Finished reading: A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules and How to Bend Them Back by Bruce Schneier 📚

The author of this book is a cryptography/security expert, so if you glossed over the subtitle, you might expect this to be a look at computer hacking. Instead it’s an examination of “hacking” in a broader sense: Schneier defines it “gaming the system”, or subverting the intent of a social or technical system by subverting its rules or norms. Sometimes a hack can be positive or benign, such as when hockey players first discovered that they could increase the velocity of their shots with curved sticks (a modification not covered in the rulebook). More often, though, hacking is done by powerful people looking to consolidate their power, whether by avoiding taxation via loopholes, or manipulating legislation through obscure amendments, or using AI to spread disinformation or perpetrate fraud.

Schneier is an engaging writer, and at the end of these 60 chapters you will find yourself wondering if there is any system on Earth that can’t, in one way or another, be hacked. I did wish that more time was spent on the promise made in the second half of his subtitle (the How to Bend Them Back part), but as he points out, ending the hacking of our society will be a complex and ongoing process. He ends with a call to create “hacking governance systems” made up of citizens and experts who could act quickly to evaluate (or even anticipate) negative hacks and help blunt their effects through the legal system. But given that no such efforts are happening, he ends on a dark note:

“Unless we can hack the process of hacking itself, keeping its benefits and mitigating its costs and inequities, we may struggle to survive this technological future.”

My verdict: Recommended (if a little bit depressing)