h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I like your article, but I'm a system engineer so I have a lot of questions.

I've seen this service advertised as a future service here in California, but I don't know what market conditions will be required before it is actually offered here. Of course we won't get anything of the sort until they're sure they can make a lot of money from it and that you can't use it to share MP3s illegally, but what would be the other requirements for adoption?

Why would I want to funnel my soda purchase through my phone company? It's like having the gas man deliver milk. (I can't imagine who they'd have to call for a milk leak.)

Wouldn't I would have to fumble longer for my cell phone or PDA, which I don't yet have, than for change which I occasionally do have.

Finally a Pepsi costs four times what it is worth in a grocery store, and ten times what it is worth from a vending machine. I can just imagine the economic penalty for getting one this way. There is also the question of how much the ability to buy a Pepsi with my phone would cost me each month.

Would you have to pay more for a Pepsi purchased outside your home dialing area?

Have you noticed that the word "smart" when used to refer to electronic marvels means nearly the opposite of what you might expect. Like the American colloquialism "Bad" which unforeseeably means good. "smart" means "automatically stupid" These products are trying to automate not the delivery of the product but the decision of the consumer. In this case to buy a soda at an astronomical price.

When I was visiting England It seemed to me that you didn't have pay toilets, but this would be a natural market in the US (talk about fumbling!), particularly for frequent purchasers of Pepsi.

I suppose you could have the parking meter automatically debit the account of the owner of record of the closest car. That would really be convenient.

I've only just seen this posting ... sorry ... please bear with me.

DMT

This IS an active conversation, any comments?

"Why would I want to funnel my soda purchase through my phone company?"

Why indeed? But people do already contrive to funnel all manner of transactions through credit card companies, such as bill paying or purchasing goods, when old-fashioned cash would suffice. Such 'convenience' is unwittingly funded by the consumer, not the vendor.

"It's like having the gas man deliver milk."

For record, I believe that 'British Gas' do 'everything but'. For a monthly fee, they will take care of one's utility requirements; water, electricity, gas, phone, internet. If something goes wrong with anything, one can phone up the BG hotline and someone comes 'round to fix it. It may not be everybody's cup of tea, but for old folks looking for peace of mind, it's a godsend.

"Wouldn't I would have to fumble longer for my cell phone or PDA, which I don't yet have, than for change which I occasionally do have."

With respect, I venture that your logic is flawed.

Clearly if you don't have and don't intend ever to have a phone, then you are not one of their target customers. However, the mobile (cell) phone operators are banking on the mobile (cell) phone becoming an essential accessory. It already seems in some places (HK, Gulf, UK) that those without cell-phone access are a minority. Cerainly, advocates of m-commerce beleive that there are or will be sufficient holders of mobile-phones to provide return on their investment. Whether that includes you or not is neither here nor there.

Moreover, you state that occasionally you have change, thus implying that more often than not, you don't. Since you are apparently a cash-user, does it not follow that someone who is an advocate (even the impressionable and the inadvertent) of the cashless society would be even less likely to have shrapnel in their pocket or purse?

Anyway, thus notwithstanding, I had hoped that the entry made it clear that we (some reluctantly, some full-speed-ahead) seem to be shuffling towards a cashless society.

"Finally a Pepsi costs four times what it is worth in a grocery store, and ten times what it is worth from a vending machine. I can just imagine the economic penalty for getting one this way."

Indeed. But people still pay the vending machine price don't they? I do not seek to condone or recommend m-commerce, but merely to explain the concept thereof.

"Have you noticed that the word 'smart' when used to refer to electronic marvels means nearly the opposite of what you might expect. Like the American colloquialism 'Bad' which unforeseeably means good. 'smart' means 'automatically stupid'"

Yes I have. For record, so you can see which side of the fence I'm on, I prefer cash, usually always drawn from the same ATM, so the bastards cannot track either me or my purchases. There are exceptions however, as a result of which I'm currently querying two shifty looking entries on my bank-statement!

Well, I guess I'll check in every six months or so. Since my last post we have acquired two cell phones one for my wife, and one for my son. Both of them are in "office-less" situations. My wife is a substitute teacher until the the state of California decides building schools while firing teachers doesn't make sense, and my son is commuter student because the cost of gas (petrol) to San Luis Obispo, California from Santa Maria, California is still - for the moment - exceeded by the cost of rent in San Luis Obispo. I still haven't got a cell phone yet because three of them would be more than we can afford with more future college students coming along and because I have a phone close at hand on my desk at work.

The service mentioned in the original post is, I believe, still not available in California which is odd. You would think that this sort of thing would be very popular here.

As for the cass-less society thing I guess the top part of our (American) society is cashless because cash is not cool and the bottom part is cashless because cash is not available. So we are pretty much there cashless-wise. I still can't buy a soda with my phone, though. Maybe I could use something else, like my shoe or my wallet.