I am deeply troubled everytime I see someone walking up an escalator. (I know its probably more troubling that I am even troubled by something like this. But I am.) It's not just how this action defeats the purpose of moving stairs, but this typifies the absurdity of convenience in modern life. Escalators were created to provide an alternative to climbing stairs, yet many people climb escalator. Simple technology providing an alternative to work transmogrifies into a definition of convenience as something that provides speedier work. Like cellular phones, palm computers, and other devices of modern convenience, escalators, those now venerable machines, are less about relief from work and more about the speed to fit more work into less time.