Back at CMU there were local-to-campus on-line bulletin boards. Eventually these became local netnews news groups.
One of these was the "general" bboard for the CS department. Creativity was always valued in the department. Thus, while normal people would go to the general bboard to sell a used couch or get advice on selecting a water heater or find out what colloquium's were coming up next month, those people would often be confused and alarmed to find stuff like this:
"
16-Sep-82 12:09 Neil Swartz at CMU-750R Pigeon type question
This question does not involve pigeons, but is similar:
There is a lit candle in an elevator mounted on a bracket attached to the middle of one wall (say, 2" from the wall). A drop of mercury is on the floor. The cable snaps and the elevator falls.
What happens to the candle and the mercury?
=
16-Sep-82 17:21 Howard Gayle at CMU-780G WARNING!
Because of a recent physics experiment, the leftmost elevator has been contaminated with mercury. There is also some slight fire damage.
Decontamination should be complete by 08:00 Friday."
That kind of behavior caused consternation in some circles. Alas, the CS department also famously fosters an honor-based social order called the "reasonable person principle". Essentially, everyone should behave like grown-ups and assume the same of everyone else. The reasonable person principle doesn't leave a lot of easy room for rules like "don't post jokes to the general bboard else no desert for you". So, two responses evolved.
First, Scott Fahlman invented a typographic convention to signal that a post was a joke: :-)
Later, the cs.opinion newsgroup was created and people were encouraged to act out their creative writing impulses there.
cs.opinion occasionally went off the rails (e.g., when one T.A. came to have a fondness for railing with apparent sincerity against minority students who he thought unworthy of being admitted). Mostly, though, it was good fun. Occasionally some real gems of writing were posted there.
Olin was one of the better writers. I recall but don't have at hand several loving realist / surrealist descriptions he wrote of life in his native Georgia. More famously, and in some ways anticipating the SCSH acknowledgements, it this exchange:
"It's common knowledge that whenever you get two or more CS grad students together, the conversation will inevitably drift to the same topic: automatic weapons. [....]"
All up it has the general feel of coming from a magical time before the invention of Acceptable Use Policies, anti-vilification policies, lawyers combing through everything that happens on campus and sensitivity in general.
An intro here from the above link, by Olin, quoting others:
My posts aren't quite that gamy, but don't say I didn't warn you. It's the nature of the medium. To set context, the following quotes are a scattered selection taken from postings made by people other than myself during 1987.
``I think I would be much happier if the underlying structure of the universe were significantly different.''
``I believe that within our lifetimes it will be common to see people not just hopping but hovering and flying down the street to the store.''
``Some where in its machinations, the library computer, or some other administration machine, has got the idea that I am the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. Me. Really! What is worse is that these bastards, with whom I am confused, owe the library $750.00.''
``For about the past year (give or take a factor of two) I've been having a fair amount of fantasies about doing it with women who are very facially ugly, but have large, firm tits.''
``I was booted from the girl scouts for `not being the right kind of girl for scouting.'''
``Sometimes I want to kill everyone that doesn't think like me +/- some percentage of error.''
``So tell me, how is using a sheep condom different than fucking one? Nope, sorry you can't screw a sheep, but if you kill it, and remove everything but the large intestine, that's ok. Riiight.''
``The most gross food I ever ate was raw human flesh.''
``I don't have an ice cube's chance in hell of finding lifelong happiness unless I can find a man as ugly as myself.''
``Most people who don't use drugs are assholes''
``I'd like my chance to pound you into a greasy pile of shit more closely resembling your personality''
``I think $1 million is a lot for the life of a child!''
``I think reading/posting on opinion is excellent foreplay, it kind of randomizes things: you can end up with a Muller story and get really turned on and end up screwing on top of the refrigerator, or you can read a Dippolitto or Sun post and feel like you're getting raped in a turkish prison by someone whose friendliest sex-toy is a cattle prod coated with vaseline.''
``I decided some time ago that when I finally go over the edge I am going to start by killing as many insurance people as possible before the state police can put enough bullets in me to stop me.''
``Given that justices of the Supreme Court receive lifetime appointments, I am completely against Bork's appointment. It seems like a big mistake to me to have someone so ugly making such important decisions.''
``Having tried it both ways, I've found that it's a lot easier to bring it off on a big Steinway.''
``Often when I hear someone flaming about English usage peeves, I get the definite feeling that this someone is massaging his balls and stroking his big, hard penis all the while thinking: `Hah, hah, that stupid asshole could be as big as me if he'd just use the fucking English language correctly.'''
One of these was the "general" bboard for the CS department. Creativity was always valued in the department. Thus, while normal people would go to the general bboard to sell a used couch or get advice on selecting a water heater or find out what colloquium's were coming up next month, those people would often be confused and alarmed to find stuff like this:
"
16-Sep-82 12:09 Neil Swartz at CMU-750R Pigeon type question
This question does not involve pigeons, but is similar:
There is a lit candle in an elevator mounted on a bracket attached to the middle of one wall (say, 2" from the wall). A drop of mercury is on the floor. The cable snaps and the elevator falls.
What happens to the candle and the mercury?
=
16-Sep-82 17:21 Howard Gayle at CMU-780G WARNING!
Because of a recent physics experiment, the leftmost elevator has been contaminated with mercury. There is also some slight fire damage.
Decontamination should be complete by 08:00 Friday."
That kind of behavior caused consternation in some circles. Alas, the CS department also famously fosters an honor-based social order called the "reasonable person principle". Essentially, everyone should behave like grown-ups and assume the same of everyone else. The reasonable person principle doesn't leave a lot of easy room for rules like "don't post jokes to the general bboard else no desert for you". So, two responses evolved.
First, Scott Fahlman invented a typographic convention to signal that a post was a joke: :-)
Later, the cs.opinion newsgroup was created and people were encouraged to act out their creative writing impulses there.
cs.opinion occasionally went off the rails (e.g., when one T.A. came to have a fondness for railing with apparent sincerity against minority students who he thought unworthy of being admitted). Mostly, though, it was good fun. Occasionally some real gems of writing were posted there.
Olin was one of the better writers. I recall but don't have at hand several loving realist / surrealist descriptions he wrote of life in his native Georgia. More famously, and in some ways anticipating the SCSH acknowledgements, it this exchange:
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/shivers/autoweapons.html
"It's common knowledge that whenever you get two or more CS grad students together, the conversation will inevitably drift to the same topic: automatic weapons. [....]"