[lispm]

That's the romantic view.

World improvement? While much of the hacker projects were financed by the military - especially the defense advanced research projects agency. The software from MIT found its way into missile guiding systems, battle management systems, logistics for the military and a lot more. Much of the show was paid for by the military. ARPA was renamed to DARPA to make sure the money receivers understand that 'defense' was not optional.

With Lisp for example, the Common Lisp standard was paid for the military to be able to have a common language for the military AI software. Most of the early manufactured Lisp Machines went directly into the SDI project, the rest then to the Strategic Computing project. TI got money to manufacture their own machines with an MIT license of the software. For example the 'compact Lisp Machine' got a new chip financed by the military - to be used in planes, guided missiles, etc.