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We humans have an uneasy relationship with perfection. We strive for it -- but we're not always sure we want it. If something is close to perfect, it seems suspiciously smooth or, as commentators invariably say when an athlete or performer is at doing the best possible work, "he/she makes it look easy." Of course, nothing is harder than making something look easy -- but a lot of us still don't quite trust anything that seems too effortless.

And, if you're like some of us who've been to swank hotels on business, but then have to switch to more downscale accommodations for personal or family trips, a kind of cognitive dissonance takes over as we try to adjust between the smooth, apparent perfection of staying at a place like Four Seasons and the sometimes infuriating but also somewhat comforting feeling of a Motel 6.

At the high end hotel, if they're doing their job correctly, every need seems to be almost anticipated, sometimes with such alacrity that it can be a little disturbing. At a lower end place, usually nothing is done with much smoothness and everything is a roll of the dice. If a genuine problem arises, you are at the mercy of the fates: is the desk person good-natured or mean, perky or hung-over? Most of the time, even when the staff is trying their best, you're basically on your own -- but that's okay, you're a grown-up and you didn't pay enough to expect to have your hand held.

Of course, at the high end place, you're kind of hoping to be treated a bit like a highly esteemed infant whose needs must be anticipated and fully catered to. And the kind of hotels that cost several hundred to over a thousand a night are forever working on new conveniences, even regarding something as simple as hotel check-in. (It was reading Jeff Howard's thoughts on that bugaboo, which we've seen in even some outstanding hotels, which got us thinking about this in the first place.) But, for all their usually outstanding service, we never feel fully comfortable.

If you're used to flying Southwest Airlines, taking a private jet might be a fantasy come true, but it's also going to be a little weird. The same may apply to the inveterate fan of In-'n-Out Burger who suddenly finds himself downing true Kobe beef at some super expensive restaurant. Genuinely fine gourmet food can sometimes have a sense of unreality about it, particularly if it's way too expensive.

Which is what takes up to the thoughts of Adam Greenfield, reflecting on a review of the new Motorola U9 phone by writer and actor Stephen Fry. Greenfield keys in on Fry's use of the word "witchcraft" in describing the effect of the phone/MP3 player's use of a newfangled OLED type display -- which seems to exist in a kind of never-never land; there is no apparent "screen," and therefore a sort of odd "like magic" effect is created.

For Greenfield and for us, such talk immediately conjures Clark's Third Law, i.e., Arthur C. Clarke's famed assertion that "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, written about thirty years before Clarke was born, illustrates this concept pretty well.)

While Greenfield takes a mostly benign view of the phone itself, he does have some problems with the avid pursuit of magical seeming technology, as he explains to a commenter on his view of this supernatural metaphor as perhaps "disempowering":

"In this context, I think of magic as the ultimate in seamlessness, and while of course I'm not entirely opposed to the use of metaphor in explaining complex systems to their users, neither do I think that's anything like the right one."

Which is perhaps another of saying that he fears this sort of magical seamlessness infantilizes consumers to a certain extent. Is that why, no matter how many adults are hooked on the Harry Potter books, they'll always be seen as children's fiction, no matter that J.K. Rowling might be a better writer than, say, Stephen King? It's true that there is something tremendously appealing to young children about the idea of magic. As we get older, magic is still kind of fun, but it's often more enjoyable s to try and figure out the secret to the trick than to pretend it's really magic.

Being an infant isn't all bad but, as adorable as two-year olds are, it's not a good idea to be one forever. Is that why some of us are both delighted and vaguely creeped out by extremely high end hotels, or is that our adult fear of the bill talking?

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