The Elevator Riddle

I take the elevator down from the 4th floor to the 1st floor of this building every Monday and Wednesday after class. The process goes like this almost every time:

This numbered list IS NOT a set of INSTRUCTIONS. It’s a description of the situation. The assignment is to write INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ELEVATOR that the elevator will follow.
—DSH SUN OCT 15.

1. I press the Down button in the fourth floor hallway.
2. The Down button lights in response.
3. The elevator door opens and students exit the elevator.
4. I notice the Up Arrow is lit inside the door jamb, so I delay entering.
5. The door closes, and the elevator continues Up to the fifth floor.
6. The Down button remains lit. I don’t have to press it again.
7. The door opens again, the Down button goes dark, and I enter the usually empty elevator.
8. I press the 1 button inside the elevator. It lights in response.
9. The doors close, and the elevator continues Down to the 1st floor, usually without an intervening stop.
10. The 1 button goes dark, the door opens, and I exit.

Clearly, the elevator is responding to some very specific instructions. But not all the rules are evident from my experience. Some have to be discovered by hard thought. Does it respond differently to the Up button than to the Down button? Under what conditions does it reverse direction? More specifically, would it stop on the fourth floor on the way to the fifth floor if no passenger inside wanted to get off on 4? What other variations would the programmer have to anticipate to give the elevator a complete set of instructions?

These are suggestions of questions you’ll need to address in your THINKING about how to direct the elevator to act. You don’t have to answer them in your post. But your INSTRUCTIONS should indicate that you have considered them (and others). For example, since the elevator acts the same way whether passengers get on or not, it makes no sense to INSTRUCT the elevator to wait for anyone to board or depart. —DSH SUN OCT 15

The ChatGPT “Solution”

Assignment

The numbered model above DESCRIBES for a HUMAN AUDIENCE how the elevator functions as experienced by human passengers. That IS NOT your assignment.

Here’s how the assignment is described in Canvas:

The Elevator Instructions assignment is an exercise in writing to a VERY particular audience, a non-sentient elevator that knows only what it’s told and will respond to instructions whether they are logical or not. A good response will contain no irrelevant or redundant instructions, will not contradict itself, and will result in an economical operation without wasted stops or unnecessary delays to passengers.

WRITE A COMPLETE SET OF INSTRUCTIONS for an ignorant elevator that needs to be told everything.

SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONS, in no particular order:

—Respond to all Summons Buttons by PROCEEDING to the corresponding floor.
—When arriving at any floor to which you have been Summoned, STOP the elevator and OPEN the door.
—Following 15 seconds of inactivity on any floor, CLOSE the door.
—If Proceeding up, IGNORE all Down Summons.
—If Proceeding down, IGNORE all UP Summons.

To achieve clarity and brevity, create terms like Up Button (you’ll need one for the buttons inside the elevator that indicate which floor is your destination).

In the SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONS, I’ve used Summons Buttons to indicate the Up and Down buttons in the hallway outside the elevator. I might use the term Destination Buttons to identify the numbered buttons inside the elevator. And so on.

ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE: BlogUser246 and I have been engaged in extensive revisions for a few days and have made significant progress. You can incorporate anything you find there in your own posts and earn credit for staying involved in the exploration. —DSH SUN OCT 15

Publish your instructions to the Riddle category (and your Username category, of course).

NEW DEADLINE: MIDNIGHT (11:59PM) THU OCT 19

This is a minor Non-Portfolio assignment, BUT, as such, it has the same grade value as your Stone Money essay, so it’s worth your time.