One day in the not too distant future, you鈥檒l walk into your favourite Squamish coffee shop, order your hot beverage of choice (and a muffin, too鈥� go ahead, splurge, you deserve it) and pay for it all without a bank card, password or PIN number. Yes, in the future we are literally going to be giving all that the finger, thanks to biometric technology 鈥� which can include iris scanners, fingerprint readers and facial recognition.
How do I know what the future looks like (and if I do, why haven鈥檛 I bought a lottery ticket)? Well I don鈥檛 have a crystal ball, but according to a CNN Money story, for the past year banks in the U.S. have already been looking into adding biometric tech to their systems. The idea is that since your fingerprints are unique, they鈥檒l be safer than an easily hackable password鈥� like using your cat鈥檚 name or the word 鈥減assword.鈥�
Biometric readers aren鈥檛 some wild future tech that only exists in the Mission Impossible movies, either. Anyone who owns the newest generation of iPhones and iPads already uses a fingerprint scanner to log into their devices, or with Apple Pay for banking. And, apparently VISA is working on iris scanning technology to use with its VISA Checkout online service. It is all in the name of better security in today鈥檚 world of identity theft and massive corporate hacks that are reported daily in the news.
Of course, biometrics are certainly more secure than traditional passwords, but nothing is foolproof, unfortunately. Apple鈥檚 TouchID fingerprint tech has already reportedly been hacked by a photo of a fingerprint, and let鈥檚 not forget that in the movies, criminals needing a specific fingerprint or iris scan to enter a vault simply (and usually painfully) cut the digit or eye from the unlucky soul.
That certainly would give new meaning and depth to the term 鈥渉acking.鈥�
But it is all happening, and saying 鈥淲ell, I鈥檒l just stick to cash from now on鈥� isn鈥檛 going to work either, because physical money could be on its way out, too. The Danish government has proposed that most of that country鈥檚 stores stop using cash and coins altogether starting January 2016. Essential services like hospitals, pharmacies and post offices would still have to accept cash under the plan (which is still just a plan and not yet a law). Right now, many European countries are embracing a cashless world and using mobile phone apps for banking and to wirelessly transfer money between individuals. Heck, even the United Nations is encouraging countries to go cashless in the name of cutting costs and improved governmental transparency. So, it鈥檚 pretty easy to foresee a day where you鈥檙e paying for your fresh local veggies at the Squamish Farmers鈥� Market every week by pressing your finger (or if you鈥檙e a criminal, someone else鈥檚鈥� I don鈥檛 judge) onto a scanner and the funds will be automatically removed from your account. But I guess it鈥檚 not any more outlandish than that 鈥渢ap鈥� thing with our bank cards now.
So, want weirder?
Okay, how about a prediction that by 2030, humans will be able to connect directly to the Internet, thereby augmenting our intelligence and presumably letting us pay our bills and do our banking with mere thoughts? That鈥檚 the prediction of Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google. And while plugging your mind directly into the World Wide Web along with the other dark and sticky minds of the planet may seem totally unreal, consider who made the prediction. According to another CNN Money article, 鈥淜urzweil, who is known as one of the world鈥檚 leading inventors, has predicted what the future will look like before. In the 鈥�90s, he made 147 predictions for 2009. In 2010, he reviewed his predictions, 86 per cent of which were correct.鈥�
Whoa. I guess it鈥檚 time to start planning where 鈥� aesthetically 鈥� I want that computer terminal/port drilled into my head. It鈥檚 totally going to be a big problem of the future. I foresee it.
