I normally despise all things pertaining to Twitter, so it has perhaps taken me longer than others to discover that Charles Darwin is on Twitter now.
The posts are a real-time account (time delayed 176 years) of Darwin’s travels, culled from the Beagle Diary and from other journals, notes, et cetera that Darwin left for posterity. Upon first following the link I expected to find satire, but the reality is so much more interesting. It’s actually possible to get a sense of Darwin’s thoughts and the timeline of his voyage.
These sad updates, for example, were posted on April 7th:
What will become of me hereafter, I know not; I feel, like a ruined man, who does not see or care how to extricate himself
It is a comfortable reflection to me, that a ship – being made of wood & iron – cannot last for ever & so this voyage must have an end.
Behind the scenes of this delightful operation is David from metaburbia, a software developer in the United Kingdom.
The surprising thing is Darwin actually did use Twitter back then. His tweets have been delayed by his ISP (AOL) for 176 years. Fortunately the internet has evolved, while AOL has not. Or was it intelligent design (except for AOL).
Which reminds me of a story. A blond and AOL applied to the same job. During the interview, when asked where she wanted to be in ten years, the blond said: “On my yacht”. AOL said: “sreeeech, shshshshsh, beeeeeeeeep”. Funny, but true.