Hacker's Tarot

Hackers Tarot

0. The FOOL:
a manager using a SPARCStation 413,1432 to run a screensaver.
1. The MAGICIAN:
a hacker with a Mac, a Pentium box, a Sparc, and a Cray on the table in front of him --- all running the same program with the same GUI. An infinity sign is over his head.
2. The HIGH PRIESTESS:
a woman holding the Documentation, closed and concealed. The crescent moon is showing on an Indigo behind her.
3. The EMPEROR:
Steve Jobs sitting on a NeXT cube, holding an optical disk vertically in his hand.
4. The EMPRESS:
A secretary with a NeXT Machine.
5. The HEIROPHANT:
Bill Gates with two flunkies kneeling before him, their faces averted, offering him floppy disks. He wears a laptop computer on his head.
6. The LOVERS:
a PowerMAC and an IBM Pentium exchanging software as an angel bathed in glory regards them.
7. The CHARIOT:
A man in a chariot, hurtling up an exponential curve, drawn by the twin sphinxes of Technology (black) and Culture (white).
8. STRENGTH:
A woman holding the entire design and implementation of Microsoft Excel in her mind as she corrects the final error. An infinity sign is over her head.
9. The HERMIT:
An old hacker, white-bearded, burns the midnight oil; its Star-of-David flame illuminates his keyboard.
10. The WHEEL OF FORTUNE:
A rotating wheel. Cray is on the side going down, despite its good technology; Smalltalk is opposite it, and C++ is sitting on top. Four winged beings -- a mouse, a turtle, a dog-cow, and a human -- look on.
11. JUSTICE.
A cold-faced woman holds a calculator in one hand and a delete- key in the other.
12. The HANGED MAN:
A programmer is tied by his ankle to a cable duct. His phase is completely shifted: he awakens at sunset, he sleeps at dawn. His monitor is reverse-video. He programs on, flawlessly, oblivious to his circumstances.
13. DEATH:
A skeleton weilding a scythe surveys a field, on which are scattered PDP-11s, Apple ]['s, IBM 360/91's, Xerox Alto's, and many other machines.
14. TEMPERANCE:
An angel stands with one foot on her chair and one on the floor, as she copies files from one disk to another. A cursor blinks from her chest.
15. The DEVIL:
The goat-headed Lord of the Pit stands on a pile of Windows manuals, holding an inverted torch in one hand. Two humans, male and female, are in chains at his feet.
16. The TOWER:
An ivory tower is struck by a bolt of lightning. Two robed figures, denied tenure, are hurtled to the ground.
17. The STAR:
A Mac is running its `warp' screen saver, in a transient fragile moment of peace.
18. The MOON:
A wolf and a jackal are typing at two PC's. A crayfish crawls out of a pool, offering suggestions that may ultimately prove deadly. The moon shines through a window.
19. The SUN:
A naked child riding a winged rocking horse programs clever applications on a high-quality workstation.
20. JUDGEMENT:
An angel blows a trumpet; all over the net, web pages arise, to be rated Cool or not.
21. The WORLD:
A woman dances on the clouds, unclothed, unencumbered, in a ring of clouds, a 3-d mouse in each hand. The four winged beings from the Wheel of Fortune surround her.

The "Hacker's Tarot" is by Bard Bloom (bard@salem.watson.ibm.com) formerly of IthaCUUPs.

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