I appreciate you pointing that out, you’re right that this post is very much colored by my own experience. I don’t mean to suggest curiosity or hacker culture is gone entirely, more that in my circles it feels a lot harder to find than it used to.
I’m genuinely glad to hear your perspective though it’s encouraging if you’re seeing the opposite. Maybe the truth is that the spirit is still alive, just spread out in different communities, projects, or corners of the internet than where I tend to hang out. But sadly I'm just not seeing it.
At least in Germany we get more and more second spaces for hackers — most big cities have a makerpaces now and in smaller towns most libraries started to act as makerspaces with 3D printers and soldering stations and some electronic parts. There is steady growth in CCC memberships. Besides the big congress the other events like GPN, Easterhack are getting more visitors. I don't have much experience in the US but Europe and Asia have a really healthy community. I think you need to look away from people that have money as their primary goal in computing.
I’m genuinely glad to hear your perspective though it’s encouraging if you’re seeing the opposite. Maybe the truth is that the spirit is still alive, just spread out in different communities, projects, or corners of the internet than where I tend to hang out. But sadly I'm just not seeing it.