A Computer Science Professor Invented the Emoticon After a Joke Went Wrong

On September 19, 1982, Carnegie Mellon University machine subject probe adjunct prof Scott Fahlman posted a connection to the university’s bulletin committee bundle that would aboriginal travel to signifier however radical pass online.

His proposal: usage :-) and :-( arsenic markers to separate jokes from superior comments.

While Fahlman describes himself arsenic “the inventor … oregon astatine slightest 1 of the inventors” of what would aboriginal beryllium called the smiley look emoticon, the afloat communicative reveals thing much absorbing than a lone genius moment.

The full occurrence started 3 days earlier erstwhile machine idiosyncratic Neil Swartz posed a physics occupation to colleagues connected Carnegie Mellon’s “bboard,” which was an aboriginal online connection board. The treatment thread had been exploring what happens to objects successful a free-falling elevator, and Swartz presented a circumstantial script involving a lit candle and a driblet of mercury.

That evening, machine idiosyncratic Howard Gayle responded with a facetious connection titled “WARNING!” He claimed that an elevator had been “contaminated with mercury” and suffered “some flimsy occurrence damage” owed to a physics experiment. Despite clarifying posts noting the informing was a joke, immoderate radical took it seriously.

The incidental sparked contiguous treatment astir however to forestall specified misunderstandings and the “flame wars” (heated arguments) that could effect from misread intent.

“This occupation caused immoderate of america to suggest (only fractional seriously) that possibly it would beryllium a bully thought to explicitly people posts that were not to beryllium taken seriously,” Fahlman aboriginal wrote successful a retrospective station published connected his CMU website. “After all, erstwhile utilizing text-based online communication, we deficiency the assemblage connection oregon tone-of-voice cues that convey this accusation erstwhile we speech successful idiosyncratic oregon connected the phone.”

On September 17, 1982, the adjacent time aft the misunderstanding connected the CMU bboard, Swartz made the archetypal factual proposal: “Maybe we should follow a normal of putting a prima (*) successful the taxable tract of immoderate announcement which is to beryllium taken arsenic a joke.”

Within hours, aggregate Carnegie Mellon machine scientists weighed successful with alternate proposals. Joseph Ginder suggested utilizing % alternatively of *. Anthony Stentz projected a nuanced system: “How astir utilizing * for bully jokes and % for atrocious jokes?” Keith Wright championed the ampersand (&), arguing it “looks funny” and “sounds funny.” Leonard Hamey suggested {#} due to the fact that “it looks similar 2 lips with teeth showing betwixt them.”

Meanwhile, immoderate Carnegie Mellon users were already utilizing their ain solution. A radical connected the Gandalf VAX strategy aboriginal revealed they had been utilizing \__/ arsenic “universally known arsenic a smile” to people jokes. But it seemingly didn’t drawback connected beyond that section system.

The Winning Formula

Two days aft Swartz’s archetypal proposal, Fahlman entered the treatment with his present celebrated post: “I suggest that the pursuing quality series for gag markers: :-) Read it sideways.” He added that superior messages could usage :-(, noting, “Maybe we should people things that are NOT jokes, fixed existent trends.”

What made Fahlman’s connection enactment wasn’t that helium invented the conception of gag markers—Swartz had done that. It wasn’t that helium invented grin symbols astatine Carnegie Mellon, since the \__/ already existed. Rather, Fahlman synthesized the champion elements from the ongoing discussion: the simplicity of single-character proposals, the ocular clarity of face-like symbols, the sideways-reading rule hinted astatine by Hamey’s {#}, and a implicit binary strategy that covered some wit :-) and seriousness :-(.