Newsgroups: alt.quotations,alt.folklore.computers Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed2.uk.ibm.net!sackheads.org!ibm.net!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!howland.erols.net!ais.net!uunet!in3.uu.net!world!dpbsmith From: dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) Subject: Re: "Information wants to be free" - who said it? Message-ID: Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA References: <6flnot$86r$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 17:10:10 GMT Lines: 30 Can't quite find it. Hope someone else can. Steven Levy's 1984 book, "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution," and his many magazine articles, publicized his attempt to articulate what he called the "Hacker Ethic." His formulation included these precepts (extracted from chapter 2) 1) Access to computers--and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works--should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative! 2) All information should be free. 3) Mistrust Authority--Promote Decentralization. 4) Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. 5) You can create art and beauty on a computer. 6) Computers can change your live for the better. In a number of places throughout the book, he uses the formulation "information should be free." I can't find "wants to be free." In 1974, Ted Nelson wrote a book entitled "Computer Lib/Dream Machines." "Computer Lib" had the subtitle "Personal Freedom through Understanding Computers." Unfortunately all I have is the Tempus "revised/updated" edition. I cannot actually find the phrase "information wants to be free" in it. It certainly sounds like the sort of thing Ted Nelson would have said. Or Richard M. Stallman... -- Daniel P. B. Smith dpbsmith@world.std.com ###### Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!news-penn.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!howland.erols.net!Supernews73!supernews.com!Supernews69!not-for-mail From: Charles Richmond Newsgroups: alt.quotations,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: "Information wants to be free" - who said it? Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 22:59:46 -0600 Organization: Cannine Computer Center Lines: 15 Message-ID: <351F26C1.92650CD1@plano.net> References: <6flnot$86r$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> Reply-To: richmond@plano.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 22929@209.44.41.213 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K) To: "Daniel P. B. Smith" Daniel P. B. Smith wrote: > > Can't quite find it. Hope someone else can. > > [Suggestion of Steven Levy, Ted Nelson, and Richard Stallman snipped...] > You might check out the writings of Stuart Brand. He was involved with the Whole Earth Catalog, as well as the media lab at MIT. He has some very interesting theories on information that follow along the Hacker Ethic line. I think he wrote a book ont he MIT Media Lab...maybe the quote comes from that. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | Charles and Francis Richmond | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ ###### Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!newsgate.cistron.nl!het.net!newsfeed2.uk.ibm.net!sackheads.org!ibm.net!europa.clark.net!209.69.36.218!news1.ispnews.com!news11.ispnews.com!not-for-mail From: Jim Kauffman Newsgroups: alt.quotations,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: "Information wants to be free" - who said it? Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 11:14:44 -0500 Organization: ISPNews http://ispnews.com Lines: 16 Message-ID: <351FC4F4.7309043B@earthlink.net> References: <6flnot$86r$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.36.70.122 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I) Stallman often gets credit for the quote, but whether deservedly or not I don't know. Jim K. Daniel P. B. Smith wrote: > In 1974, Ted Nelson wrote a book entitled "Computer Lib/Dream Machines." > "Computer Lib" had the subtitle "Personal Freedom through Understanding > Computers." Unfortunately all I have is the Tempus "revised/updated" > edition. I cannot actually find the phrase "information wants to be free" > in it. It certainly sounds like the sort of thing Ted Nelson would have > said. Or Richard M. Stallman... ###### Path: ccw.ch!elna.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!news1.best.com!nntp1.ba.best.com!not-for-mail From: dhawk@shell3.ba.best.com (David Hawkins) Newsgroups: alt.quotations,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: "Information wants to be free" - who said it? Date: 30 Mar 1998 12:28:48 -0800 Organization: Decline to State Lines: 17 Message-ID: <6fova0$2ik$1@shell3.ba.best.com> References: <6flnot$86r$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <351FC4F4.7309043B@earthlink.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: shell3.ba.best.com X-Trace: 891289731 9081 dhawk 206.184.139.132 >> I cannot actually find the phrase "information wants to be free" >> in it. It certainly sounds like the sort of thing Ted Nelson would have >> said. Or Richard M. Stallman... Possibly Stewart Brand in Whole Earth Catalog / Whole Earth Review. That's who I thought said it. later, david -- David Hawkins dhawk@best.com http://www.river.org/~dhawk Damnit Bones you're a doctor, you know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with the wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away, I need my pain! -- Kirk, "The Final Frontier," stardate 8451.1.