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"...the space defense initiative drove the USSR bankrupt, and it originated at my house in Tarzana."
- Larry Niven
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| Bank Chip | ||
| A "smart" credit card. |
Although this novel takes place a little way into the future, microprocessor technology implanted in plastic cards is already available.
| She'd check herself out a week into the treatment. The medics protested. The detoxification had gone beautifully, they said, but the therapy hadn't began. They pointed out the rate of relapse among clients who failed to complete the program. They explained that her insurance was invalid as she terminated her treatment. Sense/Net would pay, she told them, unless they preferred she'd pay them herself. She produced her platinum MitsuBank chip. Her Lear arrived an hour later; she told it to take her to LAX, ordered a car to meet her there, and canceled all incoming calls. |
| Technovelgy from Mona Lisa Overdrive,
by William Gibson. Published by Bantam in 1988 Additional resources -
|
The integrated circuit chip in a smart card is not like the standard magnetic strip present on most credit cards and ID cards. The magnetic strip is mostly a read-only device; neither the consumer nor the retailer can write to the magnetic strip. It also has severe data storage limitations.
The chips now available can be used in a variety of ways:
The cards could also download applications that would run on the card itself; coupons and "frequent flyer mile" style programs to reward consumers can also be loaded.
These cards would provide the user with greater security, since they could generate their own unique identifiers. When used with a card reader attached to a home computer, they would provide a more secure way to shop over the internet.
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| Swedes Get 'Chipped' With Vaccine Passports |
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| Would You Get 'Chipped'? Michigan May Ban Employers |
| Workplace Monitoring Hell, I Mean, Tool For Safe Distancing |
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'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
