- **Epistemic status:** #seedlings > "Hackers believe that essential lessons can be learned about the systems—about the world—from taking things apart, seeing how they work, and using this knowledge to create new and more interesting things." (Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution) To be able to employ this imperative it is required to have free access, open information, and the sharing of knowledge. If restricted hackers believe that the end justifies the means to make it unrestricted so that improvements can be made. When the principles from [[The Hacker Ethics]] are not present, hackers tend to work around them. An example of a restriction are copyright laws on software patents limiting hackers from being able to inspect, share, and modify the source code. --- ## References - “Hacker Ethic.” In _Wikipedia_, October 10, 2021. <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hacker_ethic&oldid=1049243509>.