The way it is written is a bit like the the Navy Seal, GNU-Linux copy-pastas.
If you go back and read these after knowing what happened over the last 30 years. It is difficult to take seriously. I feel similarly when reading "A declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace".
You just see the world in a way that no one else around you does. A world that is between indifferent and hostile to your way of thinking and seeks to assimilate you into a fundamentally incurious, indifferent, uninspired apparatus.
There is nothing special about this because you happen to be able to do it with a computer/electronics/network.
I understand a lot about how bicycles work because I tinkered and built my own. It isn't exactly the same as hacking, but it is very similar. When you work on old bikes, motorbikes, cars you sometimes have to come up to novel solutions to problems.
The fact that you and the author can't see the similarities is exactly the issue I and others have pointed out.
Really you’re all just generic and overplayed programmers. It’s the same thing that causes programmers to call themselves ninjas and rockstars while someone like a chemical engineer doesn’t.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/7426/loyd-blanke... Loyd Blankenship born 1965
Not everyone was into this hopeful vision of cyberspace though, Masters of Doom comes to mind.
There was a feeling of hope on the Internet at the time that this was a communication tool that would bring us all together. I do feel like some of that died around 9/11 but that it was Facebook and the algorithms that really killed it. That is where the Internet transitioned from being about showcasing the best of us to showcasing the worst of us. In the name of engagement.