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Comment by hprotagonist | Hacker News Reader

If you tried this, or any other famous MIT hack, at today's MIT, you would be in Big Person Trouble in a heartbeat. It's quite depressing.

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I’d have disagree. Have you seen Hackapult? http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2015/hackapult/

There are fewer hacks nowadays, and they’re usually less ambitious, but I would argue it’s for reasons other than hostility from the Institute.

Totally. You can also see the small exhibit in the Stata cafeteria.

It is because of institute hostility that there are fewer hacks.

That hack in particular took multiple months of preparation and was took down by the institute in less than 1 hour; before anyone could really see it. Also the amount of security and possible consequences has increased drastically in the last 2 years; continuing the trend of the last 6 years.

I don’t think that sort of hack would have been taken down any less quickly in the past. The only time dome hacks have lasted a while have been when they’re extremely tricky to take down.

I have some further opinions about what you allude to at the end of your comment, but that should probably be taken offline.

R2D2 hack was left up for more than a day...

http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1999/r2d2/

Several Lobby 7 hacks were also left up for a while (though admittedly less obvious and dangerous perhaps than Great Dome hacks).

r2d2 also happened 19 years ago.

I know people who were at MIT then. It was, by all accounts, a vastly different place.

Yeah, but so was the rest of the country.

They did the annual sodium drop pretty soon after 9/11 and were somehow surprised when the response was different.

For smart people, they could be really, really dumb.

The terrorists won that day, not because of the physical destruction, but because of the literal description of their profession. Terror was instilled, and the public psyche still hasn't been treated properly, it's like the nation as a whole has PTSD.

Earth Day hack, from last year: http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2017/earth_day/ was left up for several days (not listed there, but I was around to see it up)

In all honesty, it sounds like a dangerous prank for the players. It's funny since it turned out alright but I don't think they knew it would be completely safe.

I don't know how structurally sound the surface was there but if I had a season-ending injury because I stepped on a balloon or because my leg fell through the grass then I'd be pretty upset about it.

To be clear if you did any of this sort of stuff at any non-elite institution it would be even worse for you. The elites get a lot of lee-way that the rest of us don't.

Frankly, whatever "elite" was characterized by the MIT of the 20th century is the kind of elite that's good. There were far more kids with middle-class backgrounds at MIT than at your typical Ivy and they were there because they loved science and engineering. In general, they weren't the moneyed 1% or the politically-connected. That was generally reflected in the school's administration which was much less political and PC than at other universities. As such, "hacks" were treated in the spirit in which they were done as good-natured attempts to achieve the very difficult. As a notable example of that, the police car on the dome hack included detailed instructions for its disassembly and removal. Rumor has it that in the last decade or two, that spirit has been in decline at MIT. If so, that's truly sad.

They might not be part of the moneyed and politically connected elite but by their presence at MIT they are certainly part of the elite.

Let me just say if someone did the dome hack at my alma mater 1) nobody would get the reference 2) the perpetrators would be expelled or criminally charged.

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