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A Computer Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page M S BE aG F 94 COMPUTER THE PROFESSION Currently, it has taken the form of an eBook reader with an easy-to-read display. However, even when we leverage an innovative distribution system using wireless technology, presenting static books falls short of employing the computer to full advantage. With larger displays, fiexible and lightweight units, and full color we may see more dramatic changes. Will eInk replace printed paper in all domains or be the savior of traditional newspapers? If the technology matures the consequences will be dramatic for many industries. But this particular if entails speculation. Instead of focusing on possible advances in new technologies, we observe that change may also come based on ingredients that have been present for some time. Email and TCP/ IP provide good examples. It took many years from when the technology and standards emerged to when they saturated society and made a major impact. POS The technology that provides our case study here is the simple point-of-sale (POS) terminal. This technology was not developed to change the world, but simply to make monetary transactions easier. By using a credit or cash card, the terminal lets us perform an alldigital transaction with no cash involved. The advantages of this are so substantial that in many countries a large percentage of all monetary transactions are digital, based on POS terminals or using credit cards over the Internet. Data is captured automatically and can be transferred at almost no cost. At the same time, this information can be used directly for inventory Continued from page 96 control, accounting, and statistics. In my home country, Norway, people can avoid cash altogether, because all shops, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, cabs, and many buses allow digital payment. Most banks offer free service, and cards are used also for very small amounts. Even the pizza boy brings along a wireless POS terminal. Looking at value, 98 percent of all monetary transactions in Norway are digital. In Stockholm, people can even pay their bus fare by cell phone. Small countries have an advantage and can often offer high dissemination numbers for new technologies. National standards are easier to implement in a small country than in a large one. Fewer installations make it easier to update equipment, while a homogeneous population makes it Small countries have an advantage and can often offer high dissemination numbers for new technologies. simpler for people to accept new services. However, larger countries are following suit in the digital economy. A few years ago travelers needed cash when in cities such as Rome and Madrid. Today nearly all businesses accept a card. CASHfiFREE SOCIETY When only a small fraction of transactions are in cash an interesting question arises: Can we remove cash altogether? Money, in the form of coins, has been in use for nearly three thousand years. Paper bills have been used in Europe for nearly four hundred years, and much longer than that in China. It seems dramatic to convert to a true digital economy. There are, however, many advantages to going digital. Great savings can be achieved for businesses if we avoid storing, counting, handling, and transporting cash. The advantages for society as a whole may be even greater, especially if cash is removed altogether. As we learn from the news every day, cash encourages crime. The public may experience that a wallet is stolen from a pocket, or more severely, become the victim of armed robbery. Institutions such as banks and security transports must spend signiflcant resources to thwart criminals and sometimes still fail to deter them. Death and both physical and psychological injuries can be the consequences of holding all this “bait” in the form of cash. It would be naive to expect crime to disappear in a digital economy. Credit card fraud is already a daily occurrence. However, today it is stimulated by the possibility of retrieving the stolen money in cash from ATMs. Without cash it will be much easier to follow the transactions. We can, however, realistically hope to make being a criminal less convenient. A monetary economy is much more effective than bartering. People understood this thousands of years ago. It was easier then to sell a horse for money that could be spent freely than to trade it for a cow and some chickens on the side. The seller might not need chickens, or the potential horse buyer might not have a cow for sale. What we could expect by going digital is to enjoy the advantages of the monetary system without being threatened by criminals. The pusher down the street, for example, would have problems if customers no longer had anonymous cash handy for their transactions. They would be forced to accept gold, PCs, TVs, and refrigerators instead, thereby confronting all the hassles of a barter economy. DIGITAL CRIME Criminals can also go digital, although this requires <strong>computing</strong> competence. Today, with improved information security systems, successful cybercrime implies a fairly high level of competence. Such skill can also be sold in the open economy A Computer Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page M S BE aG F
A Computer Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page M S BE aG F at lucrative prices, and digital criminals can be thwarted by digital police. Some tasks, such as detecting whitewashing, might even be performed automatically. Do we see big brother here? Cash is anonymous while digital money can be tracked. For ordinary lawabiding citizens this should not be considered a threat as long as good laws to protect public privacy remain in place. However, tax authorities now have a weapon against the black market economy. For example, it won’t be so easy to pay the carpenter, off-the-record, without cash. Some might view this as a disadvantage, but we will gain instead a more fair tax system and increased state income. Willing or not, we are moving slowly but smoothly into a cashfree society. Today the $100 bill is the highest denomination in circulation, with $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills no longer used. As inflation takes a percentage of the real value of the $100 bill every year, we will soon only have cash as small change. On the fiip side, it is interesting to note that the US still has a one-cent coin. In Norway, the lowest valued coin is now flfty øre or approximately nine cents, up from the one øre that was removed from circulation in 1972. The process toward a cash-free society will be accelerated when the real costs of using cash are placed on the individual cash-paying customer, not shared among all customers. The growth of true Internet banks, where all transactions are digital, poses a severe threat to banks that still have high cash handling costs. It might also become more awkward to use cash. Many countries now require a national bank notiflcation whenever large sums are withdrawn or deposited as cash. We could go further, perhaps placing a risk tax on the use of cash to compensate for public injury and other expenses that follow from robberies. RISK Computing professionals must be concerned about the risk of getting into a situation where people no longer have cash as a backup. Truthfully, though, we have already reached this stage. Look into your wallet and count the bills. Is that amount sufflcient for food, rent, gas, and all other expenses? For how long? While there have been incidents of credit card and banking system hacking, computer security is steadily improving. As with cars, safety only became an issue late in the technology’s development. First we had to solve the “important” problems: getting the systems to run, making their services affordable, adding core functionality, and offering a commercially aesthetic design. Most likely, one of the small countries will flrst take the leap toward an all-digital economy. As I have noted, it is easier to get the necessary infrastructure in place. This may be done to issue cash cards to persons who do not qualify for commercial banking services, or to implement improved ID systems and other safeguards. It is also easier to remove cash from a currency in use on a national level only, unlike the dollar and euro, which already have widespread acceptance. Given that there are clear advantages to being the flrst country to go all digi- IEEE THE #1 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE! tal, we can expect this development to happen sooner rather than later. Crimes will be averted, and national industry and service providers will have a home market for technologies that might be in widespread use in just a few years. This transition to a digital economy can be performed in measured steps, starting with removing the high-denomination bills and placing cash-handling costs on the shoulders of cash-paying customers. This process could persist until the economy is fully digital, or banks might see a beneflt in keeping smalldenomination bills and coins in circulation. As <strong>computing</strong> professionals, we are privileged to take part in these dramatic historic developments. Ultimately, we should consider it an improvement if bandits replace guns with keyboards—there will at least be fewer injuries. Kai A. Olsen is a professor at Molde College and the University of Bergen, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Contact him at _______________ Kai.Olsen@himolde.no. Editor: Neville Holmes, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Tasmania; neville.holmes@utas.edu.au ________________ Selected CS articles and columns are available for free at ____ http:// _________________ ComputingNow.computer.org. IEEE Intelligent Systems delivers the latest peer-reviewed research on all aspects of artificial intelligence, focusing on practical, fielded applications. Contributors include leading experts in Visit us on the Web at www.computer.org/intelligent APRIL 2010 A Computer Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page M S BE aG F 95
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