Add some pizzazz to your telephone with a secret forbidden ritual to communicate across the astral planes!

Background:

Hundreds of years ago, a cool looking numeric system was invented for writing numbers from 0–9999 in a single cryptic rune: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercian_numerals. In Figure 1, we see how two such symbols could represent a phone number.

***Fig. 1:*** These “Cistercian numerals” may be a bit excessively complicated, but they certainly add a flair of wizardly charm to otherwise-mundane mathematics. Here, we see “867” and “5309” represented as two Cistercian glyphs.

Proposal:

By making use of these strange-looking numbers, ”boring“ mundane activities—like dialing a phone number—can become more exciting (Figure 2). This will allow people to appreciate how “magical” it is to (for example) be able to video chat with a person thousands of miles away

***Fig. 2:*** By dressing up a boring regular phone call (left) with wizardly runes (right), dialing a phone number becomes an exciting voyage into the world of supernatural mystery.

Conclusion:

Look for this feature in your next cell phone system update!

PROS: Gives people more of an appreciation for the things in life that they take for granted, which might increase overall life satisfaction.

CONS: It’s possible that angry villagers will think you are putting a curse on them, and you’ll be attacked with torches and pitchforks. Use this new user interface judiciously!