Saw something interesting last week when I was in NYC. After checking in at the hotel Thursday night I went over to the elevator bank. There was a large crowd of people with luggage standing there waiting for elevators.

"Great, I'll be here forever," I thought as I pushed through to the screen to enter my floor. Yes, a screen. Not too long ago this hotel did away with the age-old choice of "up" and "down." That binary array of buttons was replaced with a screen that asks you to select your floor. This allows a supercomputer housed in the hotel's sub-basement to process all the pending requests for floors, run them through an algorithm that determines the most efficient elevator car assignment, and then direct the passenger to a specific elevator (I think there were four or five elevators altogether).

I entered 24th floor; a moment later the screen directed me to use the elevator to my immediate right -- which, surprisingly enough was just arriving. Someone got out and I got in. And so did another woman. But no one else. They'd all been assigned to different elevators.

As the doors closed on that teeming mass of humanity I did feel a bit awkward. Not so much about the fact that The Screen had selected me and one other to jump the line. It was more about how none in the crowd tried to pile inI mean, you can still get in an elevator and select a floor, regardless of any directive issued by The Screen.

But not one of those non-NYers did.

I turned to the only other passenger in our elevator car and said, "Wow, people sure do take directions well."

As our elevator rocketed its way to the 24th floor, she half-turned her head to acknowledge my comment, giving me that grunt of non-committal agreement that only ever signifies, "I don't speak English and the fact that you're talking to me has filled me with fear."