The Magnetophon was a high-fidelity reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorder. The hit of the Berlin Radio Show when it debuted in 1935, it was developed by the German electronics manufacturer AEG. The magnetic tape was produced by I.G. Farben (now known as BASF).

Where’s Rocketman when you need him!? What??.. He is ‘too diffuse and mixed up to be harnessable by the machines for work anymore?’ What the hell kind of answer is that?

I stare at the phone in confusion.

SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO the phone squawks in an exasperated exclamation in a foreign language back.