Brave New World

Yesterday I saw the guy in line before me at Starbucks pay for his coffee with his cell phone. I asked the cashier how does one pay for a cup of coffee using a cell phone and he explained that Starbucks has an app and you can key in your Starbucks gift cards; at checkout the card's barcode gets called up on the phone which can then be swiped with a hand-held scanner thereby deducting the amount from the value of the card.

I paid for my cup of tea using cash and walked to my seat feeling like Rip Van Winkle waking up 20 years into the future.

book: Brave New World • author: Aldous Huxley