Cold cathode is the Medium
The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message, as it were, unless it is used to spell out some verbal ad or name.
— Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (1964)
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Nixie tube, a constrained universe. Independently illuminated lightguides, warm light emitted from cold cathodes. Beams trapped, their infinite information potential reduced to conveying a single digit. Ten degrees of freedom, all a single tube will ever get to express. Not even a full alphabet. Seems like such a waste, yet, for whatever reason, it’s hard to stop staring at these antique contraptions. Whether it’s the primordial appeal of a burning fireplace, the resemblance to a hot iron on an anvil, or something else, one thing is sure — we’re drawn to these space-age nostalgia devices. Perhaps because they signify the loss of innocence, abandonment of personal connection between humans and technology. The fireplace is also a medium, but the one we perfectly understand and feel in control of. The simplicity of a Nixie design works to the same effect; it creates aesthetics without conjuring magic. What modern technology could say the same?
