However, the defining characteristic of a hacker is not the activities performed themselves (e.g. programming), but the manner in which it is done[3] and whether it is something exciting and meaningful.[2] Activities of playful cleverness can be said to have "hack value" and therefore the term "hacks" came about,[3] with early examples including pranks at MIT done by students to demonstrate their technical aptitude and cleverness. Therefore, the hacker culture originally emerged in academia in the 1960s around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC)[4] and MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.[5]