A click is enough

I just replaced it with a switch that has a physical button. The click sound is as crisp as snapping a potato chip in half.

Suddenly, I felt a little moved. This switch is so simple-minded, so foolish that it only knows how to do one thing: you press it, it connects; you press it again, it disconnects. Unlike those smart devices at home, which are always "thinking," "need to upgrade," or acting "based on your habits."

A friend of mine says artificial intelligence will replace humans. I look at that silly little button, and I’m not so sure.

No matter how smart AI gets, it’s always chasing certainty—recognizing your face, guessing what you want to buy, cramming the world into algorithms. The smarter it becomes, the more it wants to decide for you what’s right. But the most precious thing about humans is precisely uncertainty. Like when you press a switch, you don’t know what mood the light will reveal; like when you send a message, you don’t know how the other person will reply.

That button doesn’t think, but it respects your choice. In the simplest way, it tells you: you get to decide whether the light turns on or not.

Maybe this is what technology should be—not making decisions for you, but helping you make better decisions. Not becoming increasingly intelligent, but learning to step back more and more.

Press it, and the light comes on. Simple joy needs no intelligence.