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"I can't tell whether or not there's going to be a Singularity. I don't really believe the rapture of the nerds stereotype..."
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This is probably the first mention of the idea of a credit card.
Money has been abolished in this vision of the twentyfirst century; clerks make use of physical punch cards to indicate the value of purchases.
This is probably more accurately called a "debit card," since each person is given a stated amount of credit on each card.
It's also interesting to note that the idea of punched cards had been around for more than 150 years before Bellamy wrote his story; they were used to control textile looms in France. In fact, punched cards were used for informatics as early as 1832. I'm guessing that Bellamy's audience might have seen this as a modern technological notion.
Thanks to Carl Anderson for suggesting this item; read more of the book online at Looking Backward. Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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