I was in a discussion with friends to which I could not remember the reference; perhaps one of you can shed some light.
A friend of mine was complaning about how annoying it is that some people send the following: “?” as a message, and hope that the other side actually gets what’s trying to be said. Basically commenting that, there is no data to go by, how could one possibly know what the asker was asking.
That aside, I seem to remember, but I cannot remember the citation or source, that the first message sent over [some medium, i cant remember which, it’s not morse code] was:
My 1988 Guinness Book Of World Records mentions it:
“The shortest literary correspondence on record was that between Victor Marie Hugo (1802-85) and his publisher, Hurst and Blackett, in 1862. The author was on holiday and anxious to know how his new novel Les Miserables was selling. He wrote ‘?’. The reply was ‘!’”
I heard Victor Hugo, vacationing in the Marianas trench, on a search for a long lost '20s style DR, writing to his publisher, in Rio, who was jamming with Duran Duran. It happened only once… in the 60s.
