Recently Unearthed E-Mail Reveals What Life Was Like In 1995

Dord

KNOXVILLE, TN—A 1995 e-mail extracted from the hard drive of a recently unearthed Compaq desktop PC offers a tantalizing glimpse into the day-to-day life of a primitive Internet society, said the archaeologists responsible for its discovery.


Archaeologistss carefully examine the cryptic e-mail for more clues to its origin.
"We're very excited by this find, because only by understanding our e-mail past can we hope to understand our e-mail present and future," said Northwestern University archaeology professor Lane Caspari, who has been leading the dig through the equipment storage area of a Knoxville-area credit union since late April, on Tuesday. "The discovery also sheds new light on the 1990s—an era we know very little about."

Written by a "scully666@compuserve.com" and addressed to a "makincopeez@prodigy.net," the writer expresses the ancient equivalent of boredom, asks the receiver about his or her status in their primeval office environment, then refers to the act of sending the e-mail itself.

"Nothing going on," begins the e-mail. "What's up with you? Are you going to Mike's b-day thing on Friday? I'm thinking about it. I might go, but I'm not sure yet."

The e-mail continues, "Let me know if you get this e-mail twice. I'm still trying to learn the system. I think the managers know when we're on the Net, so I'll stay away from the web surfing and check my e-mail only once a day."

The e-mail is signed only "K." It contains no subject line.

"It shows that these forgotten people of the '90s had many of the same concerns as modern man, such as b-days, and slow periods at work," Caspari said. "The presence of the archaic slang verbalization 'what's up' appears to indicate that they cared about the immediate welfare of others in their closely knit community, much as we do today."

But the artifact reveals differences as well. According to Caspari, the find indicates that people from that era spoke a much earlier form of e-mail language alien to our own, employing the full spellings of most words, and lacking the versatility and advanced expression of smiley-face or frowny-face emoticons.

Researchers were hoping that "Untitled 1995," as they've dubbed it, would help fill-in the long-sought missing link between the ancient e-mail world and the modern era. The Compaq's hard drive crashed shortly after the discovery, a more thorough study of the early writing is impossible. Only a paper copy of the e-mail remains.

"It was heartbreaking to see that hard drive die, but there was a certain tragic poetry to it, as well," Caspari said. "Few have ever had the privilege of receiving, first-hand, a beacon from our distant past, calling out to us across the sea time."

Neither e-mail address is active any longer, but their names may provide clues to long-forgotten events or important rulers of the time.

"Scully666' was likely a figure from these people's pantheon of god-figures," Caspari said. "'Makincopeez' is a reference lost to the ages."

Only four known e-mails pre-date this one, including a 1992 ASCII drawing of Star Trek's Mr. Spock, found by a group of Indian laborers salvaging precious metals from computer hardware in a Mumbai dump in 2004.

Caspari said it was "extraordinary" that the early e-mailers showed an awareness of the importance of their new tool.

"This clearly points to a reverence for the technology, but also an intense anxiety about a power they could not have understood," Caspari said. "It's safe to assume that 1995 was a terrifying and confusing time, and they must have struggled to make sense of it all."

While much work remains before researchers can hope to illuminate the secrets of the ancient and mysterious period of the late '90s, they say the discovery itself is an important milestone in understanding human history.

"Listening to the whir of the disc drive and watching the blink of the cursor, we glimpsed, for a moment, life through a completely different set of eyes," Caspari said. "But, in the end, we realized have more in common with our shadowy ancestors than we might like to think."

rsta

joe robot wrote:

"We're very excited by this find, because only by understanding our e-mail past can we hope to understand our e-mail present and future,"

eh?

joe robot wrote:

"The discovery also sheds new light on the 1990s—an era we know very little about."

the 90's is only a few years ago...

Sarky

employing the full spellings of most words, and lacking the versatility and advanced expression of smiley-face or frowny-face emoticons.

A lost golden age, truly.

monkeyfudge

rsta wrote:

the 90's is only a few years ago...

Yeah... like anyone alive can actually remember the 1990's...

gilroyb

That's so funny, you should try sending it to 'the Onion' it's so good.

monkeyfudge

gilroyb wrote:

That's so funny, you should try sending it to 'the Onion' it's so good.

I might steal it and send it to 'The Onion' myself passing it off as my own work.

dubtom

rsta wrote:

eh?



the 90's is only a few years ago...

Sufferin mother a jaysus....

dr zoidberg

rsta wrote:

eh?



the 90's is only a few years ago...

someone forgot to set their sense humour to the "on" position

CuLT

dubtom wrote:

Sufferin mother a jaysus....

I would like to echo this hilariously quaint -ism.

Clouseau

joe robot wrote:

"Nothing going on," begins the e-mail. "What's up with you? Are you going to Mike's b-day thing on Friday? I'm thinking about it. I might go, but I'm not sure yet."

Obviously tongue-in-cheek. Then again, who wrote the often quoted statement: "The more things change, the more they stay the same?"

tosh_thedude

Best Post i've read in a while!

Pigman II

I do miss all the h6 yellow fonted and psychdelic backgrounded 'Homepages' of the mid-90's They were much more interesting than blogs etc

pclancy

Ahhh Compuserve. No viruses, no spam and a 2800 modem sneaked onto the phone line through a secret extension in my room to my 486. Those were the days.

RE*AC*TOR

dr zoidberg wrote:

someone forgot to set their sense humour to the "on" position

i think the lack of actual humour probably threw him

monkeyfudge

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

i think the lack of actual humour probably threw him

I find that with The Onion. The headlines seem to promise so much more than the article actually delievers.

scojones

People find this funny? No wonder shows like Naked Camera are popular.

r3nu4l

It's a different type of funny! It's clever funny rather than the "ha ha, de man fel' offa da skateboard an hurt hisself by hittin da ground wit his face!" type of humour so common today (although I too love it when stupid people hurt themselves ).

The humour is in the excellent way it mimics so many archaeology papers and documentaries coupled with the fact that many of the statements are true and it is exactly the sort of bullsh*t we could expect to see written in a few hundred years time!

Nice one OP

azezil

@compuserve.com and @prodigy.net

Oh god I remember when a lot people used those domains

incisor71

Let's have a proper revival of ASCII art, while we're at it!

dubtom

sjones wrote:

People find this funny? No wonder shows like Naked Camera are popular.

It's 90's humour man, your probably too young.:D

PiE

sjones wrote:

People find this funny? No wonder shows like Naked Camera are popular.

The two types of humour couldn't be more different.

r3nu4l

PiE wrote:

The two types of humour couldn't be more different.

Yeah, I thought that was a bit weird too, thought maybe I was missing some subtle point? Maybe not :eek:

It reminds me of that south park episode when they were looking at a guy in a museam from 97 or 98
cant remember exact details

Sm0ke

monkeyfudge wrote:

I might steal it and send it to 'The Onion' myself passing it off as my own work.

your Diabolical, this man must be stopped before his dreams of world domination are seen thru

action team away.!?!

Dudess

Hilarious, OP!!!:D. Although it seems like it's actually from The Onion. What's even funnier is that people don't get it - not that there's a whole lot to get.

Dord

haha thanks i got it from another forum i frequent a lot. i think its hilarious!:D

Terry

It reminds me of that south park episode when they were looking at a guy in a museam from 97 or 98
cant remember exact details

"Steve" or "Gorak" as he was known.
I too was reminded of that episode. prehistoric iceman.

Maximilian

incisor71 wrote:

Let's have a proper revival of ASCII art, while we're at it!

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Cormic

Very funny - I still remember sending my first email from TCD in 1992. It was such a big thing in the day.

monkeyfudge

Cormic wrote:

Very funny - I still remember sending my first email from TCD in 1992. It was such a big thing in the day.

1992? That is early. 1995 would have actually been my first... I think I emailed some random woman in the US about how I thought I'd seen a monkey in my back garden... It was just a particularly hairy cat though.

Dudess

Cormic wrote:

Very funny - I still remember sending my first email from TCD in 1992. It was such a big thing in the day.

Wow! I didn't even hear of e-mail until '95 - if not later.

Gosh

incisor71 wrote:

Let's have a proper revival of ASCII art, while we're at it!

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/

Black Swan

Maximilian wrote:

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Can you finish the picture? Like I seem to remember he was sitting on something. Now, that would capture the historical significance of this post.

Sarky

It's internet art. He's probably masturbating.

gilroyb

Dudess wrote:

Hilarious, OP!!!:D. Although it seems like it's actually from The Onion. What's even funnier is that people don't get it - not that there's a whole lot to get.

Just to be clear, I was being sarcastic when I suggested sending it to the Onion. I was aware it was taken from there.