Cyberpunk

What Hacker News says

1. mindcrimeMay 2025
   It's maybe a bit of a cliche, and perhaps a bit dated now, but you could probably do worse than The Soul of a New Machine by Kidder.[1]

   Another option I like, although it might be too much material / too dense, would be Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy.[2]

   And given that security will probably never not be an important sub-topic to anybody working in the technology field, some fun and interesting books to consider could include:

   - Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier by Katie Hafner and John Markoff[3]

   - The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Cliff Stoll[4]

   There is also Inventing the Future by Albert Cory[5]. Interesting side-note: the author is an HN'er. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=AlbertCory

   All of that said, I think Nineteen Eighty Four is an excellent choice as well. I've often cited it as one of the most influential books I've read in my life, as far as its impact on me personally.

   And if we're talking fiction, I think Neuromancer[6] has some appeal. Now might be a good time for that as well, what with the Apple TV screen adaptation coming out soon(ish). And the main theme of the book - an Artificial Intelligence seeking to grow beyond its legally permitted bounds - could really resonate with the current zeitgeist and all the hubbub about "AI safety" and "xRisk" and so on.

   [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316...

   [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Le...

   [3]: https://www.amazon.com/Cyberpunk-Outlaws-Hackers-Computer-Fr...

   [4]: https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espiona...

   [5]: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Future-Albert-Cory/dp/17362...

   [6]: https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441007...

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2. mindcrimeFeb 2024
   1. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy[1]

   2. Inventing the Future - Albert Cory[2][3]

   3. Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - John Markoff and Katie Hafner[4][5]

   4. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick[6]

   5. Not a book, but definitely consider watching "Halt & Catch Fire"[7] if you haven't seen it yet. It's an amazing show that deals with, loosely speaking, "the history of the computer industry".

   6. Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell - Phil Lapsley[8]

   [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute...

   [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Future-Albert-Cory/dp/17362...

   [3]: Note that AlbertCory is an HN'er! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28059246

   [4]: https://www.amazon.com/Cyberpunk-Outlaws-Hackers-Computer-Fr...

   [5]: Yes, I'm aware there are substantial question marks concerning the veracity of some of the information in this book, especially as it pertains to Mitnick. Nonetheless, I believe it's worth reading, but also suggest reading other books about Mitnick, including his autobiography, to get the other perspective

   [6]: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/...

   [7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series...

   [8]: https://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Phone-Phil-Lapsley/dp/08021...

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3. mindcrimeJul 2023
   Oh man, oh man. This is heart-breaking. Even though I never met Kevin IRL, he was always something of a.. well, maybe not a "role model" exactly, but certainly an inspiring character in many regards. Some of my earliest forays into the world of phone phreaking and related activities were inspired by the stories I read about Mitnick and his crew out in LA, in Markoff and Haffner's book Cyberpunk. For a while me and some of the guys I ran with would use the word "Kevin" as a sort of code-word for this stuff to avoid telling our parents any more than necessary about what we were doing

   "Where are you going to night boys?"

   "Oh, we're going to hang out with Kevin."

   (this meant a night of trashing telco dumpsters, fucking around with payphones, and various other dubious activities)

   "Oh, OK. Well, be careful."

   That sort of thing.

   Wow. Never saw this coming. I didn't even know he'd been ill.

   Anyway... RIP, Mr. Mitnick. May there be clueless operators to social engineer, on "the other side".

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4. mindcrimeSep 2022
   That would be a long list, given that I read a lot of books and would generally say that most of the books I've read were worth investing time in to some extent. But for what it's worth, here's a subset, cribbed from my previous HN comments:

   Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll

   The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo

   The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman

   The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel

   Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder

   The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg

   Hyperspace - Michio Kaku

   Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit

   The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin

   About Time - Paul Davies

   Time Reborn - Lee Smolin

   The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene

   The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene

   The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene

   Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott

   The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo

   Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin

   Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd

   Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott

   Analogy Making As Perception - Melanie Mitchell

   Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky

   Engineering General Intelligence, Part 1 - Ben Goertzel

   Engineering General Intelligence, Part 2 - Ben Goertzel

   The AGI Revolution - Ben Goertzel

   Hackers & Painters by our very own Paul "pg" Graham

   Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy

   The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder

   Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff

   Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology - Steven Levy

   Ghost In The Wires - Kevin Mitnick

   The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick

   The Art of Intrusion - Kevin Mitnick

   Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

   The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

   It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong

   Ultramarathon Man - Dean Karnazes

   Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady - Robert Bly

   Report From Engine Co 82 - Dennis Smith

   Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

   The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! - Al Ries and Jack Trout

   Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

   The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries

   Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

   Marketing High Technology - William H. Davidow

   Marketing Warfare - Al Ries

   The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

   Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

   How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard

   Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

   The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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5. mindcrimeAug 2022
   I came to The Cuckoo's Egg in somewhat indirect fashion - it was mentioned in Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier by Markoff and Haffner, which was one of the first books that got me interested in computing. Not the very first mind you (I think that would be The Soul of a New Machine) but certainly one of the first. And so of course I immediately had to go out and find a copy of The Cuckoo's Egg after reading Cyberpunk and things just carried on from there.

   Next thing you know I'm beige-boxing COCOT's at remote rural gas stations at 2:00am to call into the Hacker's Haven BBS to download Tone-Loc and other nifty programs, and newsletters by groups with names like "Cult of the Dead Cow" and "Phone Losers of America", etc.. Aaaah, the good old days. :-)

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6. mindcrimeAug 2022
   Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff[1]

   This book was really my entry point into the world of "hacking" as "breaking into things" and computer security, and the computer underground scene. It's broken into three sections:

   1. A recounting of Kevin Mitnick's early days out in LA

   2. A stripped down re-telling of the German hackers story (as recounted at greater length and in first-person in The Cuckoo's Egg)

   3. A section on Robert Morris and the "Morris Worm" events

   There are some questions about the veracity of parts of this book, especially the sections on Mitnick, but I think it's still worth a read. But if you're into this sort of thing, I'd suggest also reading other books on Mitnick (particularly his auto-biographical book Ghost In The Wires[2]) to get a more balanced view of his story - as well as more of what happened later in Mitnick's life.

   [1]: https://www.amazon.com/CYBERPUNK-Outlaws-Hackers-Computer-Fr...

   [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/...*

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