[ankitml]

I would still call him hacker. 'Bending the rules' is the characteristic of hacker. I would say even 'bending the apparent rules' should also qualify being a hacker. So any genius / inventor having made a disruptive innovation is a hacker. He produced / created something which bent the apparent rules.

[adlpz]

But he didn't really bend any rule established by someone else in respect of some technique or machine. He didn't bypass a design decision or limitation of an existing thing.

He invented something. He didn't hack an existing specific machine.

It seems to me that, for some reason, people see the concept of being a hacker as a grade. As if a very good engineer eventually becomes a hacker.

For me, it has nothing to do. Someone that creates is as valid and skillful as someone who hacks a given system. But, as the later is not an inventor, the former is not a hacker.

For example, is a physicist that finds that all laws we know are incomplete a hacker?. Not for me. He is, well, a scientist.