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====== Pursell, 324-348 -- Andrew Ross, "Hacking Away at the Counterculture" ======


“You can’t trust your best friends software any more than you can trust his or her bodily fluids (326).” While it might seem dramatic to compare a computer virus to AIDS, I think this quote encompasses this fine line between reality and imitation that we discussed in class when we talked about plastics. This quote shows a major culture shift in America where an invasion of a device one processed was parallel to an invasion of his or her body. Though this was in 1988, I see a foreshadowing of present day technology with IPhones and computers filled with such large amounts of classified personal information that if hackers got a hold of it or if a virus took it over, the owner would feel extremely invaded of privacy or lose a lot of vital information like banking accounts or schoolwork. I know I would. -Kelsey Dean

Ross’ article compares the AIDs virus to how Americans see computer viruses and hackers at large. Ross argues that industry producers benefit from the virus crisis while delinquents, or hackers, are seen by Americans as deviants. He describes the word ‘hacker’ connotation changed to negative because of the virus crisis. In the 1980s, hackers were romanticized as part of the counter-culture. When legislative action began by criminalizing hacking, many saw it as a way of cracking down on the counter-culture.  These deviants encouraged more government legislation and in turn more surveillance. Ross describes Americans saw surveillance as symbolic towards a ‘system’ and these hackers challenged that ‘system.’ (334)  --- //[[ejames@umw.edu|James, Emily B.]] 2017/04/19 12:38//

I found the article in Pursell to be interesting for several reasons. For starters, I never would have thought about how a computer virus acts similarly to that of a human virus. On page 327, it talks about how biological cells need a host cell, but computer viruses need a host program. This makes sense to think of how similar the two behave. I also found it interesting that this article spent time talking about the benefits that can come from hacking. Typically, all we ever hear about is how terrible of a thing it is to do. Yet, this article shed light on the fact that the people who hack are the people that are best equipped to handle making the software safer so that it cannot be hacked. Because of hacking, there have been many progressive developments in software research (330). -Emma Baumgardner 


I found it so interesting to see how the “hacker ethic” has evolved throughout the 20th and 21st century. When thinking of hackers today a range of thoughts and ideas pop up. From the extreme ones who shut down the internet in North Korea to the computer science major who can get into your computer when you can’t remember your password. In the 80’s the hacker was someone apart of a “romantic countercultural” movement who was celebrated by well renowned journalist. With the continuance of technology and the internet is interesting to see how the culture takes something once seen as romantic and normalizes it. -Anna Brooks

"Media commentary on the firs scare has run not so much tongue-in-cheek as hand-in glove with the rhetoric of AIDS hysteria - the common uses of terms like //killer virus// and //epidemic//" (Pursell 325). Computer viruses started to be a problem too long after the AIDS epidemic. Media, computer experts, and government all saw the links between the two. The media put a great emphasis on the similarities between the two. The article goes on to say why the link was there, "conscious attempts to link the AIDS crisis with the information security crisis have pointed out that both kinds of virus, biological and electronic, take over the host cell/program and clone their carrier genetic codes by instructing the hosts to make replicas of the viruses" (Pursell 327). These viruses did almost the same thing, one was just biological, and one was technological. - Heidi Schmidt

====== “A Global Graveyard” ======

“The equipment in this digital cemetery come mainly from Europe and the United States, sometimes as secondhand donations meant to reduce the ‘digital divide’ – the disparity in computer access between poor nations and rich.” (Slide 5) This quote stood out to me because though these donations are supposed to reduce this “digital divide” the scavengers in Ghana don’t want anything to do with these computers other than the metal inside of them. These donations in my opinion also wouldn’t reduce the digital divide, because donations that people give are usually due to a certain technology either not working anymore or it being out of style. Where does the equality come in giving Ghana these computers that we wouldn’t use in Europe or the United States due to them not working or being the latest fad? -Jessie Cavolt

The photos in this slide were very powerful. To me, it spoke even more to America’s throw away society. Or the masking of the throw away society through the pretense of donations. As slide 16 says, “the waste arrives as a gift.” How often do we donate items merely because we don’t want them anymore? How often do we actually think,”this can be of actual use to someone else” instead of “this is taking up too much space in my home?” The breaking down of the technology for the pieces that make it up also really illustrates the mortality of technology. Individual pieces of technology do not last forever, especially today, when the focus is on the next new thing. What we covet today, becomes pieces of scrap to someone else tomorrow. - Shannon K.