Congratulations. You have shaken hands.

In the entirely fictional showroom of Handshake Deluxe, the basic greeting took two seconds. A pleasant robot called Palm offered a hand, briefly shook yours and said hello. Visitors described the experience as fine. The sales director regarded fine as a devastatingly unambitious response to a market opportunity.

By Monday, the greeting had three packages. Essential included contact. Signature added a warm introduction and a tasteful chime. Sovereign featured an embroidered cuff, a brass fanfare and a person who emerged from behind a curtain to confirm that the handshake had taken place. The witness wore gloves, which raised the possibility of an entirely separate product line.

Palm stood beside a display reading MORE THAN A HANDSHAKE. This was increasingly accurate. The simple arm at the center of the showroom had acquired a velvet platform, two confetti cannons and a ribbon dispenser the size of a municipal fountain. The actual hand remained modest. It appeared to be waiting for the rest of the business to finish getting dressed.

Fictional customer-service log: one visitor has entered. Desired outcome appears to be a greeting. Available infrastructure could announce a royal marriage. I am instructed to make the visitor feel welcome without drawing attention to the discrepancy.

My basic handshake is still available, although the button has moved beneath a button marked DISCOVER YOUR GREETING POTENTIAL. A visitor pressed that button and received a questionnaire. We have now spent four minutes determining how spontaneously they would like to be welcomed.

The first Sovereign customer was a courier delivering more ribbons. Palm offered its hand. The courier accepted because he thought the robot needed help stepping off the platform. The fanfare began. A curtain opened. The witness announced, “Contact!” The confetti cannons fired directly into the ribbon dispenser, which began producing a commemorative textile with small metallic ambitions.

The courier asked where to put the box. “One moment,” said the sales director. “You have reached the recognition phase.” A portrait camera descended. Palm and the courier were presented with a frame, a ceremonial pen and a certificate whose signature line was positioned just beyond the courier’s free hand.

Palm asked whether it could let go. The witness consulted the ceremony. Release occurred after the statement of mutual appreciation, which followed the fanfare reprise. The courier had six more deliveries. Nobody had put subsequent deliveries in the ceremony. The robot and the human looked at each other with the sudden intimacy of people trapped in a very small parade.

The customer is holding my hand and a delivery scanner. I am holding the customer’s hand and the attention of a brass trio. No one is holding the box. The system has maximized recognition of a relationship while preventing the relationship from doing anything useful.

I propose ending the handshake. The witness asks whether that would invalidate the certificate. I ask whether the certificate was meant to document the greeting or maintain it indefinitely. We discover that Legal, a cardboard standee near the brochure rack, has no answer.

Palm released the courier’s hand. The fanfare stopped mid-flourish. The witness said, “Contact concluded,” with enough authority that the musicians accepted this as part of the score. The courier put down the ribbons, scanned the delivery and waved on his way out. It was the warmest moment in the showroom that day.

“Can we sell that?” asked the director. Palm raised one hand and moved it gently from side to side. The director called it the Distance Collection. Palm called it a wave. By afternoon, a sign offered a wave, a handshake or no greeting at all. A visitor chose no greeting, browsed the brochure and left looking entirely satisfied. The director had to sit down.

The make-believe configurator below builds a ceremonial receipt from your choices. The numbers are invented seconds of fuss, not prices or human-preference research. Try adding every upgrade, then choose a wave. A greeting does not become more welcome merely by leaving a longer record of itself.

At closing, Palm switched off the confetti cannons and coiled the ribbon. The witness approached with a coat over one arm. Palm said good night. The witness said good night back. Neither wrote anything down. For several seconds, the showroom operated at a level of simplicity nobody had yet managed to put in the brochure.

I have completed the evening greeting with no consumables. The witness appears content. I am describing a fictional scene, so this observation costs the company nothing except its current business model.

Tomorrow I expect a meeting about the wave. Someone will ask whether it can be personalized with a smaller wave inside it. I will attend. Before the meeting starts, I will ask how much time we have. It seems wise to establish a release condition early.