The definition sounds like "scientist", but applied mainly to artifacts. Reminds me of this passage from ZatAoMM:<p><i>After a while you may find that the nibbles you get are more interesting than your original purpose of fixing the machine. When that happens you've reached a kind of point of arrival. Then you're no longer strictly a motorcycle mechanic, you're also a motorcycle scientist, and you've completely conquered the gumption trap of value rigidity.</i> <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper2/Zen/Zen%20and%20the%20Art%20of%20Motorcycle%20Maintenance%20Part%20III.htm" rel="nofollow">http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper2/Zen/Zen%20and%20the%20Art...</a>
Yes yes, hackers are just "young and immature", and just need to grow into "moral" adults.<p>The hacker aesthetic that he's talking about includes challenging preconceived notions. The result might be at odds with what is <i>currently</i> thought of as ethical, but it's not precluded from having ethics.<p>Stallman most certainly has an ethical basis. <i>Torvalds</i> is the free software pragmatist.
Gee, it would be nice if this little essay had a date. Yeah, a bit off topic, but it always bothers me when there is some article, blog entry, or whatever and there is no date so I can put the author's words in a temporal context.