OK, OK already, I hear the designers saying, this emotion stuff is all well and good, but its pretty secondary to our aesthetic sensibilities. The logic always is going to win. We are always going to be able to control and moderate our deep urges and feelings with our higher senses.

Well, Spock, I’d say no. And I came across a good example of this the other day when the family went down the airport for a look at planes as it was another rainy sunday in Manchester.

Part of the fun with a two year old is always the moving walkways. They don’t go very fast (the walkways that is, kids go like a bomb), but kids are fascinated as they feel themselves moving when their legs aren’t. But as adults too we have expectations of these walkways, and the motor control of our bodies based on our perceptions. And these expectations cause true visceral feelings. The one I’m homing in on is when you stand on a moving walkway that isn’t moving. If you are like me you feel a huge lurch where your body wants to accomodate the movement … but the movement is not there, the walkway is static.

Now what in the world is logical about that? I KNOW the walkway isn’t moving, I’ve seen it, understood it, accepted it. I absolutely know it. The walkway is just not going. But my body won’t accept this. No amount of Mr Spock will make the visceral lurching go away. Emotions beat logic everytime. Its not even a fair fight … if there is a fight, then put logic away, it hasn’t got a chance.

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