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* Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!
* – What Levy is referring to here is a hackers ability to learn and build upon pre-existing ideas and systems. He believes that access gives hackers the opportunity to take things apart, fix or improve upon them and to learn and understand how they work. This in turn gives them the knowledge to create new and even more interesting things (Levy, 1984:226)[6]. Access aids the expansion of technology.
* All information should be free.
* – linking directly with access, information needs to be free in order for hackers to fix, improve and reinvent systems. A free exchange of information, allows for greater overall creativity.[7] In the hacker viewpoint, any system could benefit from an easy flow of information.[8]
* Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
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The best way to promote the free exchange of information is to have an open system, that presents no boundaries between a hacker and his quest for knowledge. Hackers believe that bureaucracies, whether corporate, government, or university are flawed systems.[9]
* Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
Inherent in the hacker ethic is a meritocratic system where superficialities are disregarded in esteem of skill. Levy articulates that criteria such as age, sex, race, position and qualification are deemed irrelevant within the hacker community.[10] Hacker skill is the ultimate determinant of acceptance. Such a code within the hacker community fosters the advance of hacking and software development.
Testament to the hacker ethic of equal opportunity,[11] Peter Deutsch, a twelve-year-old hacker, was accepted in the TX-0 community, though was not recognised by non-hacker graduate students.
* You can create art and beauty on a computer.
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Hackers came to deeply appreciate innovative techniques which allowed programs to do complicated tasks with very few instructions.[12] The code of a program was considered to hold a beauty of its own, having been carefully composed and artfully arranged.[13] Learning to create programs which took up the least amount of space became some what of a game between the early hackers.[14]
* Computers can change your life for the better.
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Hackers felt that computers had enriched their lives, given their lives focus and made their lives adventurous. Hackers regarded a computer as an Aladdins lamp, that you could get to do your bidding.[15] They felt that everyone in society could benefit from experiencing such power and if everyone could interact with computers in the way that hackers did, then the Hacker Ethic might spread through society and computers would change the world for the better.[16] The hacker seceded in turning dreams of endless possibilities into realities. The hackers number one object was to teach society that “the world opened up by the computer was a limitless one” (Levy 230:1984)[17]