[personsunknown]

That's a cop out. The scene "sustained" itself just fine. Now people working at Facebook call themselves "hackers". It was as much about a philosophy as it was about technology. When the industry moves on to the next buzzword, we'll still be here.

[WalterSear]

It didn't, and doesn't, and this isn't about the names that gadflies choose for themselves.

And I'm not arguing that the end of everything is to enrich oneselves (or one's masters). I'm arguing that I've worked at far too many companies that went bust, because their business model was broken, in order to fund my own hacker activities outside of that.

There's just no avoiding the need to acquire resources, and organizations/movements/individuals that can do it better have a obvious and historically established survival advantage. The commoditization of technology is no exception.

[personsunknown]

"I'm arguing that I've worked at far too many companies that went bust, because their business model was broken, in order to fund my own hacker activities outside of that."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems you are saying that hackers can't survive because the scene can't exist without the corporations funding it's participants. This is contrary to history. In my generation the industry considered us criminals even though most of us weren't. The hacker scene was around long before the industry embraced it and will be around long after whatever unicorn of the month loses it's horn. It's not going anywhere. It constantly changes and every generation has added it's own chapter, but that's what makes it what it is. So that leads me to my next question... What could you have not done if you didn't have corporate funding from these several failed companies you worked for? What prevented you from just doing it anyways?

[WalterSear]

>Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems you are saying that hackers can't survive because the scene can't exist without the corporations funding it's participants.

No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that hackers have to eat, and the amount of hacking they get to do is proportional to the time they don't have to spend finding food.

[simbalion]

People have to earn money to survive. If you don't earn money you will starve, unless other people spend their money to save you. People make the most money doing what they are best at, so it's natural that hackers would put their skill to work for their income.

That said, it is ridiculous for an employee of facebook to refer to themselves as a hacker. They're a corporate shill, and nothing more.