Pekka Himanen – The Hacker Ethic

“One might say that there is an “ethics barrier ” a speed above which ethics can no longer exit. After that point the only remaining goal is to survive the immediate moment.”

-Pekka Himanen

Nearly a century ago, Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism articulated the animating spirit of the industrial age, the Protestant ethic. Now, Pekka Hinamen — together with Linus Torvalds and Manuel Castells — articulates how hackers* represent a new, opposing ethos for the information age. Underlying hackers’ technical creations — such as the Internet and the personal computer, which have become symbols of our time — are the hacker values that produced them and that challenge us all. These values promoted passionate and freely rhythmed work; the belief that individuals can create great things by joining forces in imaginative ways; and the need to maintain our existing ethical ideals, such as privacy and equality, in our new, increasingly technologized society. The Hacker Ethic takes us on a journey through fundamental questions about life in the information age — a trip of constant surprises, after which out time and our lives can be seen from unexpected perspectives.

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Pekka Himanen

“This primary question of life organization is immensely important. If making money is the main goal, a person can often forget what his or her true interests are or how he or she wants to deserve recognition from others. It is much more difficult to add on other values to a life that started out with just making money in mind than it is to make some personally interesting endeavor financially possible or even profitable.”  Pekka Himanen

Pekka Himanen is a Finnish Philosopher, he is one of the internationally best-known researchers of the information age, whose works on the subject have been published in 20 languages from Asia to America.

As a sign of his impact, Himanen’s work has been recognized with several awards, such as the World Economic Forum’s respected Global Leader for Tomorrow Award in 2003 and his selection of being one of the 200 Young Global Leaders in 2005. Himanen has also had an important role in the actual making of policy. He has advised leading global organizations and corporations. In Finland, Prof. Himanen has recently finished the preparation of a new information society strategy for the Finnish Parliament’s Committee for the Future and a national innovation strategy for the Finnish Technology Industry.

Currently, Himanen works as a Principal Scientist at Technology, where he leads a research project on global network society. He is also a Professor of Creative Economy at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Oxford Internet Instute from September 2005 to July 2006.

Source:

http://www.pekkahimanen.org