Clacks

The clacks in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels is a network of semaphore towers stretching along the Sto Plains, into the Ramtops and across the Unnamed Continent to Genua. It was introduced in The Fifth Elephant and has become the Discworld's first telecommunications network. While the system structure is that of a telegraph, elements of it are often described as similar to the Internet; for example, it threatens to make the Post Office obsolete in Going Postal (which also features a group of clacks hackers) and is sometimes described as 'c-mail' (a clear reference to e-mail). 'C-commerce' is also carried out on it. They are likely to be based on the real-world optical telegraphs used in the early 19th century before electrical telegraphy made them obsolete. Or other possible influences for the clacks system is the similar semaphore network in the Keith Roberts novel Pavane or the hoodwinker towers in The Blue World by Jack Vance. A similar telegraph system is described in the L. Sprague de Camp novel Lest Darkness Fall.

Klappentext

The clacks in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels is a network of semaphore towers stretching along the Sto Plains, into the Ramtops and across the Unnamed Continent to Genua. It was introduced in The Fifth Elephant and has become the Discworld's first telecommunications network. While the system structure is that of a telegraph, elements of it are often described as similar to the Internet; for example, it threatens to make the Post Office obsolete in Going Postal (which also features a group of clacks hackers) and is sometimes described as 'c-mail' (a clear reference to e-mail). 'C-commerce' is also carried out on it. They are likely to be based on the real-world optical telegraphs used in the early 19th century before electrical telegraphy made them obsolete. Or other possible influences for the clacks system is the similar semaphore network in the Keith Roberts novel Pavane or the hoodwinker towers in The Blue World by Jack Vance. A similar telegraph system is described in the L. Sprague de Camp novel Lest Darkness Fall.