What is a computer?
 
A stupid machine that only knows two states 
(power on/power off) and works according to rigid 
rules. A mass product, operating on ready-made 
software wich makes life at work or home easier, 
more exciting or more fun, or at least could do so, 
as handling it can at times be a nerveracking 
experience, when problems crop up, the cause of 
which cannot be fathomed no matter how often you 
read the manual and/or ask expert advice. Everyone 
who has ever worked with local or interlinked 
computers is familiar with this phenomenon. 
But there is also another type of working with 
computers, the "pure love of machines" of 
programming virtuosos, so-called hackers, as 
the psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle 
described them in her book "The Second Self" (1984), 
published over 10 years ago and now considered a 
classic. The media is fond of reporting as 
spectacularly as possible about pale, spotty 
youths, getting into other people's systems, 
pirating software or programming viruses that 
make the unprotected exchange of data dreadfully 
dangerous, fuelled by pizza and litres of coffee. 
People shake their heads in incomprehension. How 
can sensible people - unless it were financially 
lucrative - waste their time with such activities?