> A hacker is someone who understands how the world works. It's about
knowing what happens when you type "google.com" and press Enter. It's
about knowing how your computer turns on, about memory training, A20,
all of that. It's about modern processors, their caches, and their side
channels. It's about DSi bootloaders and how the right electromagnetic
faults can be used to jailbreak them. And it's about how Spotify and
Widevine and AES and SGX work so you can free your music from the
shackles of DRM.
This is a very... interesting definition of "the world."
To know how the "world works", to know the causes of things, either includes hackers, or is identical with being a hacker. Is Aristotle a hacker? Human beings desire, by nature, to know. If you live in a technological society, it is important to understand the thicket of technology we find ourselves in, and how to navigate it. That's just prudence, and just a particular determination of the truth, that it was always good to understand oneself and one's predicament.
I guess you can call that a hacker, or count hackers among such people. But then, if the latter, you must offer a distinguishing characteristic that distinguishes hackers among others in this genus.
This is a very... interesting definition of "the world."