tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post7489183483434444070..comments2023-10-29T10:40:34.638-04:00Comments on A CS Professor's blog: Unsynchronized elevators and selfishnessClaire Mathieuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10957755706440077623noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-77976384934300441182011-06-09T17:29:39.452-04:002011-06-09T17:29:39.452-04:00I do not believe you have to take it to the extent...I do not believe you have to take it to the extent of kant's universal - especially since the universal of the modern global mono-culture is focused on the individual (a public of individuals)<br /><br />In America (and many places I've been to in Europe) we have a public culture far removed from any sense of community - maybe your friend happened to grow up closer to a sense of community wherein consideration for the group precedes the individual consideration by default as it does in most/all community cultures. If the building/context contained someone you cared about (or "belonged" to in a community sense) their proximity and shared use of the elevator would have been a natural concern<br /><br />As first and foremost an individual in a public context it is not natural to consider the other, there is no reason to expect such a consideration as it is not required by any "public" or institutional regulation, training, metric, etc...Aaron Beachhttp://aaronbeach.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-91263486936624615462011-06-09T06:26:36.776-04:002011-06-09T06:26:36.776-04:00I'm sorry to burst your bubble about France, C...I'm sorry to burst your bubble about France, Claire, but here at Paris 6, one of the largest universities in Paris, the CS lab has three elevators with one call button each... but since at any given time two elevators are dysfunctional, this moral quandary is never a problem. People who value their times take the stairs, the others take advantage of the wait to smoke a cigarette.<br /><br />So it seems you might have slightly less incompetent elevator operators.Jérémiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01396853281777536809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-46055176468423180252011-06-06T16:51:28.339-04:002011-06-06T16:51:28.339-04:00I thought about this myself, since the elevators i...I thought about this myself, since the elevators in my building are the same. I was able to rationalize it as follows.<br /><br />For a pair of lightly used elevators, such as yours, the position that will minimize the typical waiting time to answer the _next_ request may be to have the two elevators separated -- one near the top and one near the bottom. Since you will be taking one elevator to the bottom, it is better that you call the other one to the top.Nealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09633273791740011079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-69628195785198778822011-06-05T21:08:41.730-04:002011-06-05T21:08:41.730-04:00Cora, thanks for the link. Lovely article! I had h...Cora, thanks for the link. Lovely article! I had heard something about it, but that it had not been implemented for some obscure safety reason claimed by the elevator company.Claire Mathieuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10957755706440077623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-85064844892184205102011-06-05T20:59:35.520-04:002011-06-05T20:59:35.520-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Claire Mathieuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10957755706440077623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-9580689746121179242011-06-05T20:55:27.068-04:002011-06-05T20:55:27.068-04:00Anonymous, that wasn't my own fully informed d...Anonymous, that wasn't my own fully informed decision, since until now I had not considered the alternatives. Aren't the actions we make without thinking them through the ones most imbued by our culture?Claire Mathieuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10957755706440077623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-52185680249526557482011-06-05T20:52:13.876-04:002011-06-05T20:52:13.876-04:00Actually, Matt Lease and Guy Eddon - grad students...Actually, Matt Lease and Guy Eddon - grad students who started with me at Brown - implemented a synching system for the elevators as a class project. You can read about it <a href="http://www.cs.brown.edu/about/conduit/conduit_v12n1.pdf" rel="nofollow">here (p. 7)</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068183698747623113.post-9829192282944252602011-06-05T20:48:31.272-04:002011-06-05T20:48:31.272-04:00"Are selfish choices so ingrained in the cult..."Are selfish choices so ingrained in the culture here in the US that we don't even think to question them?" <br /><br />You can't blame the culture (of the US or of France) for your own decisions. Yes, this seems a bit selfish to me, depending on how busy the elevators typically are, but the correct answer to fix the elevators. Go to a different elevator company; those guys are obviously incompetent.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com