[monochrom] What elevators can teach us about superstition

[das ende der nahrungskette]

In the old system—board elevator, press 
button——you have an illusion of control; 
elevator manufacturers have sought to trick the 
passengers into thinking they're driving the 
conveyance. In most elevators, at least in any 
built or installed since the early nineties, the 
door-close button doesn't work. It is there 
mainly to make you think it works. (It does work 
if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you 
need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you 
know this, it can be illuminating to watch people 
compulsively press the door-close button. That 
the door eventually closes reinforces their 
belief in the button's power. It's a little like 
prayer. Elevator design is rooted in deception—to 
disguise not onlly the bare fact of the box 
hanging by ropes but also the tethering of 
tenants to a system over which they have no command.

<http://blog.secularphilosophy.com/comments.php?y=08&m=04&entry=entry080425-102559>Link 


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Posted By johannes to 
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2008/04/what-elevators-can-teach-us-about.htm>monochrom 
at 4/27/2008 06:09:00 PM