Why is "morsepunk" not a word?

[brooksmoses]

I was explaining elsewhere how I had gone down a small research rabbithole and discovered that although "early 1993" is a reasonable date for the birth of the Web given that the software was made available for open royalty-free use then, the first server was actually turned on in 1990. Except that I made a typo, and said "1900" instead.

This led me to imagining circa-1900-ish web servers, which would obviously be Morsepunk, along the lines of steampunk and such. But apparently nobody else on the web has used the word yet.

So, here! Morsepunk should be a thing! We already have real-world stories of telegraph operators starting friendships and romantic relationships via Morse code, as well as the paradigm shift of how cables changed the world by making instantaneous communication a thing. Certainly there is fertile ground here, for something that uses electrons and wires and radio waves the way steampunk uses steam and clockwork.

Comments

[noahgibbs]

Have you read "Loving Little Egypt?" It's about the early telephone service, so not *quite* like the telegraph, but along those general lines. Edison and Tesla are significant character in its ahistorical-but-fun little milieu.

[zeborah]

And binary! I'm now feeling the urge to re-read "Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes" (at least the first part, before it goes all comedic misunderstandings) and bone up on my Analytical Engine-ology.

[carbonel]

I believe this would be totally compatible with RFC 1149.

[johnpalmer]

In fact, this reminds me a bit of Discworld where they did have something kinda-similar, only they used line-of-sight signalling towers that were mechanical in nature that they called the Clacks (which I assumed was from the sound of the towers' moving parts). They didn't go full on Morsepunk, but Pratchett did run with the idea in a few different directions.