No, this post isn't about the critically-acclaimed Adrian Lamo a.k.a. The Homeless Hacker. It's about a relatively new lifestyle that has been on the rise over the past few years. Lately, people don't seem to be content with settling down in one location and building a life from there. These people desire a more adventurous, uncertain, life. They desire to travel and travel frequently. Moving from city to city, town to town. This rogue-like lifestyle brings with it a sense of adventure and novelty, but there is one thing these rogues struggle with, money. Its tough to find a job that permits such frequent travel. Most jobs want their employees to stay in one city, the city where their employer is located. So these rogues must look for alternative means to make money while they travel. Hence, the rise of homeless hacking.
Simply put, homeless hacking involves working online and writing script or code for anyone who would hire you. This definition is rather strict, and homeless hacking can also involve offering IT support and penetration testing services over an Internet connection.
Given the prevalence of public WiFi hotspots and secure transfer protocols like secure shell, homeless hacking is a viable way to earn a bit of cash while traveling. Some people even make full-blown livings off of it, which I assume is their goal. These people are free to travel anywhere there is an internet connection, even if that means setting up one of their own by using their smartphones. And those people who can't quite make a living off homeless hacking will find that coding while traveling helps to cover at least some of their expenses, giving them more freedom from their stationary job.
Interest in homeless hacking has grown in recent years. People are no longer content to sit in a 5x5 cubicle day after day, listlessly tapping away at a keyboard while looking forward to a coming weekend or vacation (If they even get weekends off! Not everyone is so fortunate). More people now desire to take their lives into their own hands and take their work onto the road, and homeless hacking is how they intend to do it. So rather than listlessly tapping at a keyboard in a confined office-space, they'll adventurously type at a keyboard while traveling the country! Sounds like the better option of the two.
Homeless hacking is more than just a new trend, it's also symbolic of the liberties that new technology has given us. Gone are the days when having a computer in the office meant that you couldn't stray ten feet away from it. Today, we can remotely plug into that computer and get the same amount of work done, without being chained to a cubicle.
But there is even more to this! Electronic technology was once seen as something that sat in one place, made a bunch of beeps and boops, and did some calculations when prompted. Cell phones changed this. All of a sudden, people could take their technology out into the world and have it pull wonders for them. And next came laptops, which added functionality and power to portable tech. And soon thereafter came WiFi, which provided a freedom and utility like few gadgets before it. And the trend continues with Laptops getting smaller and more powerful, smartphones coming onto the scene, computers being remolded into tablets and iPads. Today's dominant electronic trend is portability, whereas in the past it was simply power and functionality. Put your tech in your back pocket and take it with you anywhere. Use it here, there, anywhere.
To be clear, we still want powerful and functional computers. There's a huge market for those computers. But portable tech is a major player in today's world. We're taking our tech outside the house, these days. And its being used for just about anything. Photographs, recordings, flashlights, payment processing and transactions, internet browsing, fact-finding, video-viewing, basic calculations, daily planning, messaging, making phone calls, gaming, linking, wasting time, and a bunch of other stuff I don't have the patience to mention.
Can this be related to cyberpunk fiction? You can bet your ass on that!
In cyberpunk fiction, technology is ubiquitous and ever present. So much so that it is one of the hallmarks of the genre. We are currently living in a world where technology is becoming ever present, spurred on by all of this portable tech. Think of technology as a tree. Well, the roots of that tree are growing and growing and growing. Spreading into cracks and crevices. Burrowing into infrastructure and concrete. Technology is reaching into places where few people thought it would. And it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. At this point, we've just got to accept it and live with it, and take the bad with the good. There's no escaping, even if you wanted to escape.
I do love tangents, don't I? I've strayed quite far from the original topic, but that's half the fun of writing. Never know what's going to pop up. Anyway, I wish the homeless hacker all the luck in the world. Though, he doesn't need it. The homeless hacker is a master of this trade and has all the freedom in the world. With a life like that, who needs luck?
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