Читать книгу Blind.Faith 2.0.50 - Tomasz Tatum - Страница 17

ZIPPERCARDS

Of course, seignorage was a serious issue to be considered. It was only natural that even a domain.state like Libertyville@Esperantia would possess and retain an inherent interest in the generation of wealth by whatever means were available and feasible. Printing and distributing banknotes was arguably one conventional method which presented itself rather obviously to the treasurers of most countries and their national banks. But there were also indisputably a number of disadvantages associated with conventional currencies that could not simply be overlooked if considered with wisdom and circumspect. Paper notes and coins, for example, were cumbersome instruments in these modern times.

They could be hoarded.

Banknotes could be embezzled or physically stolen.

The logistics involved in physically moving money around could often be daunting and were always expensive.

Cash could be smuggled abroad with little effort or could be traded in illegal money markets.

And despite the development and implementation of even the most elaborate precautionary measures, customary currencies would always be subject to the risk of being counterfeited.

And, of course, once in circulation, cash had the tendency to become very difficult to control or track.

In light of these serious shortcomings to which conventional money would always be susceptible, the original founding fathers of Libertyville@Esperantia elected to make a radical decision: after carefully weighing the pros and cons of the issue, they resolved among themselves to do away with it forever.

But this resolution was not rooted in any undue ideological considerations.

Quite to the contrary, these founding fathers were in fact decidedly capitalistic in their way of thinking. The key to understanding their intention lay elsewhere.

The buzzwords at the time of this debate were efficiency, consolidation and synergy. Thus the brightest minds in the young nation were mobilized and entrusted with the task of inventing an adequate substitute that went far beyond the ludicrously limited capabilities of cash or even plastic credit cards. The result of this national endeavor was nothing short of the minor technical revolution subsequently referred to as the ZipperCard.

The officially declared objective of this government effort was to liberate the citizens and consumers of Libertyville@Esperantia from the dreary constraints imposed on them by the hitherto traditional methods of trading money for merchandise and services in the course of daily living. By providing each and every denizen of the nation with a central account which could be efficiently accessed through a multifunction card with an integrated chip circuit, the requirement to make, transport and store money very quickly became a thing of the past.time.

For the general public, the annoying search for small change to park a car, ride the bus or see a movie was about to become history.

The real competitive edge attained by the introduction of the ZipperCard, however, lay in the diversity of its many functions above and beyond simply enabling cashless transactions on virtually any scale. As a matter of fact, a number of these functions were probably not even directly obvious to the average citizen-consumer carrying it about in his or her pocketbook or wallet.

Although there were initially some misgivings about the potential for abusing the data which the ZipperCard’s introduction made available, this was smartly countered by touching on widespread concerns about social ills such as drug abuse, terrorism or pornography, which would always continue to flourish handsomely as long as mind-boggling sums of cash could be generated through their distribution. The card’s proponents argued that its introduction in the place of currency would inevitably dry up the trade in illicit drugs, cheap guns, foreign-made dildos and other contraband goods by making it practically impossible to launder profits or to smuggle them abroad.

And in public discussions, it was consistently underscored that the ZipperCard would streamline and enhance Libertyville@Esperantia’s already functionally mature market economy by providing around-the-clock reliable real-time data on consumer spending patterns. Ad campaigns financed by the government and other interested institutions such as banks and chambers of commerce stressed its security–the holographic picture on the card could not be tampered with without destroying it–which made it easily adaptable to serving additionally as a forgery-proof identity card, passport or driver’s license. Using the ZipperCard, access to public buildings, offices and institutions would be secure, easy and enjoyable in the future.time.

The state church, for its part, diligently avoided creating the impression of taking any one side in the debate. Behind the scenes, however, its acquiescence was secured at lightning speed through an agreement to make any data collected accessible to what would be loosely defined as worthy causes. It was also implicitly understood that non-sanctioned spiritual groupings could expect to be dealt a financially crippling blow after the successful introduction of the ZipperCard.

Following an independent council’s recommendation to constitutionally guarantee the assignment of a lottery number to each and every ZipperCard, making each one permanently eligible for all future.time drawings, public acceptance of the concept skyrocketed far above the levels deemed critical to ensure a successful introduction.

But despite all of the public discussion over the merits associated with such revolutionary technology, there were also applications that only a few persons had a real notion of at the time of its inception. The result of this thinking was, within a few short years, the advent of the new and improved ZipperCard.

The key to the realization of this new and improved ZipperCard lay in its complete compatibility with a remarkable biotechnical wonder called the VitaMeter, a miniscule electronic chip implanted beneath the skin of each and every citizen of Libertyville@Esperantia. This chip was unique in that it was equipped with a permanently installed recognition feature much like a kind of transponder, consisting of a series of tiny needles with unique patterns defined by varying metal content and measuring just over 1/100th of a millimeter long. This tiny gadget, carried under the skin after a painless implantation similar to an inoculation against the swine flu, premature hair loss or Beriberi, was legible to specially manufactured scanning devices, known as Spot.Checks, not entirely unlike the ubiquitous barcode readers found in the mega.Marché chain of retail stores around the worldmonde.Planet.

The overwhelmingly innovative feature of the VitaMeter, however, and the compelling logic behind its widespread introduction, was its ability to influence the biological rate of aging. This capacity was achieved through intricate manipulation of certain targeted amino acids and enzymes, resulting in measurable, and even sometimes pronounced, variations in the carrier organism’s metabolic rates. The origins of this technology can be traced back to efforts to enable the efficient production of hormone-free meat in regions with geographical resources which were effectively too limited to allow the luxury of setting aside grain, water or even land for the sole purpose of raising livestock for human consumption. Since the animals reached maturity much faster utilizing this technology, it was soon possible to use higher grades of feed–whose hitherto prohibitive higher cost was offset by the significantly shorter time required to bring the meat to market–resulting in overall better products for quality-conscious grocery shoppers who were not averse to getting a good bargain.

As was to be expected, though, before long, scientists and politicians began skirmishing over proposals for other far-reaching uses of the benefits inherent in this astounding technology.

At the very beginning, the discussion was couched in purely ethical terms but that soon changed.

A significant political hurdle was duly taken at a time when a consensus rooted in security considerations began to emerge, favoring the widespread introduction of transponder technology to make Libertyville@Esperantia a safer place to live and work in.

Using the latest transponder technology installed in the VitaMeter, the movements of known criminals could be tracked around-the-clock almost effortlessly.

Disappearances of small children or disoriented senior citizens would become a thing of the past.time. Would-be polygamists and palimony slouches would be shaking in their shoes.

And while some doubts were voiced, sometimes loudly, on behalf of civil liberties that could likely be potentially at risk with such effective monitoring capabilities placed at the disposal of the political establishment, there was on the other hand nearly unanimous agreement that the ensuing economic benefits would be immense for Libertyville@Esperantia.

By enabling intelligent communication between an individual’s ZipperCard and his or her respective VitaMeter, it would for the first time in history be possible to tailor the entire spectrum of logistic requirements necessitated by a thriving consumer economy to real-time data directly identifying and linking the consumer to his or her economic transactions.

But the benefits didn’t stop there. The advent of this technology was just a first modest step about to culminate in a giant leap toward the thus far elusive goal of widespread consistent socially responsible economic behavior.

By tailoring the utilization of this technology in such a manner that it could be implemented to encourage consumer spending habits oriented toward meritorious products and services that were deemed to be advantageous to the health of the citizenry or simply toward the financial structure of the state, Libertyville@Esperantia could simultaneously increase its own revenue substantially and minimize costs for the health care system. Because of the associated immense savings that this could potentially translate into, successful application of this technology would ultimately give each and every citizen more and better services in return for a smaller percentage of their tax revenues. This was, from the onset, an incredibly popular selling point and ultimately paved the way for the successful introduction of legislation making the implantation of the VitaMeter mandatory for all citizens and long-term residents.

The truly ingenious key to this system would be the successful linkage between certain consumption patterns–without exception defined and accepted to be healthy or socially beneficial by an independently appointed monitoring commission reporting directly to a cabinet-level officer of the government–and a marked reduction in the rate of biological aging through carefully targeted manipulation of telomerase enzymes to ensure that the strands of DNA contained within the chromosomes wouldn’t be expended as the cells divided. Replenishing the DNA in this fashion was not dissimilar to continually adding wick to a burning candle, allowing it to burn indefinitely: as long as the depletion of the DNA strands necessary for cell division was slowed down significantly or even halted altogether, the cells, and thus the overall organism, were not forced to age in the normal process of regeneration.

To enhance the overall public acceptance of this huge technical revolution, a splendid bash was thrown on the day of its introduction, complete with balloons, free beer, laser light shows, brilliant fireworks displays and buxomly lasses adorned with bold-lettered CASH SUCKS! slogans emblazoned across their barely concealed boobs.