When you think of a hacker， you might think of greasy scammers， or Russian agents。 Or the heroes of thrillers like The Matrix。 But it turns out hackers are all around us。 A hack is any action that subverts the rules and intentions of a system while still working within the system。 Or， as the author puts it in the introduction， remember how kid's ant farms didn't come with the ants and you'd have to write to an address to get them？ A normal person will see that and think "Cool， that's how I get m When you think of a hacker， you might think of greasy scammers， or Russian agents。 Or the heroes of thrillers like The Matrix。 But it turns out hackers are all around us。 A hack is any action that subverts the rules and intentions of a system while still working within the system。 Or， as the author puts it in the introduction， remember how kid's ant farms didn't come with the ants and you'd have to write to an address to get them？ A normal person will see that and think "Cool， that's how I get my ants。" A hacker thinks "Cool， that's how I can mail a bunch of ants to my enemies！"So just who are these hackers？ Mostly， the very rich and very powerful。 Tax loopholes are hacks。 Gerrymandering is a hack。 Online scams are hacks。 And if you can get in charge of those systems--either directly or indirectly， or curry some influence with the people who do control them--in order to make sure those hacks stay in place and/or continue to benefit you， now you're really hacking。 We see how time and time again， the rich and powerful use hacks to get richer and more powerful。 And pretty soon AI is going to hack those systems。 Or just hack us。 What's a normal person to do？ Unfortunately the "how to bend them back" of the title is a little thin。 The solution， Bruce Schneier say， is robust and transparent regulation。 However， we just read five chapters about how the rich and powerful hack regulations to their favor。 It's a very good book， but the present state of elites hacking normal people is dim， and its only going to get worse。 。。。more