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When we'll just be a number [New Straits Time (Malaysia)]
(New Straits Time (Malaysia) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TODAY, tablet computers and smartphones seem to be in the hands of everyone. Even ordinary folk aspire to have these remarkable gadgets of modern technology to appear tech-savvy and not be left behind.
The credit card, and later the debit card, has revolutionised the way we buy and sell, almost making the use of cash obsolete. However, dramatic changes in technology are now making even all that plastic a thing of the past. Hi-tech alternative payment methods are increasingly coming into use and becoming the preferred and speedier payment modes.
Many proponents of a cashless, card-less society have pointed out that we could eliminate almost all financial fraud and illicit trading by moving our economy to a system where all transactions are to be made and paid electronically.
In such a model economy, every entitlement and earning and everything bought or sold is electronically identified, controlled and managed. We are, thus, heading toward a new world economy where every person will be controlled by the computerisation of the citizens of the world.
One of the problems in moving toward a paperless, cashless, card- less society is the need for positive identification of the individual making the transaction.
In the absence of one's signature, other possible identifications tried out, though costly and with limited success, include fingerprinting, voice recognition, retina-scans and blood vein patterns on the hand.
For some time now, certain scientists have wondered if a number could be permanently placed somewhere within the body at birth. This number could then be used throughout a person's life. It would become his personal identification number (PIN), just as we have them for our phones, cards or for use electronically. This possibility seems to offer a somewhat better promise.
For instance, in some large farms in the West, a chip - the size of a rice grain - is embedded in every calf at birth and thereafter the life history and movements of every head of cattle can be tracked, via a computerised database, throughout the lifetime of the animals.
Similarly, such embedded chips are used in pets. If a pet is lost, its name, owner's phone number and its entire medical history are immediately known with the mere wave of a laser beam.
However, in this new totally electronic age, not having an electronic-access account or not having sufficient funds against your PIN will mean the inability to meet one's obligations and that could be disastrous. As a consequence, if an individual's right to trade is suspended by putting a hold on his account in a computer system, it will make him a "non-person".
Maybe in future, conflicts can be resolved or prevented if there was a supra-power (possibly like the United Nations with more bite) and a single world order and economy.
Interestingly, St John in writing Revelation, about 90 A.D., nearly 2,000 years ago, foretold the world of the future, stating: "Without the number a person will not be able to buy or sell". It is absolutely amazing that we could be headed towards a totally computer-controlled system of life.
Rueben Dudley, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
(c) 2012 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.
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