A Cashless Society! In this, my brain dump, initial thoughts are:
1-Putting a Key Card out of your bra is nowhere as impressive as cash!
2- It would be very difficult for strippers to dance with EFTPOS machines strapped to their??? - not so sexy. (this is your chance to be first to market with cunningly designed transacting knickers)
3 -Will the homeless actually start taking up your offer of a McDonalds feed - instead of turning their noses up at it in?
4 - I misplace my keycard at least twice a week - where does that leave me? (see picture at the end of this post - not posed..thanks Corrine for the evidence)
Perhaps the answer is a microchip. But that could have its own problems. Would bag snatchers become murderers, set to dismember and remove the chips of wealthy folk? You cant just pull off you arm and throw it at them as you run away can you? It'd be a real pain in the.....arm if your chip malfunctioned and needed replacing.
But seriously. I remember there being a movement against barcodes, say about 20 years ago...maybe it was more. Hazy memories of strange looking folk handling out flyers in the street and notice thingos taped to telegraph poles. I thought they were nuts and couldn't quite work out what their problem was.
Perhaps they were projecting into the future? Perhaps they were worried about the day when we would be all issued with National ID cards (as in Nazi Gemany). Perhaps with minds like crystal balls they could see the day when we would all be FRIGGEN MICROCHPPED like our pets and the very last semblance of privacy would be torn from us.
OK, so a little dramatic, and let me put my calm, professional and reasonable hat back on and say, completely flippantly:
1. I like cash because when it comes down to it, as involved in technology as I am, I am at heart a luddite who has a sentimental attachment to the cash economy. As well as books in print (mmmmm..,..breathe that smell in)
2. Coins are shiny delicious and Notes are crunchy.
3. I can not be trusted to retain cards of any description and am at this moment waiting for a replacement of mine, for the 2nd time this year (yes...already)
4. Recently I was walking down George Street and a $20 note blew into my shoe...unexpected thrills are far and few between.
Hmmm..not the most well constructed blog entry. But I love a little SOC every now and then.
I don't believe there will ever be a completely anonymous electronic payment method that's usable by "normal" people, because it would be too easy to hire people to commit terrible crimes.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've ever heard of Assassination Politics, so I'll assume you haven't; apologies if this is nothing new to you.
Assassination Politics is an anarchist idea where the population can effect change by individually agreeing to pay a small sum towards making it happen. The small sums paid amount to very large sums in total. The sorts of changes that would be paid for can ultimately be violent ones, such as the assassination of unpopular political figures, or known criminals. Provided that digital cash is anonymous, no one can know the identities of those who have contributed nor who has been paid the bounty.
Here's some info on Assassination Politics:
http://www.outpost-of-freedom.com/jimbellap.htm
It's long, and it reads slightly kooky, but trust me it WOULD happen if anonymous digital cash came within reach of the masses. It would end government.
I've been taking an interest in a thing called Bitcoin recently:
http://www.bitcoin.org/
This is at the moment fantastically nerdy, but perserver and watch the video there. You can actually pay for some things with bitcoins right now. And if you do, no one can tell who you are just by your payment.
I'm a big fan of Bitcoin, these guys are geniuses, but The Man is never gonna allow them to prevail. The excuse will be "blah blah money laundering blah" but the real reason will be Assassination Politics. The Bitcoin project does not like to talk about Assassination Politics.
You mentioned some of the down sides of foldin' money, OK, but you can't deny the up sides. I think you're right that there'll never be a cashless economy, but I think cash will keep getting marginalised out until eventually the homeless guy will be taking your beer tokens directly to the nearest place he can credit them onto his card since no pub or liquor store will take them.
As for transactional knickers.. well, we use chips in casinos, so.. :)
Hey Andy. I just saw your comment now and no, never heard of most of those things. I'm at home tomorrow and will take a look and let you know my thoughts. Thanks for commenting. It's nice to know someone other than the contributors here read.
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