ABSTRACT
This chapter draws an analogy between the hacker pioneers of personal computing and the seventeenth century Protestant sects described by Weber in his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This analogy clarifies the relationship between hackers and 'informational capitalism' and facilitates a measured understanding of the historic role of the original hackers and the sociological significance of contemporary hacking. From the late 1980s onwards the personal computer (PC) came to occupy a pivotal role in the development of the economic, or systems sphere of society. In the process, the PC was transformed from an austere, demanding machine into something 'friendly' and 'easy to use'. The chapter argues that this kind of PC has become socially ubiquitous principally because it is the form of computer technology that is most consistent with the interests of key economic players. It also argues that the analogy is useful for the development of a critical sociology of the contemporary PC.
