Matt Cropp 🌲🌲
My #hackerspace is starting a #hacker #BookClub, and I'd welcome suggestions to add to our to-read list. We'll be doing both fiction and non-fiction works that have connections to hacker culture, identity, history, etc.
Jul 7, 2017 at 2:45pmWeb
Show threadMatt Cropp 🌲🌲Jul 7, 2017
The current list drawn from our membership:
-The Cathedral and The Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary
-Snowcrash
-Neuromancer
-A Hacker Manifesto
-Gamer Theory
-Atlas Shrugged
-My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla
-Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
-Spook Country
-The Diamond Age
-Cryptonomicon
-Ready Player One
Show threadbrennenJul 7, 2017

@mattcropp _the unix programming environment_; _the shockwave rider_; _the hacker crackdown_

nonfic-wise, maybe something on/by grace hopper, margaret hamilton. it's hard not to notice how dude-centric the theoretical hacker prose canon is, and i wish i had better ideas for countering that.

i really appreciated this talk at the open hardware summit last fall: http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/programming-forgetting-new-hacker-ethic/

- good companion piece for a lot of this.

Show threadbrennenJul 7, 2017

@mattcropp (also, tbh, i wouldn't encourage anyone to read rand in a vulnerable state of mind, and judging by how badly ESR himself has aged, i'm not all that keen to revisit the cathedral & the bazaar in a modern context, though it was important to a major cultural moment with all sorts of lasting implications...

i guess i'm just pulling for a hacker culture that's a living thing and can actually shed some of its more toxic reference points. there are plenty.)

Show thread⦺ irick 🐁🐈⚩Jul 7, 2017
@mattcropp
Having read Ready Player One...
I'd replace it with Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.
Ready Player One is mostly about 80s pop culture references, Little Brother at least Hacker Ethics up the plot a bit.
Having read Atlas Shrugged... save everyone some time and do Anthem, or The Fountainhead. Atlas Shrugged is stupid long.
Cryptonomicon is also stupid long, but it's at least funny.
Show threadINACTIVEJul 7, 2017

@Irick @mattcropp

Personally, I really enjoyed Ready Player One. As far as entertainment value goes, it was probably the best book I've read in ages.

Show thread⦺ irick 🐁🐈⚩Jul 7, 2017
@deadsuperhero @mattcropp
I have mixed feelings about it. I prefer my science fiction cerebral, and it's much more a romp. I won't say it's not a fun ride, but at the same time it's such a hit-list of references that it can't help but feel supremely derivative to the point of banality.
In that it embodies sort of the asthetification of 'geek culture', boiled down winking nods at canonic texts without really using those texts for any real thematic point.
Show threadebelJul 7, 2017
@mattcropp a discworld novel? To balance the libertarian aspect?
Show threadSimon 🌧Jul 7, 2017
@ebel @mattcropp yeah that's a hugely libertarian (and in the us-libertarian, not kropotkin-libertarian) bent of authors.
Show threadMatt Cropp 🌲🌲Jul 7, 2017
@simonv3 @ebel There's 2 that I recognize immediately as libertarian - what aside from Rand and The Cathedral and the Bazaar do you see leaning that way?
Show threadSimon 🌧Jul 7, 2017

@mattcropp @ebel Heh, I guess those two just popped out to me as swaying the entire conversation that way, and there's just such a general acceptance of those things being good.

I also tend to associate anything by Stephenson as pretty libertarian, but I can never tell if that's satire or not. Cryptonomicon especially so. Snowcrash not so much.

Show threadCharles 𝄢 HutchinsJul 8, 2017
@simonv3 snowcraah is so influential in people trying to build VR systems. I copied a lot of his ideas when I was building a MOO. And that book was clearly a blueprint for Second Life. The part that everyone forgets, though, that they chippy into their systems as a fatal flaw: Snowcrash describes a failed state which has turned to ancap-style hyper capitalism. Which ended up also being the economic model for second life and probably helped promote the idea of online spaces as unregulated, government-free zones for capitalism. I don't think it meant to advance that as a good idea, it just happened by accident, maybe.
Show threadSimon 🌧Jul 9, 2017
@celesteh yeah! I think that's how I suspect a lot of Stephenson's work is written but also perceived. He writes gun slinging libertarian cow boys and I think that's how a lot of hacker culture sees itself - especially the ones you encounter on HN - and I can't quite tell if it's satire or not. Seveneves leads me to believe it might be, but it's still very technocratic meritocratic. And I wonder about the consequences of that.
Show threadMatt Cropp 🌲🌲Jul 7, 2017
@ebel For those who've never read #discworld, what would be a good starting book?
Show threadebelJul 7, 2017
@mattcropp well I've loved the witches series. But the hacker-y aspect is slightly hidden. Lots of loves for the freaks of the world. "headology" is basically social engineering. The stories have lots of distrust of authority, and a points out you have social responsibility.
Show threadebelJul 7, 2017
@mattcropp there are several "series" in #discworld here's a chart https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-20.jpg
Show threadebelJul 7, 2017
@mattcropp The Martian. It's a STEM is great book. ☺
Show threadNathan SchneiderJul 7, 2017
@mattcropp My syllabus: http://nathanschneider.info/wiki/school/hacker_culture
Show threadLuca Conti 🌱Jul 7, 2017
@ntnsndr @mattcropp very cooooool! Thank you for sharing
Show threadAlex Cendre 🌋Jul 7, 2017
@mattcropp it would be nice to balance the genre ratio. What if half of the books were *written* by women?
Show threadMatt Cropp 🌲🌲Jul 7, 2017
@alxcndr That's a good idea, and I should make a point of adding more women authors to the list personally, but, aside from my personal contributions, my roles is aggregator; the curation is done by the member dot voting process. ;)
Show threadAndrew RoachJul 7, 2017
@mattcropp Turning's Cathedral.
Do Not Read Atlas Shrugged.
Show threadAndrew RoachJul 7, 2017

@mattcropp

Anything by Cory Doctorow, but specifically:
- Little Brother + Homeland + Lawful intercept (they all follow the same characters, and can be read back to back.)
- Makers
- Walkaway
- For the Win

All of these are about hackers hacking the world. Inspirational and great.

Show threadmutual-ayydeJul 7, 2017
@ajr @mattcropp Illuminatus trilogy >>> atlas shrugged
Show threadINACTIVEJul 7, 2017
@rogermexico @ajr @mattcropp Seconded, Illuminatus is fucking incredible. Also, the writing conventions and jokes used are incredibly vivid and surreal.
Show threadliate 💾Jul 7, 2017

@mattcropp How about 'Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution'?

Also, I recommend reading through the Jargon File, although I'm not sure that's exactly book-club material... <http://www.catb.org/jargon/>

Show threadAntanicusJul 8, 2017
@mattcropp this could very well become my reading list for the next 6 months...
Show threadpassive solar hill folk⚑Jul 7, 2017
@mattcropp For your list of hacker-related books: Makers by Cory Doctorow
Show threadMatt Cropp 🌲🌲Jul 7, 2017
@evanarchitective I can't believe we didn't have any Doctorow on the list yet! Good call...
Show threadpassive solar hill folk⚑Jul 7, 2017
@mattcropp Oooh, maybe the Homebrew Industrial Revolution and/or Desktop Regulatory State by @[email protected]
Show threadMayel - ghost accountJul 7, 2017
@mattcropp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Beginning..._Was_the_Command_Line