A Hacker's Human Nature: Blank Slate Philosophy

By MG

Loyd Blankenship's "The Hacker Manifesto" discusses the importance of circumstance and upbringing when considering the motivation behind individuals' actions. Blankenship's writing marks the difference between perspectives on human nature. To him, people, more specifically hackers, and their actions result from their circumstances, not of an intrinsic nature to be criminal. I think Blankenship shares my preference for the blank slate human nature argument and believes that the situations of our childhood heavily influence our online actions. Specifically, Blankenship believes that a lack of information and the drive to discover motivates the activities of the younger hacker generation.

In philosophy, human nature is a hot topic of debate. There are three main arguments for human nature. The first, egoism, is a self-preservation argument, believing that it is human nature to provide and protect yourself before others. You can think about this philosophy like the oxygen masks on a plane. You help yourself before those next to you.

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Altruism is the second argument, and we will refer to it as the selfless saint argument. An altruist will prioritize everything else before their own needs. The third, and my favourite, is tabula rasa. This one we will call the "blank slate" argument, meaning that everyone is born without a fundamental human nature, but their experiences shape their nature.

"They're all alike... You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert. few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert."

This section gives us the scenario of being raised by the previous generations, who cherry-pick information and leave us in the dark. We are born as blank slates, ready and aware of the vast amount of information and achievable knowledge that exists. However, we are subject to our parents' and other authoritative adults' whims when we are young. They impart their bias and individually developed human nature onto the new generation. The information they deem unimportant becomes obsolete even though it may mean a lot to someone else.

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This human nature theory closely relates to Charles Darwin's natural selection and biological evolution theory. While Darwin wasn't really a philosopher, his biology theories closely align with the tabula rasa theory since, according to his. Creatures evolve and develop based on their environment. Yes, they have intrinsic needs, but no animal is born purely selfless or selfish.

We can compare the development of a hacker to the development of an animal species. They are born a blank slate, without any instincts to be selfish or selfless, only knowing that they need to survive. Survival looks different to different species, and it often means that the newer generation must evolve beyond the generation before them. For Darwin, that looks like a bird developing a longer beak to catch more fish. For Blankenship, evolution looks like shedding the bias of the previous generation to discover hidden information.

Blankenship states, "My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for." Often progress in evolution and development is viewed as threatening. It suggests that the previous generation had it wrong or wasn't strong enough to not "drink the Kool-Aid," so to say. Blankenship's statement reminds us that our human nature evolves and develops beyond our predecessors. When it comes to the rightness of our actions, it does not boil down to basic human nature to be good or criminal. The morality of our actions is determined by our generation's collective.