ACHTUNG! ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENSPEEPERS! DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN. IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS. ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

Originally,Blinkenlights were simply diagnostic lights on electronic devices. In some places, they still are. But that's boring.

Thanks to signs in"mock German" that appeared in various computer rooms inthe 1950s, Blinkenlights became something for non-technical people to look at, instead of touching something they really shouldn't touch. From there, it was only a matter of time – less than a decade – for Blinkenlights to become a visual shorthand for high technology in general, not just computers ... and, in Hollywood, they werealways blinking.

As computers became more ubiquitous, the trope faded from the public consciousness, having been supplanted byExtreme Graphical Representation. (Real Life 21st-century mainframes don't even have diagnostic lights any more, at least not where people can see them.) Nowadays it's used in works that purposefully invokeZeerust, always paired withBeeping Computers.

For the more modern meaning of "blinkenlights" as lighting up particular windows in a building in order to send messages, seeSkyscraper Messages.

Not to be confused with illumination forWinken, Blinken and Nod.

Film

• The Q-Bomb inThe Mouse That Roared was covered in Blinkenlights.
• Lampshaded at Alpha Beta Base inAirplane II: The Sequel. They don't know what all those lights do, they just keep blinking on and off.
• The Bat Computer inBatman: The Movie.

Literature

• In the very first scene inThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the self-aware computer Mycroft ("Mike" to his friends) is described as using his blinkenlights to laugh:

"You asked what I knew." His binary read-out lights rippled back and forth — a chuckle.

• Cyclops, the AI supercomputer from the 1985 novelThe Postman by David Brin, has blinkenlights which turn out to be a plot point.The main character remembers news stories about the few AIs from just before the Apocalypse, and how their blinkenlights never fall into any kind of repeatable patterns. He realizes that Cyclops is a figurehead when he notices patterns where there should be none.

Live-Action TV

• Shown inThe Prisoner episode "The General".The fact that they switch off is a plot point.
• Star Trek: The Original Series: The set designers faked Blinkenlights in Engineering by sliding cutout screens back and forth behind backlit wall transparencies.
• In theSpace: 1999 episode "Voyager's Return", the device built to override Voyager's computer has blinkenlights that flash when it is connecting to or connected to the spacecraft... but not when the connection is terminated.
• Knight Rider‍'‍s KITT had a simplified set of Blinkenlights inset into his front bumper.
• IRAC from the 1970sWonder Woman TV series had blinkenlights where one would expect to see a monitor screen, and - as shown in the page image - also where one wouldn't expect to see lights at all.
• In the first season ofThe Muppet Show, Muppet Labs was outfitted with a few panels of Blinkenlights.

New Media

• Wikipedia has a page aboutBlinkenlights.
  • The Jargon File hasa page about them, too.
  • Andso does theUrban Dictionary.

Video Games

• "Blinken Lights II", fromKeep Talking and Nobody Explodes, is an exotic puzzle that combines blinkenlights (as the name suggests),Morse code and theSimon game.

Web Comics

• In the defunct web comicCommedia 2X00, Lord only knows what half the stuff inDottore's lab do; among theCow Tools allegedly stored in boxes in his basement are full out shout-outs to famous technobabble, including turbo-encabulators, vgrep scanners, and Blinkenlights.

Real Life

• The very earliestPersonal Computers, including the groundbreakingAltair 8800, had no keyboard or monitor (or any way of connecting either). Programs were entered in raw binary via switches on the computer's front panel -- and their output was returned via a row of blinkenlights, also on the front panel.
• Those annoying flashing blue lights on Netgear routers.You know what they are.

• Trope
• Blinkenlights
• Pages Original to All The Tropes
• Rule of Perception
• Reality Is Unrealistic
• Truth in Television
• Net Culture
• Technology Tropes