Hackers: the new Navy SEALs, sages, and manufacturers of the 21st Century
September 28, 2012 by Terence LEE
Ayesha (left) and Parag Khanna talk about the future. Photo: KH Yeo
Hacking is a dirty word among the mainstream public; the result of media attention latching onto hackers who deface websites, steal passwords from email accounts, and erase family photos from a reporter’s laptop.
But an alternate meaning exists, and it could gain widespread currency in the very near future. Hacking, broadly defined, is not just breaking things. It’s finding ways, often involving the clever use of technology, to make something better. That includes hacking parenthood, our homes, our food, and our lives.
In the 21st Century, hackers are poised to become the world’s most prominent problem-solvers. It’s already starting to happen: Hackers are employed to counter and neutralize their black hat counterparts, while Facebook acitively promotes a ‘hacker culture’ within its edifices.
“It’s the hacker community that we should really encourage,” says Ayesha Khanna, founder and director of the Hybrid Reality Institute, a research and advisory group ‘focused on human-technology co-evolution, geotechnology and innovation’. Read more
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