There’s not much to hide in the genealogy of the clanker. The term, in vogue among Gen Z-ers and Alphas as an anti-machinic epithet, gained contemporary currency through the mid-2000s Star Wars IP that hinged on the massive droid armies of the Clone Wars era; as a slur, it traces back to mid-century modern sci-fi master Fred Saberhagen, whose humans use it against their robotic adversaries in his Berserker universe. The word first appeared, again dismissively, in a 1958 piece of criticism that ran in Popular Mechanics. And that’s that.
Or is it? And why should the clanker-friendly care?
