《黑客與畫家》翻譯完成後，我還欠出版社一篇譯者序。
我就想，《譯者序》應該解釋一下"什麼是黑客"，否則書名可能會產生誤解。大眾心目中，黑客已經成了"不法分子"的同義詞。但是實際上，黑客指的是最優秀的程式設計師。
要想真正說清楚"什麼是黑客"，並不容易，必須梳理這個詞的源流。我就決定把名著《黑客英雄》（Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution）讀一遍。
這本書出版於1984年，描述了黑客的歷史以及他們的價值觀。由於這是該領域的第一本著作，所以引起了廣泛反響。1994年出了十週年版，2010年又出了25週年版。計算機書籍的壽命其實很短，三五年前的書大多數已經無人問津，只有那些最重要、最經典的書，才會在二十多年後還有再版價值。
此書沒有中譯本，我讀的是英文原版。閱讀過程中做了一些摘錄，貼出來與大家分享。
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《黑客英雄》書摘
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
Steven Levy 著
阮一峰 譯
1.
They had grown up with a specific relationship to the world, wherein things had meaning only if you found out how they worked.
他們從小就認為，只有知道一件事物的原理，它才是有用的東西。
2.
It was the predictability and controllability of a computer system--as opposed to the hopelessly random problems in a human relationship--which made hacking particularly attractive.
計算機是可預測和可控的，而人類不是，這就是計算機的吸引力所在。
3.
The Right Thing to do was to make sure that any good program got the fullest exposure possible, because information was free and the world would only be improved by its accelerated flow.
正確的做法是，儘可能廣泛地傳播優秀的程式。因為資訊是免費的，只有加速流動，全世界才能從中受益。
4.
No sooner did he decide to do something than he began work on it. He didn't bother to notify his superiors.
一旦決定了，他就立即動手做，從不請示上級同意，那樣太麻煩。
5.
[One day,] You realize that computer is not just a random piece of equipment, but something hooked to a system that you can endlessly explore.
突然有一天，你意識到計算機並不是普通的裝置，而是一個可以無盡探索的系統。
6.
To a hacker, a closed door is an insult, and a locked door is an outrage.
對於黑客來說，關著的門就是一種挑釁，而鎖著的門則是一種侮辱。
7.
In one side of the world, people were locking everything up and controlling things and preventing information from flowing the wrong way and things from being stolen.
在世界的一端，人們把所有東西都鎖起來，嚴加控制，防止資訊不當流動以及發生偷竊。
Then there was another side of the world where people felt everything should be available to everybody.
在世界的另一端，人們認為所有東西都是可以共享的。
8.
Bureaucrats knew their survival depended on keeping people in ignorance, by using artificial means--like locks--to keep people under control.
官僚主義者知道，自己的存在取決於人們對他們的作為一無所知。所以，他們就用各種方法（比如鎖），將人們置於控制之下。
9.
These hackers actually thought that a person was entitled to use a tool just because he thought he could do something useful with it.
黑客認為，只要他能用某種工具做出有用的結果，他就有權使用這種工具。
10.
He "wasn't interested" in the teachers, the students, or anything that went on in school. He was interested in building systems.
他不想上學，對老師、同學、校園生活都沒有興趣。他只想建造自己的系統。
11.
Controlling a robot was a step beyond computer programming in controlling the system that was the real world.
開發機器人比程式設計更高階，因為你在控制真實世界的系統。
12.
[Hacker's programming is like] Hightech Tom Sawyer painting a fence with assembly code.
黑客程式設計就像湯姆·索亞用匯編語言油漆籬笆。
13.
Theorists and grad students did not necessarily see the process of computing as a joyful end in itself: they were more concerned with getting degrees, winning professional recognition, and the, ahem, advancement of computer science.
理論家和研究生，並不是為了程式設計本身的樂趣而程式設計，他們只是為了得到學位、獲得學術地位、以及所謂的推動電腦科學的進步。
They were all in the midst of scholarly and scientific theses and dissertations which pontificated on the difficulty of doing the kind of thing that hackers were attempting.
他們在論文中大肆宣揚某些問題極其困難，而此時黑客已經在動手嘗試解決這些問題。
14.
Improve the world by understanding and building systems.
理解和開發計算機系統，從而改變世界。
15.
Who you were didn't matter as much as what kind of hacker you were.
重要的不是你是誰，而是你是哪一類的黑客。
16.
The most important thing we can do with the world is avoid randomness, and figure out ways by which things can be planned.
為了建設一個更美好的世界，最重要的就是避免隨機性，並找出將一切安排得僅僅有條的方法。
17.
All serious computer programs are expressions of an individual.
所有嚴肅的計算機程式，都是個人的表達方式。
The important thing about a program is that it's something you can show to people, and they can read it and they can learn something from it. It carries information. It's a piece of your mind that you can write down and give to someone else just like a book.
程式的最重要之處，就是能夠給別人看，被他們閱讀，並且有所領會。它包含著資訊。它是你個人思想的一部分，你把它寫出來，像一本書一樣交給他人。
18.
One of the really fun things about computers is that you have control over them. When you have a bureaucracy around a computer you no longer have control over it.
計算機的一個真正有趣之處，就是你能夠控制它。可是，如果計算機旁邊有一個官僚主義者，你就無法控制計算機了。
19.
[In some places,] Develop a program that might have only sometimes worked, or might have some danger of crashing the system, that was not encouraged. You want an environment where making those mistakes is not something for which you're castigated, but an environment where people say, "Oops, you made a mistake."
有些地方不鼓勵你開發那些可能出錯的程式，因為它們有讓系統崩潰的危險。程式設計師真正需要的工作環境，就是那種犯錯後不會受到責備，別人只會說"哦，你出錯了"的環境。
20.
The best way to get hackers to do things was to suggest them, and hope that the hackers would be interested enough. Then you would get production unheard of in industry or academia.
讓黑客為你工作的最好方法，就是向他們提建議，希望他們會對此產生濃厚興趣。然後，你就會得到業界或學術界聞所未聞的生產力。
21.
It is indeed true that large systems are never "finished."
大型系統永遠沒有"完工"的那一天，那是千真萬確的。
22.
A benevolently anarchistic lifestyle dedicated to productivity and passion. Art, science, and play had merged into the magical activity of programming.
建設性的無政府主義生活方式，會導致生產力和激情。藝術、科學、遊戲都神奇地與程式設計融為一體。
23.
[The outside of the world] did not regard computers with the same respect and fascination as did the hackers. And they did not necessarily regard the hackers' intentions as benign and idealistic.
外部世界不像黑客那樣尊崇和迷戀計算機。他們不可能體會到黑客的動機是善意和理想主義的。
24.
There were many, many, many years that went by when all I did was hack computers, and I didn't feel lonely, like I was missing anything. But I guess as I started to grow up more, round out more, change more, become less eccentric in certain ways, I started needing more input from people.
好多好多年以來，我的生活就是與計算機打交道，從未感到過孤獨，或缺少了什麼東西。但是，我想隨著年齡增長，我不再那麼偏激了，改變了很多，不再那麼偏執於某種生活方式，我開始尋求更多的與他人的交流。
25.
It was sort of necessary for these people to be extremely brilliant and in some sense, handicapped socially so that they would just kind of concentrate on this one thing.
他們無比聰明，可是又有著某種程度的社交障礙。這種搭配多多少少是必需的，因為只有這樣，他們才能集中精力幹一件事。
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附言
上週，有一家賣襪子的創業公司來信，要求購買廣告位。雖然金額很小，但是第一次收到這樣的來信，我還是挺高興的，因為這代表著一種肯定。
（完）