Backup Batteries
Backup Batteries
[Cueball is talking to White Hat. He is wearing a large backpack and holding a phone battery.] Cueball: I get stressed out when my phone battery is low, so I carry this backup battery. Cueball: But then I worry about the backup running low, so I carry this second backup. Cueball: Then I worry—
[Caption below the frame:] My bag is 90% backup batteries.

Most smartphones (except iPhones and a few others) use replaceable batteries. So it's often possible to buy additional batteries and use them as a backup in case there is no external power source available to recharge the phone. Otherwise it's possible to buy a charging device (also with batteries) that could be connected via cable to the phone to recharge the internal battery. Since there is no cable in the comic picture Cueball probably shows a battery that could replace an empty one in the phone.
Cueball gets stressed when his phone is at low battery because the device may run out at any moment, interrupting his activities. In an effort to prevent stress, Cueball decides to carry a backup battery so he can just replace the current battery when it runs low. Cueball realizes that the backup battery itself is prone to depletion, and so he carries a second. He then comes to the same realization for the second backup battery, and indeed every subsequent battery he can carry. Finally this would lead to an unending series of backup batteries, hence his speech is cut off, becoming unending as well.
What Cueball never grasps is that his irrational need to hoard a supply of batteries tending to the infinite is the real cause of his stress. In reality, he only needs to consider the maximum amount of time that he spends between recharging his phone, and divide that by the average lifespan of a phone battery, and round up that figure to get the minimum number of batteries required to avoid a power outage (multiplied by 1.5 if the mere state of running low causes stress). If he charges up his phone and backup batteries every night, he would only need 2 to 3 backup batteries, tops.
The title text says that Cueball's backpack will turn red if it is less then 20% of it is filled with batteries, similar to the battery indicator on a smartphone when at low battery to warn the user. Cueball probably gets similarly stressed when that happens, perhaps requiring a backup backup-battery backpack. Most backpacks do not have this function. [ citation needed ] It is unclear by what mechanism the backpack turns red or detects that it should do so.
That Randall has issues with low battery power on cell phones can be seen in the earlier comics 1373: Screenshot and 1802: Phone and in the later comic 1965: Background Apps .
[Cueball is talking to White Hat. He is wearing a large backpack and holding a phone battery.] Cueball: I get stressed out when my phone battery is low, so I carry this backup battery. Cueball: But then I worry about the backup running low, so I carry this second backup. Cueball: Then I worry—
[Caption below the frame:] My bag is 90% backup batteries.
