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 only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command.
Nick Paumgarten: Up and Then Down. (Told you so, everyone who has tried to convince me that our elevators’ door-close buttons did anything.) (via marco)
I feel like my whole life has been a sham up until this point.
(via tomreynolds) (via mikehudack)
God, if this is true, then engineers are the biggest jokers of all :(
