Tram of Thought: Comic strip about psychology, philosophy, society, engineering, and just life in all its gory glory

Majestic

[Triangle-person looking at the sky using telescope. They see stars, moon, a galaxy and a planet] World is full of majestic riddles [Triangle-person staring at a microscope. They see bacteria and viruses] Wonders wherever you look [Triangle-person is floating in space, assembling an atom together, holding a proton and a neutron] Mysteries big and small [Triangle-person is holding a DVD remote, with an uncertain expression] For example: what are the coloured buttons on the DVD remote for?

[Triangle-person looking at the sky using telescope. They see stars, moon, a galaxy and a planet]

World is full of majestic riddles

[Triangle-person staring at a microscope. They see bacteria and viruses]

Wonders wherever you look

[Triangle-person is floating in space, assembling an atom together, holding a proton and a neutron]

Mysteries big and small

[Triangle-person is holding a DVD remote, with an uncertain expression]

For example: what are the coloured buttons on the DVD remote for?

I could search for it, but I refuse.

The only thing I ever found these being useful for was the Teletext (polish: Telegazeta) service in the nineties. Teletext was a rather weird invention that added a textual service - a bit like a website you can browse - to the analog television broadcast. It was essentially a poor person’s World Wide Web, able to only show text and some symbols. The experience was somewhat like using a DOS terminal window with ASCII art, but with color.

The Teletext goes well with the four coloured buttons - a mysterious feature conceived for unknown, perhaps nefarious purposes by scientists in secluded labs in the middle of the desert.

Is the Teletext still a thing? Inside the TV station’s headquarters, is there a small closet where an old technician sits, still typing in the latest news headlines into that thing? Lovingly crafting images out of available symbols? I don’t know - we don’t even have a TV antenna at home, and even if we did, we don’t have a TV.

Yet the buttons are still hanging on, bidding their time to reveal their true purpose.

#philosophy