"Will that be cash or charge today?" "No, today, I'll pay with my finger."

"In the last 100 years we have moved away from using checks, dollars, or coins to pay for goods. Each day people use debit and credit cards to make purchases from store and on the Internet. It has been suggested that in the not so far future we may use anatomical means to make secure purchases. This means a computer may scan your eye, fingerprints, voice, use some other method of dertermining your identity. This means you will never carry a wallet or purse again. Your salary will be sent to your bank electonicly and purchases will be made by simply waving your hand at wall.What do you think about this method of purchasing goods?"

I'm interested to see this advancement of technology. I'm not the least bit offended by the scanning of my eye or the scanning of my fingertip paying for my groceries. I'm excited about it actually. I believe we're close to something like that. My paychecks are direct deposited, so I never even receive a paper check or even a stub. And I never use cash, I always use my debit card. It wouldn't be that big of a step to simply scan my hand. It seems like it would make it that much more difficult for someone to steal money, and it would probably be quicker to check out at the register. I'm curious about where reciepts would go. Certainly with this type of technology we can develop some way to stop using paper and keep the trees!

I think it does bring up some good questions, though. What if I want to send someone to buy something for me, but I want to pay for it? I can't very well just let him borrow my finger. What if I want to lend a friend some of my money? Would we still have gift cards, or would they be completely eliminated? (That would be a bummer, I'm horrible at gift shopping.) Can you have more than one bank account with just one finger? How would we specify which account we want debited? There are definitely some bumps in the road to check-less, credit/debit-less, cash-less pay. I'll be first to try if it ever happens, though.