Hacker Tarot Cards
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 Power PC 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 wielding 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.
"Hacker Tarot Cards" was originally written by Bard
Bloom (bard@watson.ibm.com)
as a part of the USENET Oracle.
