This is a request for the wonderful https://www.reddit.com/user/MiddleCamp4554!

Anybody else hopelessly addicted to watching Technology Connections on Youtube?

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Your weirdest friend showed up at your house babbling about something and the next thing you knew you were breaking into an old electronics warehouse.

This is a good plan. I have a good feeling about this.

Here hold this boltcutter. Hopefully we won't have to use it.

Fiddling with a lock

NMmmmmm Come onnnnnnnn almostttttt

Lock opens

There we go.

Door opens

Alright we’re in.

Listener hangs back

Oh don't be such a scaredy cat. Nobody’s been in this warehouse for a decade. And besides if we weren't supposed to be in here, they wouldn't have used a lock that you could pick so easily! It's like they were asking for us to sneak in.

Now come on, I know that signal is coming from this warehouse.

Didn't I tell you about the signal?

Ohhhh I just did that thing where I showed up at your house babbling excitedly and grabbed you didn't I?

Yeah that's pretty on brand I guess, but if you didn't like doing this stuff you’d stop coming!

Come on you love it, admit it! And in any case this is better than that time we drove to upstate New York to check out that MyNetworkTV station that was still broadcasting analog.

Oh hey check this out! It's a Fischer DAC-145! It's this weird CD player that also plays vinyl records. I love the weird stuff that comes out when technology is changing but the change isn't quite finished yet.

Oh right, sorry. So the reason we’re here is that there's a really weird radio signal coming out from this building.

See?

They show the listener their radio receiver. It makes a beeping sound

I’ve been listening on the shortwave to this weird numbers station run by some Bosnian cult. It's a really weird thing, they’re like sending encrypted signals to scare away some aliens or something”. I’ve been trying to decrypt it because I wanna know what they're saying but I kept getting interference.

It's really really faint but something here is sending out a shortwave signal.

Here take an earbud and listen!

Distorted Radio noises

Freaky right? I don't know what it is but I gotta find out.

This place is owned by a guy that owned a chain of tech stores. Kind of like a downscale radioshack back in the day. He went belly up because he invested heavily in eurodisney then he was gored by a rhinoceros during a publicity stunt gone wrong. All his unsold stock wound up here. His kids have been fighting over the estate, so it's just been sitting here alone and unloved for years. This stuff was meant to be enjoyed!

Is it coming from here?

Opens a door

Holy crap! A whole room of Laserdiscs!

Squee

Do you think they’d mind if I appropriated one or two?

Come on! Physical media is forever yo! It's just rotting in here.

Look at this! Revolutionary girl utena! On. Laserdisc.

The real crime would be letting these sit here alone and unloved. Let's just take a couple!

And check out these old incandescent lightbulbs!

And holy crap holy crap a Panasonic 3DO!

Ugh you’re right, stealing is wrong now matter how bad I wanna do it.

Goodbye sweet laserdiscs. I’ll miss you.

Lets check out the top floor.

Alright so I think the signal is coming from here.

Hey hey look! I found the signal! It's… It’s….. It’s a thingy!

The thing is a big mess of wires and 1990’s tech.

I’ve never seen anything like it it's like JVC made a supercomputer.

I mean look at it!

Look at all the dials and buttons and switches! Lets press them!

Listener stops them

Hey hey let me go I just wanna screw around with the mystery machine!

What do you think this even is?

Its so beautiful. Can I touch it please???

Oooh yeah lets listen to the signal!

Calm collected voice speaks through static. Its the poem “Sailing to Byzantium” by W.B. Yeats

That is no country for old men. The young

In one another's arms, birds in the trees

– Those dying generations – at their song,

The salmon‐falls, the mackerel‐crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress,

Nor is there singing school but studying

Monuments of its own magnificence;

And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire

As in the gold mosaic of a wall,

Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,

And be the singing‐masters of my soul.

Consume my heart away; sick with desire

And fastened to a dying animal

It knows not what it is; and gather me

Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enamelling

To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;

Or set upon a golden bough to sing

To lords and ladies of Byzantium

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Electrical noises as the machine breaks down

They contemplate

Damn it broke.

What do you think that means?

Is it some kind of statement about impermanence?

What even was it?

I'm a little freaked out.

I guess in the end everything is just junk I just like exploring this old stuff you know? What are we even doing here? This is illegal! Oh my god I'm trash I'm an idiot!

Surprise hug from listener they calm down.

I'm sorry I don't mean to freak out. I'm just a little shook.

We shouldn't be here. Lets go.

I’m really really glad you came here with me. I really like spending time with you. I don't mean to drag you into this stuff.

You like it? You sure?

That means a lot to me. Thank you.

Next time lets just go to the rummage sale.

Come on lets go I’m hungry.

-30-