New Places, new technology.  

Today’s New Place (brought to me by a medical appointment) took me downtown to this big complex, the Lafayette Center, which covered almost a whole city block, and introduced me to a new-fangled elevator that nobody ever asked for and nobody ever wanted.

In the world of the future you apparently have to choose your floor BEFORE you get into the elevator.  Then when you get into the elevator, there are no floor buttons. You simply touch the “close door” button and trust the elevator to take you where you asked to go (see photos below).
No more watching the floor buttons light up as you ride up. No more knowing which floor you are on. Now elevator rides are really awkward: If we can’t watch the buttons light up, what are we supposed to do? Make eye contact?

The person who really suffers from this new invention is the front desk person because she has to tell every single person who comes into the building, gets in the elevator, and looks around for the floor buttons, that they need to get out of the elevator, select a floor, and then go back in the elevator.

Sometimes I’m not sure I like new things. . .