Just as a side note about #1 above... I think the reason gas pumps are modeled after ATM machines (and, really, any vending machine) is that there are a set of designs that we are comfortable with using. Regardless of if we are anxious about buying gas, why would this particular type of vending machine (that's what it is, pure and simple) be a completely different design? I'd say it's about ease of use and comfort with the device, and less about the petroleum product. In fact, given the large, single-purpose buttons (fuel "grade" selection)... I'd say a gas pump is closer to a soda vending machine than anything. Of course, with a more complex payment component.

By the way, TED is awesome...

Cool, but I still hope TED is not the 'future of education':

""We're exploring TED as a global classroom," Anderson tells me. "It's very much part of what we're dreaming of."" (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/148/how-ted-became-the-new-harvard.html)

I also found the part about the "theater" of scapegoating CEOs very interesting.

"2. Having a car that runs predicts employment more than a GED."
This looks the usual problem of confusing correlation with causation.
Perhaps being unemployed leads one not to spend one's remaining money on the expense of maintaining a car?

I definitely have the paranoia thing of thinking gas prices are a conspiracy, albeit a not very coherent or unified conspiracy. I personally blame the people who trade in oil futures, because they seem to make only marginally rational predictions. I still blame the run up in gas prices a few summers ago on the futures traders. I accept that the gas market is somewhat competitive, to the extent gas stations have to keep their margins very low. But they have to buy their gas from refiners, either independent ones or ones that are part of the larger company (Exxon, Shell, BP, etc). And in turn the price the independent refiners pay I believe is influenced by the oil futures traders. The larger companies with refineries sell their gas to stations at the same price as the independent refiners, which how an Exxon or Shell make obscene profits and yet say, "It's not us". Of course, often the trader's are pricing oil futures rather low, and Exxon and Shell don't make as large of profits, but I choose to ignore that. My conspiracy theory makes me happy, makes me feel like I know more than other people, even though at some level I know it is simplistic and probably wrong.

So I really don't have a reason for taking the bus or biking to work. But I am, so I spending lots less on gas, and hopefully prolonging the life of my car.

"Oil pumps are purposefully designed to look like ATMs to make us feel better about using them."

I wish she had gone into this in detail because it sounds like some rather heavy-handed spin on her part. People know how to use ATMs. Gas pump designers want these same people to be able to use their pumps without asking for help or giving up.

As it is, I see my dad get frustrated with digital gas pumps all the time because, at his age, he doesn't know how to use them. Is it a terrible thing to want to make him "feel better about using them" and "disperse his anger"? Is that evidence of sinister cultural engineering?

About designing gas pumps to look like ATMS. You might remember that pay at the pump pumps used to look like other things. Texaco had some gray pumps that looked Transformer toys, for example, which gave the sense of "power." At one point they looked slightly human, with wide shoulders and narrower "feet." Back in the early days of oil they all had a glass area where you could "see" the gas flowing. The very earlist pumps had a glass bulb which was filled with gas and then emptied into the tank. In those days people worried that they weren't getting the full measure of a gallon and it needed to be proven. So, over the last 90 years or so gas pumps have reflected and consoled various consumer anxieties.

Why is it special that they were recently designed to look like ATMs? I heard this from one of the engineers who works for one of the two gas pump designer/manufacturers in the US. He said that the concern they were addressing was that people "feel like the oil companies are ripping them off." In trying to make buying gas more pleasurable the designers had found that people had friendly feelings towards ATMs and thus redesigned the front of the pump with a rounded front, a pebbly "no grease" surface, and a meek, rather than aggressive, style. You can see the pumps--white usually--at Shell stations in my part of the country. At about the same year, the other major manufacturer designed a pump inspired by a tree--I'm not kidding. You may still be able to see that one at some Sheetz stations on the East Coast.

I did not intend to make it sound sinister, only that the cognitive dissonance around buying oil is a built in part of the buying experience. Our conflicting feelings about the stuff are well known to marketers, but somehow not to ourselves. Also, obviously, I didn't have much time on stage. If you want to read more about pump design it's in my book.

Any suggestions on how we can create a design to pump gas that will bring us closer to the actual process and petroleum itself? Perhaps the machine could be covered with some type of gooey substance that will slightly burn your skin from the immediate touch, then leave you with a fowl odor for days. The machine could look and smell like a 6 month old huge shower drain ball. I am here to help.