BUY IT EASY! by Frank Cutjob

In the US everyone who owns and uses an iPhone, an iPad, or a device with the Android OS, is able, with the latest great technology invention called Square, to get paid from anyone's credit card simply swiping the card in a small plastic square plugged into the phone's microphone jack. In the FAQ of https://help.squareup.com, the web-editor jokes with the visitors writing that with Square, ''you can even have your friend that owes you 20 dollars pay you with their card since their wallet always seems to be empty when you remind them about it.'' This invention, as few others, fascinated me and made me think about a possible scenario, when men go back to the past, giving up the use of money. In a similar way, in the future, we may be able to buy a good we like or we need in a shop by simply moving our phone near that object. With a technology similar to Square, I believe we would be able to pay through our smart-phone that 'knows' all the information needed in order to proceed with the purchase: it saves the password of our credit card, the details of the bank account, and all our sensitive data. Being a mobile device, the phone, it may not even be necessary to have the phone on us when we buy something. In this sense, we would go back to the past, when if you wanted to have an apple, you could take it from the tree. With no intention to be blasphemous, this could lead to the parallel in which the phone, along with our bank accounts, could act as a voice prohibiting us to buy something we cannot, just as the voice of God did to Adam and Eve regarding the apple. That is, every time you have already spent your monthly maximum, you won't be able to purchase anything else, until you recharge your account, or wait for the next month. I believe this is the purpose, perhaps as an unconscious desire, inspired by the consumer society, for which we invented such a device: the aim is to ''have a simple and mobile way to migrate from being limited to cash''. This will make it easier to buy and sell goods. But will it make us happier?




LINKS

https://squareup.com/