The 1995 film “Hackers”, a young Angelina Jolie and baby-faced Johnny Lee Miller star as digital rebels dressed in a punk aesthetic with the power to takeover anything that dares to exist on the internet. Nearly two decades later, it’s clear that that hackers can’t be identified by dress, ethnicity, or any other one specific trait, but evidence of their presence and power in our increasingly digital world is everywhere.
Gabriella Coleman is an anthropologist at McGill University in Montreal, and author of the book Coding Freedom: The Ethics And Aesthetics Of Hacking. As part of her studies, she lived with a tribe of San Francisco hackers for three years and joins us now to tell us about her experience.