I saw a great video thanks to Phil Plait today that tried to show that people will do things that are more ‘fun.’

It’s a great video, and it did make me smile, but I have to wonder if it’s not ‘The Fun Theory’ as much as it is ‘The Novel Theory.’ We all enjoy novel experiences, but thanks to habituation we tend to become less enthralled by them as we adjust. They become less fun. So the piano staircase sounds fun for the first day, but eventually people will get used to the shifting tones as they climb the stairs or, even worse, they will become increasingly annoyed and repelled by them. Either way, it seems to me that the escalator will return to dominance over time.

So what we’d need is something that continually adjusts to human interaction. The more we interact with it, the more it adjusts and changes. We’d need an anti-habituation staircase. Now that’d be real fun.

Phil Plait, an excellent skeptical blogger, blogged about a heartbreaking exposé broadcast in Australia about the troubling decrease in childhood vaccinations. Phil Plait has a highly trafficked blog, much more than mine, so I considered not passing this message along, but no matter how few new people get the information, it’s worth it. The anti-vaccination movement is spreading and it’s hurting people. It’s killing people. Don’t let it win. Don’t let the unscientific ramblings of Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey sway you, or anyone you know, from getting childhood vaccinations. Fight back with the truth.