Elevator buttons
Aug. 22nd, 2005 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinDefective Yeti says:
I've heard this angry lament before, and I'm pretty sure I do this occasionally, purely by accident. I'm about the furthest thing from an "A-personality type" you can imagine; what I am is frequently distracted from fully noticing my surroundings. The mental effort required to think about whether I actually need to push the button or not frequently exceeds the physical effort of just going ahead and pushing it, and the way most elevators work, the action is harmless. Except that I guess it's actually not harmless, since it's causing intense spiritual pain to all the busybodies in my vicinity who are feeling too satisfied with the world and are looking for meaningless things to be irritated by.
So I'm wondering why it's annoying. I think that possibly many people model other people's minds as fully present and conscious homunculi having infinite logical processing power, or at least as much as themselves. But this is false, since the brain is actually a finite and very busy lump of meat running on oxygen and glucose. (Raymond Smullyan's said something similar; he's speculated that some philosophical arguments are constructed on the false assumption that when one learns a fact, all possible logical consquences of that fact immediately spring to mind.)
You perhaps reason that if you, standing there in the elevator, noticed that I don't need to press the elevator button, surely I instantly noticed it too (I was looking right at the button, after all), so the fact that I did push it must have been out of egregious stupidity as to how elevators work, or some sort of intentional ploy to irritate you or demonstrate how eager I am to get to the seventh floor. But in fact I very likely carried out no such reasoning at all in my own mind; I'm thinking about something else entirely and running on autopilot according to simple rules that are good enough to get me where I'm going.
Finally, while one of the commenters claims that elevator buttons actually do toggle in Korea, it strikes me as a terrible idea for multiple reasons.
First, the ability to trivially and discreetly cancel somebody else's floor request would open a new avenue for infantile practical jokes, much less obvious than the old gag of just pushing all the floor buttons. (I suppose these people could take that as a plus: if someone commits the crime against humanity of pushing the button three times, they could administer vigilante justice.)
Second, since one is not always entirely sure that a button-press has registered without feedback, there would be an obvious problem for blind users, or, as one commenter said, the case where the light burns out.
Third, while many people seem to disagree with this last point, most authorities agree that it's not actually a user interface's business to punish anybody if it can be avoided. Unless, I suppose, the device is actually intended for purposes of punishing the user. Whatever gets you through the night.
I know that I'm making too much of a joke. However, I suspect that the same type of reasoning that causes all these people to regard toggling elevator buttons as fine and dandy is also responsible for the design of many real-life, actively user-hostile interfaces. Overload the existing control with a new feature, and punish the unworthy: there's no downside, right?
you know what I think they should do? I think they should make it so if you press an elevator button that's already lit, it goes off. This would serve two purposes.Several people vehemently and passionately agreed. They really, really, really, really hate people who push elevator buttons that are already lit. Some of them want them to catch diseases.
First, it would allow a rider to cancel a button pressed in error.
Second, it would thwart those A-personality types who enter the elevator and press the button for their floor even when it's already lit. This would obviously be the greatest boon of the technology, because, as we all know, those people are totally fucking annoying.
I've heard this angry lament before, and I'm pretty sure I do this occasionally, purely by accident. I'm about the furthest thing from an "A-personality type" you can imagine; what I am is frequently distracted from fully noticing my surroundings. The mental effort required to think about whether I actually need to push the button or not frequently exceeds the physical effort of just going ahead and pushing it, and the way most elevators work, the action is harmless. Except that I guess it's actually not harmless, since it's causing intense spiritual pain to all the busybodies in my vicinity who are feeling too satisfied with the world and are looking for meaningless things to be irritated by.
So I'm wondering why it's annoying. I think that possibly many people model other people's minds as fully present and conscious homunculi having infinite logical processing power, or at least as much as themselves. But this is false, since the brain is actually a finite and very busy lump of meat running on oxygen and glucose. (Raymond Smullyan's said something similar; he's speculated that some philosophical arguments are constructed on the false assumption that when one learns a fact, all possible logical consquences of that fact immediately spring to mind.)
You perhaps reason that if you, standing there in the elevator, noticed that I don't need to press the elevator button, surely I instantly noticed it too (I was looking right at the button, after all), so the fact that I did push it must have been out of egregious stupidity as to how elevators work, or some sort of intentional ploy to irritate you or demonstrate how eager I am to get to the seventh floor. But in fact I very likely carried out no such reasoning at all in my own mind; I'm thinking about something else entirely and running on autopilot according to simple rules that are good enough to get me where I'm going.
Finally, while one of the commenters claims that elevator buttons actually do toggle in Korea, it strikes me as a terrible idea for multiple reasons.
First, the ability to trivially and discreetly cancel somebody else's floor request would open a new avenue for infantile practical jokes, much less obvious than the old gag of just pushing all the floor buttons. (I suppose these people could take that as a plus: if someone commits the crime against humanity of pushing the button three times, they could administer vigilante justice.)
Second, since one is not always entirely sure that a button-press has registered without feedback, there would be an obvious problem for blind users, or, as one commenter said, the case where the light burns out.
Third, while many people seem to disagree with this last point, most authorities agree that it's not actually a user interface's business to punish anybody if it can be avoided. Unless, I suppose, the device is actually intended for purposes of punishing the user. Whatever gets you through the night.
I know that I'm making too much of a joke. However, I suspect that the same type of reasoning that causes all these people to regard toggling elevator buttons as fine and dandy is also responsible for the design of many real-life, actively user-hostile interfaces. Overload the existing control with a new feature, and punish the unworthy: there's no downside, right?
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 07:09 pm (UTC)I make it a point to explain that not all car doors work this way, and I'd rather get in the habit of always locking, rather than try to memorize the door situation for every car I get into.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 09:47 pm (UTC)Else, i recommend a shock collar.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 07:21 pm (UTC)The car-door thing, I completely agree. Also then you get lucky sometimes and lock a manual-lock door before someone can ask you to do so, and it makes them unaccountably happy.
Collateral damage
Date: 2005-08-22 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 07:27 pm (UTC)I HAVE DISPROVEN YOUR WHOLE ELEVATOR
Date: 2005-08-22 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 08:26 am (UTC)selling robotrons wall-to-wall...
Re: I HAVE DISPROVEN YOUR WHOLE ELEVATOR
Date: 2005-08-22 07:42 pm (UTC)Re: I HAVE DISPROVEN YOUR WHOLE ELEVATOR
Date: 2005-08-22 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 06:34 am (UTC)