Elevators are equipped with video-conferencing system that includes a flat-panel video display that completely covers one side of the elevator. Elevators are selected from around the world to be included in the network - (e.g. an all-glass elevator in a Japanese skyscraper, an elevator in a mine shaft, an antique elevator in an old building, etc. etc.). There's no way to know which elevators are included; you just walk in and discover it.

Whenever anyone enters an elevator, a teleconference link is established, at random, with another elevator somewhere in the world (and lasts as long as someone is still within either elevator). You can talk with the people in the other elevator (assuming you speak the same language) and ask them where they are (because the system doesn't explain).

If the other elevator happens to have a window, you may sense that you are traveling up a huge skyscraper when you are actually going down into the basement, or moving down an mining shaft when your elevator is actually stopped.

The reasons for this are: - It's a way for a little cultural exchange when people have a few minutes to space - It's a way to spice up your otherwise routine day - It's a way to break through that uncomfortable elevator silence - It's a work of art
-- ootleman, May 24 2003

Splendid! It's also a way to learn "The Girl From Ipanema" in many different languages.
-- friendlyfire, May 24 2003


I thought I was the only one who noticed that.
-- galukalock, May 24 2003


Haute et bronzée, jeune et belle,
La fille d'Ipanema marche,
Et quand elle passe, chacun passé dit, "a-a-ah!"
-- friendlyfire, May 24 2003


// You can talk with the people in the other elevator ... //

But people don't even talk to the people in the same elevator.
-- waugsqueke, May 24 2003


I think people don't talk in regular elevators because of the personal space issues. I think this would be a whole different ballgame - not sure how people would react. Confusion / Curiosity?
-- ootleman, May 24 2003


Nice. Somehow hints at Larry Niven, but I don't know why.

I think posting a world map with the elevators location highlighted would become de rigueur. I also suspect incidents of flashing would increase. This, in turn, begs the question of jurisdiction in the event a law is broken…

Think of the advertising opportunities!
-- phoenix, May 24 2003


(stolen from some comedian), I asked my dad why he always used to make me stand in the corner.
He told me it was elevator practice.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 25 2003


Just to p*ss people off, I like to stand facing the wrong way.
-- FloridaManatee, Jun 19 2003


What if you were having sex in the elevator?
-- ariha, Jan 03 2004


if you get into a full-fleged conversation with the other person in the other elevator, would you like to part, in the other sense you would forget which floor you were supposed to get off!!
-- sridhar236, Feb 07 2005



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