A Stoplight For The Progress Bar Generation

Progress bars aren’t always accurate, but at least they’re there, giving us hope, curing our angst, and mostly, diverting our attention from the fact that whatever it is, it isn’t done. And soon, they will invade the meatspace.

We already crane our necks to see the perpendicular streets’ lights cycles through, so the Eko stoplight concept, intended to let drivers know if it’s ok to shut off your car to save gas at a light, won’t really change a whole lot. But it would set a precedent, a standard, and a model for everything else: I want progress bars on my toaster, my pizza deliveries, my teapots, my dryer. No, scratch that: I need them.

And if you think about it, our innate desire to see the bar creep forward (or around, as it were) runs deeper than our slow entanglement with computers. I mean, what is a line if not a progress bar made of people? What about a sliced loaf of bread? A growing child? And oh god, clocks. This is too much for a Monday. [Yanko via Ubergizmo]