The Long Term Effects of Push Button Control
In working with hand tools, the force of the movement needs to be proportionate with the item being acted upon for graceful, enjoyable effective movement. When a person is in a state of insecurity, imbalance, stress, endgaining or trying, however, muscles tend to be fully contracted and maximum force is used for all movement. This causes clumsiness with hand tools and manual tasks. Also as Moishe Feldenkreis pointed out, this severely decreases sensation and thereby decreases learning., so that for many of us, clumsiness seems like a permanent state.
To use the intellect to overcome this, push-button or digital controls were developed. With push-button control, it is only the explicit mental intention that matters. With complex tools or machines, controls developed that do not have any relationship to the resulting action. For instance if one pushes an elevator button really hard or just hard enough, or anywhere in between, the result is the same. If the elevator has to come from one floor away or twenty, no difference is needed or even possible in calling the elevator.
Processed food that is reheated at the push of a button, likewise removes the senses from the preparation of food, apart from any nutrition compromise.
While push-button controls make great productivity possible, they help alienate us from our physical selves, from gravity, and from other sources of grounding. They also exaggerate the role of will in our lives.