h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are more mysterious aspects on remotes than the already discussed 'gone walking' subject.

What about the batteries?
They work for years and years and suddenly don't work. This happens always when (A) shops are closed (B) you don't have spare batteries and (C) if you have 30 channels and 29 are very interesting and your are one that one channel which is not interesting at all. There must be a kind of AI in batteries for remotes. And now I don't even mention how you must put in the batteries (following that small printing in the plastic what is only visibile under a very special viewing angle which cannot be done by someone following normal human anatomy) or place and remove the battery flap.

Older people and remotes
People who were not used to remotes are most of the time putting the remote on top of the tv set. If they want to change channel, they get up, walk to the set, take the remote, walk a few steps back, switch channel, and put the remote back on top of the set. Then they sit down and watch the same channel for the hole evening!! How horrible it sounds, it happens to a lot of people

Remotes and designs
Althoug electronics are of better designs now than they used to be, they still hire mental-disabled-small-finger-monkeys to design remotes. Who else would put 30 very-small-buttons on such a cheap piece of plastic and expect other people to use it? Who else would come up with desciptions and symbols like that?