Gabe Brown
Aaron Delwiche
First Year Seminar: Hacking
February 09 2009
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Body Hacker
When most people think of Hackers, the typical image that comes into their head is that of a skinny white guy, who aren’t very socially well adapted and spend all their time doing code and other computer related activities in their basement. When thinking of someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger, it seems like these are complete opposites of each other. How could a seven time Mr. Olympia winner possibly be considered a hacker? Well two definitions I found on Dictionary.com describe a hacker as “An expert or enthusiast of any kind.” or “One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.” Using this extended (and more realistic) definition of what a hacker is Arnold Schwarzenegger can fit into this category.
In studying Arnold’s life, one can only sit back and admire all that this one man has accomplished in his life. Arnold can be thought of having a minimum of three separate careers in his life: Bodybuilding, Acting, and Politics. Not only has Arnold attained careers in three difficult career paths, he has done well (“well” being quite an understatement for two) in all of them. Many would consider Arnold Schwarzenegger as the epitome of the American Dream.
Born on July 30th, 1947 in the small village of Thal, Austria, Arnold described his own upbringing as “uptight”. Arnold’s father Gustav was the local police chief and Arnold did not get away with much to say the least. Arnold’s house was run extremely strictly, “the rod was not spared” as they say. Arnold and his brother Meinhard were both required to wake up before sunrise, do their chores, and then perform brutal training exercises. Gustav also instilled a love of sports in both of his sons. Before Meinhard died in a car accident at 23, he was a boxing champion. Arnold also showed great promise in soccer. Through his training for soccer Arnold stumbled upon his love, bodybuilding. Arnold would trains for hours in the gym or his own training center in his house. Arnold would also study anatomy and nutrition so he would know how to shape his body to the best of his ability. His parents worried about his “obsession”, and encouraged him to pursue other things (soccer in the case of his dad, school in the case of his mom) but Arnold knew what he wanted to do.
Arnold is quoting as saying “"I learned something from all these years of lifting and training hard.... What I learned was that we are always stronger than we know." In 1965, Arnold joined the Austrian army and ran away to compete in his first competition, the Mr. Junior Europe, which he won. After being released from the army, Arnold would spend five hours or more a day in the gym. In 1967, Arnold won the most prestigious amateur bodybuilding competition, Mr. Universe. While Arnold lost the 1968 Mr. Universe, he was invited to stay in the U.S. by Joe Wielder as his trainer. It was at this point that his bodybuilding dominance really started. To claim that Arnold helped to popularize the sport of bodybuilding is a vast understatement.
Since he was young Arnold always knew that he wanted to live in America, and to be different from other people. While the America part doesn’t really apply to hackers necessarily. The “difference” part can be seen in many hackers. Hackers in the 70s were looked on as weird people, who were wasting their time. In Pumping Iron (The documentary of the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition) Arnold commented on the apparent strangeness of his bodybuilding. Many people would consider bodybuilding as weird or a waste of time. Arnold compares his bodybuilding to speed cars. Many would consider bodybuilding strange. He considers trying to make world records in car speeds as weird. Everybody has their own loves and desires. In the documentary Arnold claims that his bodybuilding is as satisfying as sex. While this is a little extreme, I’m sure computer hackers feel a similar sort of pleasure or achievement when they hack, or pry apart complex systems. Everyone has to do what they love, to Arnold this is bodybuilders and to computer hackers this is code and hardware.
While Arnold’s later life is not as revolutionary as his early life and career, it goes to prove an important fact. Through his determination and drive in “a waste of time” as many saw it he was able to go on to make millions through his movies, businesses (planet Hollywood) and attain a very high position in politics even with a very small amount of political experience. Also what used to be the uncommon sport or practice (bodybuilding) has exploded in popularity and competitions can be found all over the world. Arnold did a lot to bring this sport into the publics’ eye. One can compare this to the “odd” Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, who are now among the richest in the world, despite the fact that many people looked down upon their work in the 70s. Computers are common place tools, which are ubiquitous through society, where they were a rare confusing piece of machinery a mere thirty five years ago.
Arnold certainly is a person who likes to do things his own way. Hackers can be seen in this light as well, Hackers want to open up the system and make all information free. Arnold has been described as breaking into the gym on weekends (when it was normally closed) just so he could go lifting. The German-Austrian mentality in the 40s was that of conformity. In this sense Arnold was very revolutionary. He was about as far from a “good” Austrian child as could be. He wanted to do big things and move to the U.S. He wanted to be an individual. Arnold’s bodybuilding can best be viewed as Body Hacking. In the documentary, Arnold compared Bodybuilding to classic painting. In classic painting the “ideal man” would often be painted. Bodybuilding was the way to attain this “perfection” in real life.
Bodybuilding is basically trying to get the body to look what you want it to look like. Arnold used many different techniques of diet, heavy lifting, other exercise (and some steroids to top it off) to get his body to look the way he wanted it too. Arnold would look at his body and look for a way to improve it just as Steve Wozniak could look at a bit of existing code and say “ok how can I make this more efficient?”
The “all information should be free” concept in the hacker manifesto in Stephen Levy’s Hackers: Heroes of the computer Revolution doesn’t exactly fit Arnold perfectly due to the fact that he was fairly tight-lipped about his regiments during his bodybuilding days. But after Arnold retired he gave many tips to interviews in magazines and published many Fitness books and cassettes.
While many people view the term of Hackers as simply people who deal with computers programming or computers in general, this is a very limited definitions of the word that needs to be changed. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a very influential person who has accomplished more than many people dream of and changed the way people look upon the human body and the sport of bodybuilding in General. Through his intellect, humor, and popularity Arnold was able to revolutionize the sport of bodybuilding and increase its popularity exponentially and get it respect in the public’s eye. Where Steve jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Bill gates are classic hackers who revolutionized the way people looked at computers, I would argue Arnold is also a hacker who revolutionized the way people looked at bodybuilding.
References
"Arnold Schwarzenegger Biography." 2007. Advameg Inc. 08 Feb. 2009 <http://www.notablebiographies.com>.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger." 9 Feb. 2009. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. 8 Feb. 2009 <Wikipedia.org>.
Pumping Iron: The 25th Anniversary Special Edition. Dir. George Butler and Robert Fiore. Prod. George Butler and Jerome Gary. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger. DVD. Home Box office, Incorporated, 1977.
Wills, Dominic. "ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER BIOGRAPHY." Http://www.tiscali.co.uk/. 2009. Tiscali. 08 Feb. 2009.
American Psychological Association (APA):
hacker. (n.d.). Jargon File 4.2.0. Retrieved February 09, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hacker
Chicago Manual Style (CMS):
hacker. Dictionary.com. Jargon File 4.2.0. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hacker (accessed: February 09, 2009).
Modern Language Association (MLA):
"hacker." Jargon File 4.2.0. 09 Feb. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hacker>.
Levy, Steven. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. New York, New York: Peinguin Books, 1984.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
pissed off
tired
cheerful
anxious
crappy
exanimate
confused
nauseated