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The Retroist mysto-tech button-pushage of my youth were heat-sensitive elevator controls. Yes you touched them and they lit up, no great surprise there, except that the button doesn’t indent or indeed move at all. Just the heat from your finger does the trick. Supposedly these were widely replaced later because an elevator full of passengers would be delivered to any floor that was on fire.

See the magic happen here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=955Mue6FIqU

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I have seen and used these buttons before! Had not thought about them in decades now. They were at a hospital my family used and they really did seem like magic.

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Less slick but still interesting were the “Nixie” tubes seen on older numeric displays.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uiKsiMZTlt8

The Captain America movie was crying out for these at one point but instead gave the Nazi machinery 1970s flip clock numerals

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Great. There’s a deep dive into interfaces of the Nostromo somewhere in the ether.

Maybe Nakomoto became Weiland Yutani?

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