的保险箱来取乐。
This tradition continues today.
这一传统一直延续至今。
When we were in grad school, a hacker friend of mine who spent too much
当我们读研究生时，我的一个黑客朋友花了太多钱
time around MIT had his own lock picking kit.
麻省理工学院有他自己的开锁工具。
(He now runs a hedge fund, a not unrelated enterprise.) It is sometimes hard to explain to authorities why one would want to do such things.
（他现在经营着一家对冲基金，这是一家并非无关的企业。）有时很难向当局解释为什么人们会想做这样的事情。
Another friend of mine once got in trouble with the government for breaking into computers.
我的另一个朋友曾经因为侵入计算机而与政府发生过麻烦。
This had only recently been declared a crime, and the FBI found that their usual investigative technique didn't work.
最近这才被宣布为犯罪，联邦调查局发现他们惯用的调查手段不起作用。
Police investigation apparently begins with
警方的调查显然是从
a motive.
一个动机。
The usual motives are few: drugs, money, sex, revenge.
通常的动机很少：毒品、金钱、性、复仇。
Intellectual curiosity was not one of the motives on the FBI's list.
求知欲并不是联邦调查局名单上的动机之一。
Indeed, the whole concept seemed foreign to them.
事实上，整个概念对他们来说似乎很陌生。
Those in authority tend to be annoyed by hackers' general attitude of disobedience.
当权者往往会对黑客普遍的不服从态度感到恼火。
But that disobedience is a byproduct of the qualities that make them good programmers.
但这种不服从是他们成为优秀程序员的品质的副产品。
They may laugh at the CEO when he talks in generic corporate
当首席执行官用通用公司语言讲话时，他们可能会嘲笑他
newspeech, but they also laugh at someone who tells them a certain problem can't be solved.
新闻言论，但他们也会嘲笑那些告诉他们某个问题无法解决的人。
Suppress one, and you suppress the other.
压制一个，就压制另一个。
This attitude is sometimes affected.
这种态度有时会受到影响。
Sometimes young programmers notice the eccentricities of eminent hackers and decide to adopt some of their own in order to seem smarter.
有时，年轻的程序员会注意到杰出黑客的怪癖，并决定采用自己的一些怪癖，以显得更聪明。
The fake version is not merely annoying; the prickly attitude of these posers can actually slow the process of innovation.
假版本不仅令人讨厌，而且令人厌烦。这些装腔作势者的易怒态度实际上会减慢创新的进程。
But even factoring in their annoying eccentricities, the disobedient attitude of hackers is a net win.
但即使考虑到黑客令人讨厌的怪癖，他们的不服从态度也是一个净胜。
I wish its advantages were better understood.
我希望它的优点能被更好地理解。
For example, I suspect people in Hollywood are simply mystified by hackers' attitudes toward copyrights.
例如，我怀疑好莱坞的人们只是对黑客对版权的态度感到困惑。
They are a perennial topic of heated discussion on Slashdot.
它们是 Slashdot 上长期热议的话题。
But why should people who program computers be so concerned about copyrights, of all things?
但为什么计算机编程人员要如此关心版权呢？
Partly because some companies use mechanisms to prevent copying.
部分原因是一些公司使用机制来防止复制。
Show any hacker a lock and his first thought is how to pick it.
向任何黑客展示一把锁，他的第一个想法就是如何撬开它。
But there is a deeper reason that hackers are alarmed by measures like copyrights and patents.
但黑客对版权和专利等措施感到震惊还有更深层次的原因。
They see increasingly aggressive measures to protect "intellectual property" as a threat to the intellectual freedom they need to do their job.
他们认为保护“知识产权”的日益激进的措施对他们工作所需的知识自由构成了威胁。
And they are right.
他们是对的。
It is by poking about inside current technology that
正是通过探究当前技术的内部
hackers get ideas for the next generation.
黑客为下一代获取想法。
No thanks, intellectual homeowners may say, we don't need any outside help.
不，谢谢，知识分子房主可能会说，我们不需要任何外部帮助。
But they're wrong.
但他们错了。
The next generation of computer technology has often—perhaps more often than not—been developed by outsiders.
下一代计算机技术通常（或许更多的是）是由外部人士开发的。
In 1977 there was no doubt some group within IBM developing what they expected to be the next generation of business computer.
1977 年，毫无疑问，IBM 内部的某个团队正在开发他们期望的下一代商用计算机。
They were mistaken.
他们错了。
The next generation of business computer was
下一代商用计算机是
being developed on entirely different lines by two long-haired guys called Steve in a garage in Los Altos.
这是由两个名叫史蒂夫的长发家伙在洛斯阿尔托斯的一个车库里以完全不同的路线开发的。
At about the same time, the powers that be were cooperating to develop the official next generation operating system, Multics.
大约在同一时间，各方正在合作开发官方的下一代操作系统 Multics。
But two guys who thought Multics excessively complex went off and wrote their own.
但是有两个人认为 Multics 过于复杂，于是他们自己编写了 Multics。
They gave it a name that was a joking reference to Multics: Unix.
他们给它起了一个名字，这个名字是对 Multics 的玩笑：Unix。
The latest intellectual property laws impose
最新的知识产权法规定
unprecedented restrictions on the sort of poking around that leads to new ideas.
对产生新想法的探索受到前所未有的限制。
In the past, a competitor might use patents to prevent you from selling a copy of something they made, but they couldn't prevent you from taking one apart to see how it worked.
过去，竞争对手可能会利用专利来阻止您出售他们制造的产品的副本，但他们无法阻止您拆开产品看看它是如何工作的。
The latest laws make this a crime.
最新的法律将这种行为定为犯罪。
How are we to develop new technology if we can't study current technology to figure out how to improve it?
如果我们不能研究现有技术并找出改进方法，我们如何开发新技术呢？
Ironically, hackers have brought this on themselves.
讽刺的是，这一切都是黑客自找的。
Computers are responsible for the problem.
计算机要为这个问题负责。
The control systems inside machines used to be physical: gears and levers and cams.
机器内部的控制系统过去是物理的：齿轮、杠杆和凸轮。
Increasingly, the brains (and thus the value) of products is in software.
产品的大脑（以及价值）越来越多地集中在软件中。
And by this I mean software in the general sense: i.e. data.
我指的是一般意义上的软件：即数据。
A song on an LP is physically stamped into the plastic.
密纹唱片上的歌曲被物理印刻到塑料上。
A song on an iPod's disk is merely stored on it.
iPod 磁盘上的歌曲仅存储在其上。
Data is by definition easy to copy.
数据根据定义很容易复制。
And the Internet
还有互联网
makes copies easy to distribute.
使副本易于分发。
So it is no wonder companies are afraid.
因此，公司感到害怕也就不足为奇了。
But, as so often happens, fear has clouded their judgement.
但是，正如经常发生的那样，恐惧蒙蔽了他们的判断力。
The government has responded with draconian laws to protect intellectual property.
政府已采取严厉的法律来保护知识产权。
They probably mean well.
他们可能是出于好意。
But they may not realize that such laws will do more harm than good.
但他们可能没有意识到这样的法律弊大于利。
Why are programmers so violently opposed to these laws?
为什么程序员如此强烈地反对这些法律？
If I were a legislator, I'd be interested in this
如果我是立法者，我会对这个感兴趣
mystery—for the same reason that, if I were a farmer and suddenly heard a lot of squawking coming from my hen house one night, I'd want to go out and investigate.
出于同样的原因，如果我是一名农民，有一天晚上突然听到我的鸡舍里传来很多嘎嘎叫声，我就会想出去调查一下。
Hackers are not stupid, and unanimity is very rare in this world.
黑客并不傻，一致意见在这个世界上是非常罕见的。
So if they're all squawking, perhaps there is something amiss.
所以如果他们都在大声叫嚷，也许有什么问题。
Could it be that such laws, though intended to protect America, will actually harm it?
这些法律虽然旨在保护美国，但实际上会损害美国吗？
Think about it.
想一想。
There is something
有东西
very American about Feynman breaking into safes during the Manhattan Project.
费曼在曼哈顿计划期间闯入保险箱的故事非常美国化。
It's hard to imagine the authorities having a sense of humor about such things over in Germany at that time.
很难想象当时的德国当局会对这样的事情有幽默感。
Maybe it's not a coincidence.
也许这不是巧合。
Hackers are unruly.
黑客是不守规矩的。
That is the essence of hacking.
这就是黑客攻击的本质。
And it is also the essence of Americanness.
这也是美国性的本质。
It is no accident that Silicon Valley is in America, and not France, or Germany, or England, or Japan.
硅谷位于美国，而不是法国、德国、英国或日本，这并非偶然。
In those countries, people color inside
在那些国家，人们内心充满色彩
the lines.
线条。
I lived for a while in Florence.
我在佛罗伦萨住过一段时间。
But after I'd been there a few months I realized that what I'd been unconsciously hoping to find there was back in the place I'd just left.
但当我在那里几个月后，我意识到我无意识地希望找到的东西又回到了我刚刚离开的地方。
The reason Florence is famous is that in 1450, it was New York.
佛罗伦萨之所以出名，是因为1450年这里是纽约。
In 1450 it was filled with the kind of turbulent and ambitious people you find now in America.
1450 年，这里充满了像现在在美国一样的暴躁而雄心勃勃的人。
(So I went back to America.) It is greatly to America's advantage that it is
（所以我回到了美国。） 这对美国来说是极大的优势。
a congenial atmosphere for the right sort of unruliness—that it is a home not just for the smart, but for smart-alecks.
一种适宜不守规矩的宜人氛围——这里不仅是聪明人的家，也是自作聪明的人的家。
And hackers are invariably smart-alecks.
黑客无一例外都是自作聪明的人。
If we had a national holiday, it would be April 1st.
如果我们有国定假日的话，那就是4月1日。
It says a great deal about our work that we use the same word for a brilliant or a horribly cheesy solution.
我们使用同一个词来表示出色的解决方案或极其俗气的解决方案，这充分说明了我们的工作。
When we cook one up we're not always 100% sure which kind it is.
当我们烹饪时，我们并不总是 100% 确定它是哪一种。
But as long as it has
但只要有
the right sort of wrongness, that's a promising sign.
正确的错误，这是一个有希望的迹象。
It's odd that people think of programming as precise and methodical.
奇怪的是，人们认为编程是精确且有条理的。
Computers are precise and methodical.
计算机精确且有条理。
Hacking is something you do with a gleeful laugh.
黑客攻击是一种你可以笑着做的事情。
In our world some of the most characteristic solutions are not far removed from practical jokes.
在我们的世界中，一些最具特色的解决方案与恶作剧相差不远。
IBM was no doubt rather surprised by the consequences of the licensing deal for DOS, just as the hypothetical
毫无疑问，IBM 对 DOS 许可协议的后果感到相当惊讶，正如假设的那样
"adversary" must be when Michael Rabin solves a problem by redefining it as one that's easier to solve.
“对手”一定是迈克尔·拉宾通过将问题重新定义为更容易解决的问题来解决问题的时候。
Smart-alecks have to develop a keen sense of how much they can get away with.
自作聪明的人必须敏锐地意识到自己能逃脱多少惩罚。
And lately hackers have sensed a change in the atmosphere.
最近，黑客们感觉到了气氛的变化。
Lately hackerliness seems rather frowned upon.
最近，黑客行为似乎颇为令人不悦。
To hackers the recent contraction in civil liberties seems especially ominous.
对于黑客来说，最近公民自由的收缩似乎尤其不祥。
That must also mystify outsiders.
这一定也让局外人感到困惑。
Why should we care especially about civil liberties?
为什么我们应该特别关心公民自由？
Why programmers, more than dentists or salesmen or landscapers?
为什么是程序员，而不是牙医、推销员或园林设计师？
Let me put the case in terms a government official would appreciate.
让我用政府官员会欣赏的方式来阐述这个案例。
Civil liberties are not just an ornament, or a quaint American tradition.
公民自由不仅仅是一种装饰品，也不仅仅是一种古怪的美国传统。
Civil liberties make countries rich.
公民自由使国家富裕。
If you made a graph of GNP per capita vs. civil liberties, you'd notice a definite trend.
如果您制作人均国民生产总值与公民自由的图表，您会注意到一个明确的趋势。
Could civil liberties really be a cause, rather
公民自由真的可以成为一个事业吗？
than just an effect?
而不仅仅是一个效果？
I think so.
我想是的。
I think a society in which people can do and say what they want will also tend to be one in which the most efficient solutions win, rather than those sponsored by the most influential people.
我认为，一个人们可以随心所欲、言出必行的社会，也往往会是最有效的解决方案获胜的社会，而不是那些由最有影响力的人赞助的社会。
Authoritarian countries become corrupt; corrupt countries become poor; and poor countries are weak.
专制国家变得腐败；腐败国家变穷；穷国则弱。
It seems to me there is a Laffer curve for government power, just as for tax revenues.
在我看来，政府权力就像税收收入一样，存在一条拉弗曲线。
At least, it seems likely enough that it
至少，看起来很可能是这样
would be stupid to try the experiment and find out.
尝试做实验并找出答案是愚蠢的。
Unlike high tax rates, you can't repeal totalitarianism if it turns out to be a mistake.
与高税率不同，如果极权主义被证明是错误的，你就无法废除它。
This is why hackers worry.
这就是黑客担心的原因。
The government spying on people doesn't literally make programmers write worse code.
政府对人们的监视并不会让程序员写出更糟糕的代码。
It just leads eventually to a world in which bad ideas win.
它最终只会导致一个坏主意获胜的世界。
And because this is so important to hackers, they're especially sensitive to it.
因为这对黑客来说非常重要，所以他们对此特别敏感。
They can sense totalitarianism approaching from a
他们可以感觉到极权主义正在逼近
distance, as animals can sense an approaching thunderstorm.
距离，因为动物可以感觉到即将到来的雷暴。
It would be ironic if, as hackers fear, recent measures intended to protect national security and intellectual property turned out to be a missile aimed right at what makes America successful.
如果正如黑客所担心的那样，最近旨在保护国家安全和知识产权的措施最终被证明是一枚瞄准美国成功之道的导弹，那就太讽刺了。
But it would not be the first time that measures taken in an atmosphere of panic had the opposite of the intended effect.
但这并不是第一次在恐慌气氛下采取的措施产生与预期效果相反的情况。
There is such a thing as Americanness.
有一种东西叫做美国性。
There's nothing like living abroad to teach you that.
没有什么比在国外生活更能教会你这一点了。
And if you want to know whether something will nurture or squash this quality, it would be hard to find a better focus group than hackers, because they come closest of any group I know to embodying it.
如果你想知道某些东西是否会培育或压制这种品质，那么很难找到比黑客更好的焦点小组，因为他们是我所知道的最能体现这种品质的团体。
Closer, probably, than the men running our government, who for all their talk of patriotism remind me more of Richelieu or Mazarin than Thomas Jefferson or George Washington.
可能比那些管理我们政府的人更接近，他们尽管谈论爱国主义，但更多地让我想起黎塞留或马扎林，而不是托马斯·杰斐逊或乔治·华盛顿。
When you read what the founding fathers had to say for themselves, they sound more like hackers.
当你读到开国元勋们为自己所说的话时，他们听起来更像是黑客。
"The spirit of resistance to government," Jefferson wrote, "is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive." Imagine an American president saying that today.
杰斐逊写道：“抵抗政府的精神在某些情况下是如此宝贵，我希望它永远保持活力。”想象一下今天有一位美国总统这么说。
Like the remarks of an outspoken old grandmother, the sayings of the founding fathers have embarrassed generations of
就像一位直言不讳的老祖母的言论一样，开国元勋们的言论让几代人感到尴尬。
their less confident successors.
他们的继任者信心不足。
They remind us where we come from.
他们提醒我们我们来自哪里。
They remind us that it is the people who break rules that are the source of America's wealth and power.
他们提醒我们，正是那些违反规则的人才是美国财富和权力的源泉。
Those in a position to impose rules naturally want them to be obeyed.
那些有权制定规则的人自然希望规则被遵守。
But be careful what you ask for.
但要小心你的要求。
You might get it.
你可能会明白。
Thanks to Ken Anderson, Trevor Blackwell, Daniel Giffin, Sarah Harlin, Shiro Kawai, Jessica Livingston, Matz,
感谢肯·安德森、特雷弗·布莱克威尔、丹尼尔·吉芬、莎拉·哈林、河井史郎、杰西卡·利文斯顿、马茨、
Jackie McDonough, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, Guido van Rossum, David Weinberger, and Steven Wolfram for reading drafts of this essay.
感谢 Jackie McDonough、Robert Morris、Eric Raymond、Guido van Rossum、David Weinberger 和 Steven Wolfram 阅读了本文的草稿。
<!-- This was previously called "Good Bad Attitude," but I reverted to its original title when I found I kept having trouble remembering this cute new title.
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--> （图片显示史蒂夫·乔布斯和沃兹尼亚克拿着一个“蓝色盒子”。照片由玛格丽特·沃兹尼亚克拍摄。
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