Trouble And Her Friends Essay, Research Paper

You wanted to know who I am Zero Cool? Well, let me explain the New World Order. Governments and corporations need people like you and me. We are samurai the keyboard cowboys and all those other people out there who have no idea what s going on, are the cattle . Moo… (Hackers, 52 min).

This quote emphasizes the theme of the book I ve read, Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott. Sometimes in life, you don t always seem to feel in control. Well, imagine believing that you are but somehow finding out your not. India, or her alias Trouble, was one of those people who were behind the scenes, lurking in the shadows. She is a person that does not fear such things because she is the one in control…until she loses it.

Can you imagine, being free as a bird, lurking around the net, experiencing it with all your senses to the ultimate limit? Then, as quickly as you were out on your own, you are tragically yanked off the net because of a law passed by Congress. Well, this is indeed what happened to Trouble. She is forced to run away from everyone and everyone she knows in order to start her life over again.

SYSCOP, the actual person who prevents people that Trouble was from doing what they do. But Trouble, netwalker, no longer exists. Only India Carless, SYSCOP to SVI-four walks around living her normal life. But, when a hacker resurfaces using her former identity, it means trouble for India. Although her cover as a small commune SYSCOP is very comfortable, her chase from the minions of the law has just begun (McCormick line 14).

So, these authorities believe that this new, Trouble, is indeed out there, and is indeed the same person it once was. But, India and her friends go forth in search of who this new Trouble could be.

As India calls forth her old hacker , or netwalker, friends, she runs into an old partner and lover. Consequently, she finds she has more connections, which were former netwalker, as she was, in corporate positions than she had known. And this is where a lot of her help stems from. When you are the authority, nothing can stop you. You need not lurk behind the shadows when the light shone upon you is your own (Hackers 49 min).

One of the main themes in this book is that the government will attempt to control citizen s activities at all costs. This greatly relates to the modern world of today. Every day in Congress, they pass or veto a law that directly affects us. A big deal now is the laws on censorship, specifically on the Internet, and people of our country and the world feel threatened. As Cereal Killer, from the movie Hackers states, We demand free access to data, but it seems the big guys up there don t agree, and this ladies and gentleman was the stem of all the problems leading up to the time of this book.

When it comes to the point where a break and entry with a screwdriver and a hack with a computer are legally the same, the system breaks down somewhere, and the government need to pick up the slack (Cowgirls line 14-15).

To trust the government is one thing, but as you can see in this book, it all starts with some Internet censorship acts, and leads up to something like the Evans-Tindale Act, which breaks down all online freedom as wee know it.