EVERYONE SHOULD BE A HACKER – AND THIS IS WHY!

EVERYONE SHOULD BE A HACKER – AND THIS IS WHY!

This glimpse
of the future was crafted by: Jacob Lindsay

Three cups of coffee in on a
September night in 2016, Buiksloterham’s citizens are exchanging some serious
words about the hydroponic herb garden on the corner. They are part of a group
of citizens role playing the Water Game – the Hackable City’s latest initiative to leverage the
collective genius of citizens in finding solutions to treating water as a common
pool resource.

Its aim – to identify potential
pitfalls in Amsterdam’s water system through complex scenario pitching and
override them with stunning innovations. And because it’s a game, it’s safe;
but it’s also the quickest way to fall down the proverbial rabbit hole and see
what new dimensions of abstract problem solving open up.

And
here’s the clincher. The other name for this game is called: ‘hacking’.

For some,
the word alone conjures up images of dark basements occupied by brilliant
misfits and pasty-skinned teenagers in hoodies taking over the world. Known
as black
hat hackers, they are usually a mean bunch whose genius is dangerously
equal to their appetite for mass chaos.

But these
nefarious few are still the relative minority. In actuality, hacking is
becoming a respected and highly public activity, used for an equal amount of
good to change the fabric of civil society.

For those
donning their white hats,
hacking is a method of critical thinking that identifies the ills of digital
and social ecosystems and then prescribes robust remedies to counteract them.
It’s organised; it’s ethical; and, more than ever, it’s demanding an informed
opinion.

Hacking
is historical

At its
core, hacking is more about a state of mind than an ability to outsmart the
grid. It is a way of seeing the world and assuming you have a part to play in
it.

Fundamentally
it assumes that pointing out problems with our society is not good enough; we
have a civic responsibility to do something about the problems we see. It is a
deeply democratic process as old as nations themselves. Societies founded on
free enterprise, liberal ideology and empowered citizenry are, at heart,
hackable societies, because they are built organically and collectively.

Harriet
Tubman circumvented an evil institution on earth by going underneath it.

As Catherine
Bracy of Code for America points out, Benjamin Franklin was one of the
world’s greatest hackers because he proliferated the world with inventions he
refused to patent. He believed all human knowledge should be freely available
and all governments should be built by the people.

Civic
hackers of today follow in their footsteps – upholding the same virtues of
collaboration and democracy that crafted our constitutions to co-create our
urban ecosystems.

Hacking
activates citizenry

In 2013,
Mexico City rewrote the rule book of traditional policymaking and, in turn,
re-energised a spirit of city building. Much to the outrage of an urban
population living 40% below the poverty
line, Mexico’s House of Representatives signed a $9.3 million, two-year
contract to develop a simple app that tracks their in-house sessions.

Seen as
another case of government fund misuse, the event kickstarted a mad hacking
spree through the launch of Codeando
México’s #app115 challenge. The challenge invited hackers to take action:
“Create an awesome, simple and useful open source Congress app for the Mexican
citizens, make some money out of it and show how technology can bridge the gap
between citizens and their representatives.

In ten
days, over 170 apps were created at a fraction of the original cost, and the
contract was successfully terminated. The winners receive an iPad mini and a
symbolic prize amount of $9,300 – 10,000 times cheaper than the commissioned
app.

Codeando
México understood the power of technology to leverage action and bridge
divides. They used innovation to “go beyond angry tweeting, towards fixing the
world on a Saturday night over some tequilas”. And in return, they showed
people a constructive alternative to nail your colours to the mast and mobilise
positive change.

Need more
convincing?

Without a
doubt, technology is becoming smarter and more streamlined. The assumption (or
at least the hope) is that these smart systems will improve our quality of
life, by seamlessly undergirding human activity with intuitive and flawless
technology. Phenomenal innovations are everywhere to back this idea.

And yet,
the question begs asking, will these technologies keep on serving us, or will
they eventually overtake us?

Media
scholar Dr. Michiel de Lange would
argue that the best way to protect our future is by staying one step ahead of
it. Games give people a way to ‘own’ their cities, as they have to think
critically about the way systems work together. But at the same
time, playful hacking is safe and empowering, because it is kept to the
confines of experimentation.

Hackable
cities acknowledge the ubiquity of smart technology. But they don’t hand over
the reigns entirely. Hackable cities are deeply human at their core, with
people constantly tapping in and changing the trajectory of our digitally
entrenched communities.

As de
Lange would purport, truly smart cities are ones that can be playfully
directed and reimagined by bright-minded citizens. Hacking them promotes rapid
prototyping and experimentation; community involvement; supports the
maintenance of open source code – as opposed to the constant battle against
proprietary software (ownership is shared with a community – democracy at its
finest); and reuseability in that open source software helps populate a larger
commons that cities, states, businesses and individuals can participate in.

Hackability
is more than just ‘technological vulnerability’ and finding faultlines. It’s
also about building intangibles, like critical thinking, advocacy and
curiosity, that foster a bottom-up approach to government, economy and society
as a whole.

For every
Julian Assange in the headlines, there are countless more hackers behind the
scenes who are quietly co-creating healthy and innovative societies. Activists,
politicians, parents and neighbourhood grocers. People who simply see gaps and
want to fill them.

Perhaps
the question for everyone today is not ‘why hack?’ but rather what’s your hack?
In a time of extreme instability and change, perhaps the smartest place to be
is one that welcomes interruption and self-review.

(Aurecon has launched a new futuristic blog! Called Just
Imagine, it provides a glimpse into
the future for curious readers, exploring ideas that are probable, possible and
for the imagination. This post
originally appeared on Aurecon’s Just
Imagine blog. Get access to the latest blog posts as soon as they
are published by subscribing
to the blog.)