Hacking is the process of discovery. It’s unrestrained curiosity channeled to self-directed learning. As I prepare to leave New York City after attending my first hacker conference, the thing foremost on my mind is this: Why do so many people consider learning a bad thing?

One of the first things I learned this weekend was how to get free subway rides without jumping a turnstile. (It’s not easy, but it’s possible, and you’re more likely to get a $75 fine than a free ride, so don’t try it.) These are possible because of the unique and bizarre MetroCard fare system. But getting free rides is beside the point.

The point is, many hackers are interested enough in the MetroCard system to collect hundreds of new and used MetroCards and reverse engineer the information on the magnetic stripe. It’s an intellectual challenge. And it’s harmless, so long as they don’t try to take too many free rides. Yet the authorities take a dim view of even attempting to read the magnetic stripe on the card you purchased.

This is but one of countless examples of sheer unrestrained curiosity let loose on the world around us. What happens if…? Why are things the way they are? Can they be improved?

These are the questions which must not be answered, we are told from kindergarten onward. In fact, for at least the last century, our public schools have been reengineered from the ground up to create prison-like environments where conformity, not curiosity, is encouraged, where the bright as well as the average are held back to the level of the below average, where maturity is retarded and intelligence crushed.

The below average, of course, are unaffected. The average learn to accept it. And the above average know that what is being done to them is wrong. Some of these can see no way out and commit suicide. Others are psychologically scarred for life. Still others resist. Some of these, in whom the spirit of curiosity and the drive to learn and accomplish simply cannot be crushed, become hackers.

By the above definition, our country was founded by hackers, for hackers. The founding fathers likely don’t have twelve years of schooling among them all. And yet they were some of the most intelligent and educated people around, and would make the brightest and most “educated” of us look like complete idiots.

Thomas Jefferson hacked monarchies. Benjamin Franklin hacked the very weather itself. And many of their compatriots hacked the dominant political system and created something entirely new which, unfortunately, did not survive to this day, but did have a nice run of well over a century before it was finally gutted.

Today’s hackers work primarily on computers and the Internet which ties them together. They built it, in fact. They were the first to venture west onto the online frontiers and while, like the Wild West, there have been some criminals among them, hackers are largely perfectly ethical people who simply have not allowed to be stolen the natural curiosity with which all of us were born.

This is why I attended HOPE Number Six this weekend: to be with others of my kind.

I too am a hacker. I survived public school — but only barely. I might have done some things as a teenager which I would not be proud of, and maybe someday I’ll tell you all about them. Today many of you use code I wrote, and some of my ideas from the past have made it into security systems of today. My curiosity about how things work, and how they can be made to work better, continues unabated.

At HOPE this weekend I learned many things, like how to get free Metro-North rides (I paid for all of mine, though). How to track down and stop phishers using their own tools and fake web sites against them. I had the opportunity to ride a Segway. I learned what the barcodes on common coupons mean. I got to see some antique computers which not only still work, but are still being used. I learned Jello Biafra is a complete idiot and wants to turn this country into a clone of China. Or perhaps the Soviet Union.

I heard from former Marine turned CIA analyst turned one-man intelligence agency Robert Steele, whose one hour talk stretched over three hours and ranged over a wide variety of topics related to intelligence, foreign policy and world affairs. He was quite possibly the highlight of the show. And I think he should have three hours blocked out next time (and stretch it out to five or six). Of course, I’m biased, since like me, he spent so much time calling government bureaucrats stupid.

I learned from some of the best about social engineering. I learned that most security problems are caused by people, not by things. I learned that most hackers have libertarian politics, but have never heard of libertarianism. (And that has to change if we are to reclaim our lost liberties.)

Do not say that something cannot be done. Especially do not say it to a hacker, for he will prove you wrong.

And for those of you who are still going through the crucible of modern public school, know this: It does end. Hold on to what you know to be true: that learning does not come from the book; that curiosity is not a bad thing, and didn’t kill any cats either; and that if you are simply engaged in an honest process of trying to learn something new, or something true which the textbook will never tell you, then you too are a hacker. And you are the hope of the future. No pun intended.

Keep on hacking.