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《纽约客》文章

现在有一种分配楼层的电梯，乘客在面板上按下自己要去的楼层，去这层楼的人一起上去or下去，等待的时间更长，但走起来会很快。

这种智能电梯很奇怪，因为里头没有控制面板，因为电梯知道你要去哪层。乘这种没有按钮的电梯的人会很感到不安，无助感会加剧幽闭恐惧症。老式有按钮的电梯，给你一种自己可以加以控制的幻象。生产电梯的人想法让乘客以为他们在操控电梯。大部分电梯，至少是那些生产和安装于90年代早期的电梯，关门按钮是起不了作用的。放在那里主要是为了让你以为它有用。这种电梯最大的不足是，一旦进了电梯你就不能改主意了，想改变要去的楼层，你只能出去。而且，一旦你习惯了这种电梯之后，走进带按钮的电梯时会忘记去按按钮。

Smart elevators are strange elevators, because there is no control panel in the car; the elevator knows where you are going. People tend to find it unnerving to ride in an elevator with no buttons; they feel as if they had been kidnapped by a Bond villain. Helplessness may exacerbate claustrophobia. 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 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. The biggest drawback of destination dispatch, besides the anxiety of novelty, is that once you are in an elevator you cannot change your mind. To amend your floor choice, you must disembark, and start again. Elevator mind-changing—the sudden lunge for the unlit button—is rare enough; still, the option is nice. Also, when you get used to this system, you get into an elevator with buttons and forget to press one. But sometimes that happens anyway