> Hacker culture sees programming as a conversation with a machine as it runs.

I wrote about this a fair bit as a party of my master's thesis, about tinkering as being a "conversation" with materials. Hacking can absolutely be looked at in this framework.

The philosopher Donald Schön I think was the first person to formulate tinkering in that way. The process of engaging with materials -- whether it's a broken motor you're curious about or a tune you're plucking out as a complete novice or some code on Scratch -- involves asking questions of the materials, learning to hear answers, and noticing when the materials themselves pose questions. It's a really nice way of looking at things.

I've noted the value of a creative work depends inversely on how easy it is to create more like it. Any individual Candy Crush clone may be irreplaceable, but so similar to other Candy Crush clones that they have little value. If I had a chat box that could make Candy Crush clones at will, I wouldn't value any of them. That is, when you can make something, you relate to it less.