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Cashless Society Plastic money is all the rage these days, but new technology is constantly driving us towards an economic system where paper cash money becomes redundant, and all transactions are digital.
The use of notes and coins as a medium of exchange is a modern innovation. But the origins of modern money also lie in superstition.
To some extent, it has already happened. Credit cards were the forerunners in digital technology, and now, smart cards with embedded chips can retain a changing balance, becoming, in effect, miniature electronic wallets. Using smart-card technology, you'll be able to buy a chocolate bar from the corner café without old-fashioned money. Your cell phone will become an electronic wallet.
As more consumers wise up to the benefits of digital shopping, so the marketplace is evolving to cash in on the new technological order. Telkom are developing a facility called Cybertrade. Sally talks to Prem Gangiah, Cybertrade Telkom :"We are moving towards a business to commerce or business to consumer electronic commerce and one of the reasons for that is people have the tendency to want to stay at home to do their business rather to having to go to the local shop or the Pick 'n Pay or the Hyperamas of the world. That is essentially what Cybertrade is all about. It is in summary the electronic commerce enabling platform for people to do business remotely," says Prem.
Digital technology heralds a revolution in the way businesses approach customers. The old strategy of targeting generic products at market segments may become redundant. Says Martin Hill-Wilson, MD: Merchants Group UK :"Interestingly, we're on the cusp of getting back to the point where we started the whole game in a way, which is being the individual. Technology is enabling suppliers to be able to relate to the individual again rather than groups of people." The industry gurus call it One-to-One marketing. Don Peppers, Co-Author "One-to-One Future", says: "The new dynamic is I know who you are. You interact and tell me what you want and I make it that way for you and I deliver it. I change my behaviour based on what you told me. Then we interact again; did you like it that way, would you like it this way, how about that? Now every time we interact, I re-tailor my service to you. Every time I change my behaviour based on what you tell me anew, I am getting a little higher on your individual learning curve. I am making the product better and better for you and I make it a little more difficult for you to get satisfied by my competitor because, even if my competitor has the same level of customisation and capabilities that I have, you have to first re-teach him what you taught me." "If this is true," remarks Sally, "then disappearance of money could mean a more human economy - personalised transactions between buyer and seller. But is there a flip-side?" "One of the interesting issues that is coming through as far as being a member of the digital age is concerned, is how much privacy we have as individuals," says Martin Hill-Wilson. "Think about the number of times you are actually asked to hand over your details to qualify to join the club. Think about where that information about you is, how many databases you're already sitting on. Think about what is going to happen when people get a little bit smarter and join some of those databases together. You are going to be known completely." "Another potential problem posed by digital transactions is that consumers will become overly dependent on the hardware," maintains Sally. "As cell phones become smaller and smaller, they'll be easier to lose, and in a society where your phone is also your wallet, that could leave you in technological limbo."
The disappearance of money could be followed by the disappearance of hardware, not into some intangible electronic dimension, but under your skin. The convenience is indisputable, but it also means everything you do, and even everywhere you go, can be tracked and monitored, 24 hours a day.
CONTACTS:
Gavin Penkin
Prem Gangiah
Martin Hill-Wilson
Don Peppers
Professor Kevin Warwick |
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Created and maintained by Intekom works Copyright © 1998 Intekom |
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Contents and images © 1998 All rights reserved |
Sally Burdette, "In Touch" presenter, explores how close we are to a truly cashless society. "Archaic societies used some pretty bizarre things as a store of wealth: shells, stones, dog's teeth and feather bands," says Sally. "These objects were highly valued, not because of what they could buy, but because they were believed to possess divine power."
"The first banks were temples, and the first moneylenders were priests," comments Sally. "With the advent of digital technology, money is set to undergo a further metamorphosis, one that hearkens back to its magical origins. Money is about to become invisible."
Says Gavin Penkin from Nokia: "In cellular we already use smart card technology with sim cards. The sim cards that go into the phones that we use are a smart card in that they contain details about you. In the newer applications where we now have banking applications, we have a different functionality on the card so we would have money and other applications on the card."
"If you're a customer looking for a book, you won't have to wander from shop to shop looking for the title you want," explains Sally. "You'll search for it and order it on the net. Another advantage of a virtual store is that each customer's buying habits can be tracked and analysed, creating a unique profile of each and every customer's reading preferences, allowing you to send unique adverts to each customer, informing them of titles that you already know they will want to read."
One controversial solution is to have the smart-chip implanted. Professor Kevin Warwick, Head of Cybernetics at Reading University, is the first human being to consent to such an operation. "The implant that I had in me is quite large, but already the technology has improved and the same amount of information can be developed or used on a much smaller implant. As years go on a lot of information can go on a very small implant. Well, if the government actually uses this to monitor people it would have a very accurate fix on who is who and you can't really lose an implant or have an implant like this stolen. So, once it is placed in you, that's it, you are identified. Businesses could use that to monitor exactly what their employees are doing," says Prof Warwick.
Martin Luther called money "the God of this world", and Shakespeare called it "the visible God." In the next millennium, money will become the invisible God and its power will be greater than ever.