[hackerspaces] Out with the "hackers"... In with the, "makers" and the "fixers"

[Will Bradley]

You can throw slippery slope arguments and justifications at it, but in my
mind the instant you aren't honest with yourself about the human impact of
your work, both potential and actual, or when you start accepting support
from organizations with agendas, you'll wake up a few years later with an
Einstein-sized moral quandry. "I didn't know they'd use it for evil!" or "I
didn't think they'd actually do it!" are the kinds of things people like us
say when we realize we've enabled... oh, every truly horrible thing in the
past century.

I'm not saying don't make axes because axes can be used as weapons. I'm
just saying we have a lot of power and we have to be mindful of how it's
being used. Maybe you can justify working on drones, even weaponized
drones... but if the government came to me and asked me to make drones for
them, I'd have a pretty good idea of what they'd be used for. The search
and rescue industry doesn't have billions of dollars to throw around.

Adolf Eichmann didn't feel any guilt for coordinating the Holocaust; he
just coordinated. His superiors just suggested. Those below him were just
following orders. Spread the responsibility thin enough and it's very easy
for the human race to justify atrocities.

I just don't want to wake up in a world where a hackerspace's logo is on
some shrapnel lodged in another hacker's face.
On Nov 29, 2011 6:31 PM, "Matt Joyce" <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:

> b... b.... buy nullspace!?!
>
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 5:28 PM, Charlie X Wallace <
> charlie at finitemonkeys.com> wrote:
>
>>   nullspace is a hacker country club
>>
>>  *From:* Russ Ryba <russryba at gmail.com>
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 29, 2011 4:58 PM
>> *To:* Hackerspaces General Discussion List<discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
>> *Subject:* Re: [hackerspaces] Out with the "hackers"... In with the,
>> "makers" and the "fixers"
>>
>> This is an interesting thread.  Personally I've started explaining it to
>> people as a community workshop to avoid having to explain the whole hacker
>> / maker thing that this thread is full of.  Everyone gets it, but it has
>> significantly less glamour compared to hackerspace or makerspace.
>>
>>
>>
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