CiaraI’ve been binge-listening to Lost Terminal podcast. I'm a fangirl now. It’s fiction, but not. It’s a podcast, but feels like a film or book. Beautifully written, beautifully voice-acted. A gripping, immersive hopepunk journey. I feel like I’m in the story, living on post-collapse Earth. It’s moving, funny, dramatic. It’s the clear-eyed, informed, hope-ridden social commentary I didn’t know I needed about AI, climate collapse, degrowth, technology, solarpunk & community.
A nice incidental milestone on the journey: I started at Episode One, broadcast in 2020. At the end of each episode, it referred you to their Twitter account. Later on, that was replaced by: ‘Follow us on Mastodon at @lostterminal'
It was on Mastodon that I first learnt about the Lost Terminal audio-drama. Thank you to @CowboyWho for recommending it.
In Lost Terminal’s post-collapse world, people greet each other by saying ‘Batteries and bars’. Like you'd say hi, hello, goodbye, safe home, see you soon. 'Batteries and bars', because they're important things to keep you safe because they keep you in touch with your community. ‘Batteries and bars.’ Maybe you need to hear it said in the context of the story for this to make sense, but I find that touching.
"A Silent Key is an expression from the early days of radio communication when Morse code was the only way to transmit, using a switch called a 'key' to communicate. In the global forum of pre-Internet Amateur Radio, friendships were made across the planet by anyone with a big enough antenna who could tap a message. When someone stops tapping their key with no warning, ending all contact, they become a silent key"
A moving term. Fedi-friends who disappear: silent keys.
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/16-5-i-think-i-have-another-sister--60537102
16.5 - I think I have another sister
📓 Episode transcript: https://www.patreon.com/posts/106920863 ❤️ If you like Lost Terminal and would like bonus episodes, extra podcasts and other perks
❄️SnowyIn🇨🇦❄️@CiaraNi I like this description, but not when it happens
Michael ᚋᚔᚉᚆᚓᚐᚂ@CiaraNi Related: I was fascinated to learn that the war time listening stations were able to detect the operator's ‘hand’, a skilled listener could tell one operator from another. Like handwriting.
@baoigheallain There is something very moving about that too. Thanks for sharing that.
Neo Ehproque@baoigheallain @CiaraNi if you find that interesting Bletchley park is now a museum, you can sit in the huts and listen to many of that kind of stories. That is, besides the historic and technological interest.
Edit: oh. I see you're in Londinium, probably already been!
@ehproque @CiaraNi Thanks. My friend Paul (pictured) was a volunteer guide there for several years.
1953 Leica IIIf, FP4, home developed.
@baoigheallain @CiaraNi Very cool!
@baoigheallain @ehproque This is so cool. Thank you for sharing the photos!
Space Hobo@spacehobo @baoigheallain @ehproque Cool place to work! And this thread is a lovely example of the Fediverse being a small world. Or more like: a big and interesting world, but still human-sized, filled with lovely human coincidences and connections.
Stoneface Vimes@baoigheallain @CiaraNi yes. I've heard that too. Can't remember exactly the source though.
notsoloud@baoigheallain
I read an interview with one of the very few female ship telegraphers who had worked on Danish ships when contact was still by Morse. She noted that she could almost fall in love over the ether with someone who had a beautiful Morse 'hand'.
@CiaraNi
I read an interview with one of the very few female ship telegraphers who had worked on Danish ships when contact was still by Morse. She noted that she could almost fall in love over the ether with someone who had a beautiful Morse 'hand'.
@CiaraNi
@notsoloud @baoigheallain That is a really lovely thought
wibble@baoigheallain @CiaraNi My dad was one source and, when I was little, told many forgettable tales about his days in the huts and the 'hands' he communicated with.
I think we've still got his morse key somewhere. According to its markings, it remains the property of the War Department, but operators got very attached to them and seem to have smuggled them about, which might have helped in the hand detection, depending on the state of the springs.
@wibble @baoigheallain I love how personal Morse key operation seems to have been. The operator's way of tapping the keys being so individual that an expert could 'hear' it was theirs, like a voice. The operators getting so attached to them that they smuggled them about. That's a lovely memory from your dad.
Ole Wolf@wibble @baoigheallain @CiaraNi Fun fact: Thomas Edison proposed to his second by tapping in Morse code in her hand.
L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ@CiaraNi I'm gonna take a listen!
dasgrueneblatt@CiaraNi thank you for the recommendation
@dasgrueneblatt I heard about it first in a Mastodon thread myself. I was a fangirl by the end of episode one, so my opinion isn't neutral. But if you ever sample it, I hope you like it.