[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.There are charge cards likeDiner s Club and Amex, which base your credit limit on your spending pat-terns.There are retail store cards that are only accepted at specific companiesor outlets.And there are debit cards, which act like checks, making withdrawalsfrom checking or savings accounts.Today s smart cards are hybrids of these.They take credit cards and debitcards a step further, because they reduce the need for the card itself.A smart card has a microprocessor or memory chip embedded in it.Thischip stores electronic data, such as bank account information, credit informa-tion, and the like.So, when the card is used let s say, when driving througha toll booth the microprocessor, or minicomputer, fully equipped with a tiny 52 The Future of Money as a Credit-Based Systemantenna, signals the toll booth s microprocessor, or reader.The two computerstalk and debit your bank account or credit account however you have themicroprocessor programmed the amount of the toll.This is done as youdrive through, no stopping, in a split second.All that is to say that a smart card is a credit or debit card that can trans-mit wireless data. I m panting, notes my Imagination. Yes, the vision of us driving through a toll booth on Interstate 95 inConnecticut triggered some fond memories.I also see you ve got us careen-ing through various drive-thru windows at fast food restaurants.And now,you re trying to put together an image of me at the grocery store checkoutstand.Something has to do with my lapel. I m trying to imagine if they can attach a smart card anywhere. Let me save you the trouble. Luxembourg-based Gemplus, the biggest manufacturer of smart cards, says, The important thing about smart cards is that they are everyday objects thatpeople can carry in their pockets, yet they have the capacity to retain and pro-tect critical information stored in electronic form. The smartness of smart cards comes from the integrated circuit embed-ded in the plastic card.The same electronic function could be performed byembedding similar circuits in other everyday objects, such as key rings,watches, glasses, rings, or earrings.Smart keys are already being used for pay-TV subscriptions. The development of contactless card technology was the catalyst for whatis known as tags.Tags function like contactless smart cards but are in the formof a ring or even a baggage label.They are generally attached to objects suchas gas bottles, cars, or animals and can hold and protect information concern-ing that object.This allows the object to be managed by an information sys-tem without any manual data handling. See, I m being squelched, says my Imagination. How so? Whenever I imagine something that comes true, it moves on over tobecome part of logic.And logic falls under reason s domain. But you are still working now.I see that you think you re being very cre-ative and cute by designing a cyborg. Well, I had to take all this somewhere. Sorry, Charlie. .no. Yes, I m afraid there s a computer scientist in England who s alreadyembedding himself with microchips. 53 WHAT MONEY REALLY MEANS If other people did the same.Pretty soon language would becomeobsolete; the chips would interact with your brain and speak for you.I mimagining a scene from Star Trek. Right.You can have a lot of fun with the cyborg thing.But, back tomoney, Gemplus says already the sound of your voice, the blink of your eye,may be enough. The company says, The use of Biometrics will soon mean that a personcan be reliably identified by his or her hand, fingerprints, retina of the eye, orsound of the voice.Soon it will be possible to authorize the use of electronicinformation in smart cards using a spoken word or the touch of a hand. Smart cards are a relatively new technology that already affects the every-day lives of millions of people.This is just the beginning and will ultimatelyinfluence the way that we shop, see the doctor, use the telephone, and enjoyleisure. Modern society needs an enormous amount of information.Computersgive us the means to process this information.Smart cards give us a way ofindividualizing the handling and control of this information. The use of smart card technology will benefit the individual and increasethe quality of life. Increasing the quality of life may be an aggrandizement.But the idea ofmoney becoming an indelible part of the human nature body, mind, andspirit seems inevitable.This plays into Stiglitz s thesis of credit, because, asyou ve read over and over, money is trust and information; it s all credit any-way.Technology may enable people to have the facilities to gauge trust becauseof the nanosecond ability to access information.We may all, in fact, become apart of the Information Superhighway.That said, trust can be gauged withoutthe need for a tangible conduit.Technology may enable people to unsheathe the hold governments haveon trust, as currency itself is being brought closer to the individual, made partof the individual.Bernard Lietaer, a money scholar who was named the top currency traderin the world, posits that one day, governments themselves may be obsolete ascorporations take over the functions of government utilities and services.(Federal Express instead of the United States Postal Service? For-profit schoolsinstead of public ones?) Who, then, will trust fall to? What will happen tomoney then?It may, as former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker suggests,unify. I have come to the conviction that the full implication of a truly globalsystem of trade and finance will ultimately be a common currency encom-passing most of the world, Volcker says. 54 The Future of Money as a Credit-Based SystemThis is how, of course, it was at the beginning.Gold knew no nation orstate boundaries, nor did silver, or any other commodity used as a signifier ofmoney.One s word was most frequently used, memorialized by a signature ordocument of trust. Can you be trusted? may be the only barrier to trade in the future.Whoare you, as an individual, as a person, to impute that trust?Dialogue: Me and My Imagination Satisfied? About the future? Yes.It s as I suspected.I m a goner. You think? No, I imagine, remember.Thinking is your gig.I imagine that truth willprevail.I will be stilted as will all of the other imaginations out thereif the future of money is as you detect. Not so.What you are imagining is that the creative process will be hin-dered by the logic necessitated by computer processing.In this case,microprocessing.In this case, us.If we become the microprocessor,and interact with other microprocessors, only logic will prevail.Imagination, creativity, right brain activity will be reduced.Why put allthat nonsense into the program, right? Exactly, there wouldn t be room for, or reason for, me.The concept of wouldn t it be nice. will be completely erased.Why? Because it ssuperfluous to any situation.It is, or it isn t.That will be the future.Black.White.Ones.Zeros.I ll be put out to pasture with your dreams,hopes, wants, desires
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
