I watched an interesting movie a few days ago called “In Time”. The movie’s premise was that in the far future, time was the measure of currency. So essentially the rich lived forever and the poor died constantly. The star, Justin Timberlake, played a kind of modern day Robin Hood if you will, in that he took time from the rich and distributed it to the poor. His justification was that it wasn’t truly stealing because the rich stole it to begin with. This movie catalyzed many different avenues of thought for me.
What if currency was not tactile but rather intangible? This would drastically change our economy. We live in a cashless society already if you think about it. I hardly ever even touch cash. All my bills are paid electronically online. Everything I need daily can be paid for by credit cards. In the movie you have to work for time because you pay for things with time. The time is displayed on your arm and there are machines that deduct the appropriate amount for any and all things one would have to pay for. It made me think about how broken our system is and what changed could be instituted to fix it; clearly this outlandish concept of time as a currency is not possible and has many different complex layers but it was thought provoking. If our currency system were to be changed due to some outrageous technological advancement how would we as a people adapt? We never thought airplanes could fly or that we would be able to see someone while we spoke to them from across the world…
If technology advances enough to change our currency system it could restructure our entire DNA. Darwin’s theory of evolution indicates that we as humans adapt and develop according to the environment. Those who are able to adapt effectively survive; “survival of the fittest”.
According to FoxNews.com technology is actually headed in this direction. Employee Sean Darks, CEO of a surveillance equipment company had a chip embedded into his arm for security purposes. “The chips are the size of a grain of rice and a doctor embedded them in the forearm just under the surface of the skin” Darks said. “They work like an access card. There’s a reader outside the door; you walk up to the reader, put your arm under it, and it opens the door,” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184722,00.html#ixzz1nALHlf5h). They (the government and world leaders) will sell citizens on this eventually by saying that medical records can be kept here (no one will ever run into medical issues at hospitals anymore) and that it will be for our well-being. But what this could really do is limit us because they can keep all our bank account records on an implanted chip and decide to turn it on and off as they please, perhaps if you do not comply with their sentiments….Whether we like it or not money, or the concept of it is the root of all evil and will be until the end of time.