Thursday, February 08, 2007

Vending Machines Promote Insanity

Every day when I get to work, I go down to the vending machines and get myself a 20 0z. Diet Coke with Lime.

Some like their caffiene warm, I like mine cold. This is not an optional activity. I NEED IT!

So I always make sure I have a couple of ones and some change. This morning I had the required $1.35, so I ambled down to the automated chaos of the vending machnes.

Everyone has had bad experiences with vending machines. Taking your money and giving you nothing, product hanging up in the machine, not giving you the right change.

My favorite was when you ordered a soda in the old machines that filled paper cups, and the cup failed to drop. You watched helplessly as the soda and then the syrup and your money went literally down the drain.

Today the vending machine took a dislike to the dollar bill I fed it. I have no idea what it didn't like about that particular bill. It was practically new, unwrinkled and seemingly free from defects.

I checked it, turned it around and tried it the other way. Still no, again, no, again, no.

In the midst of this I remembered one definition I had heard of insanity: Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

As if by telepathy, the machine must have sensed my thoughts, because it accepted the dollar bill. Same machine, same dollar bill, same everything, different result.

Pschological studies of rats showed that the most powerful way to reinforce behavior is with a random reward/punishment system.

The rats were placed in a cage with a lever. When they pressed the lever they some times got food, sometimes got a shock, sometimes got nothing. The rats would sit there and press the lever until they collapsed from exhaustion. Even more than the rats that got rewarded every time they pressed the lever.

So in the bigger rat race we are being programmed for insanity by machines through a random punishment/reward system.

And don't tell me it's a coicidence.

5 comments:

rennratt said...

I've found that PUNCHING the machines helps.

Sometimes.

Al said...

Renn: Obsccenties sometimes are rewarding in a way, but rarely are rewarded with product. It's a part of the conditioning

An Extraordinary woman in a mediocre life said...

I'll just bet its some genetically altered giant rat thing that invented vending machines.... he has cameras on every vending machine in the world to see the fruits of his labour and with every reward not given, every penny change witheld, he lets out a triumphant "Serves you right, you torturing, rodent hating b******s!"

hehe

xxxxxxxxxx

Stacy The Peanut Queen said...

See, if you pour enough rum in your diet coke (with lime), you won't care if it's a coicidence or not! :)

Hey, works for me! :)

Al said...

EW:The little light above the bill slot on the machine is actually a miniature camera.

You ever see the movie "Willard"?

PQ: I think we spend entirely too much time trying to make sense out of things. Internal application of alcohol is the cure (For medicinal purposes only, of course)