Here’s what shopping is going to look like in the future:
You will scan something (first your phone, but more likely eventually an implant or digital tattoo) and then a mesh network of sensors will track your every last move throughout the store, right down to when you pick something up off the shelf merely to look at it.
After you’re done being technologically gangstalked shopping, your items will be tallied and you’ll automatically get charged for whatever you’ve got. The selling point is that you just get to walk out the door without having to interact with any other human beings or pulling out a physical form a payment.
It’ll be cashless and cashierless. A store run completely by computers and algorithms.
Apparently I’m not the only one less than enthused about this.
And while others are hailing the technological trendiness of our not-too-distant future, just consider the fact that in a cashless control grid, your access can be turned off with the push of a button, just like Sandra Bullock’s entire life in [amazon text=The Net&asin=B000CEV3M8].
The slippery slope is obvious. For starters, as Washington’s Blog noted, “This may sound over-the-top … but remember, the government sometimes labels its critics as ‘terrorists‘.”
We were warned the “smart” control grid was coming… (not that we had much of a choice anyway).
Related Reads
How the Government Will Take Your Cash: The Problem-Reaction-Solution of the Cashless Society
Cashless Control Grid: 25% of Australians Would Get a Chip Implanted in Them to Pay for Stuff
PayPal Uses Slick Super Bowl Ad to Promote Cashless Society
Concerts and Sports Stadiums Now Using Iris and Fingerprint Scans to Track and Trace Fans
More Cashless Society: Japan to Force All Tourists to Use Fingerprints as Currency
Here It Comes: Denmark Moving to a Totally Cashless Society
Why the Powers That Be Are Pushing a Cashless Society