It’s day 48 of being in our 15 minute smart city.
One thing I’m absolutely loving is the convenience of living in a cashless society.
A pillar of this city is running on digital currency, cash is no longer king here, which makes transactions so much easier and safer.
Cash was used for so much illegal activity, like selling drugs, terr0rîst activities, or paying for immoral sex acts. In our society, without cash we’re much safer. Now evil doers can no longer fund their evil doings. Without cash around all financial activity is tracked and goes into a large database. So if someone is up to no good, or if someone is guilty of posting racist rhetoric online, their bank accounts will be shutdown or limited. It’s all for the greater good.
On my lunch break, when I walk into the McDonald’s to grab my pumpkin spice grasshopper milk shake I just swipe my palm which charges a payment to my CBDC account. My palm print is in a national registry, every year I’m required to go to the federal bank and get my palm print scanned and updated. I’m charged a $50 dollar yearly hand registration fee, but it’s a small price to pay to have life be this much easier.
I hear, in a 15 minute city pilot that’s running in Denver, that they are testing out new technology that allows for your pupil to be scanned upon entering an establishment. You’re not given a bill at a restaurant, or forced to deal with the inconvenience of doing a self checkout at the grocery store anymore, the sensors that scan your pupil when you enter will also scan all of the barcodes of anything you purchase so when you walk out a bill will automatically be charged to your person. Can’t wait for that to be available here! How convenient.
My next door neighbor is someone I follow online. I reported him to government officials because we get rewarded with a coackroach milk latte at Starbucks for every person we turn in who we suspect is starting to turn on the government or who shows signs of wanting to leave the 15 minute city to go back to living the old way. I heard from another neighbor that Tim, the man that I turned in, his bank account and palm print has been frozen. This has caused his social credit score to tank, which means he can’t even buy a flight out of here since there’s no way to leave the city by foot or by vehicle. The borders are heavily guarded by police presence. Rumor has it that Tim has been shuttled off to a camp on the outskirts of town where they send troubled city members to rethink about what they’ve done. It’s my understanding when you come back from the camp, you are all in on 15 minute city life. You have a new zest for living this way.
I don’t know how you could ever question this way of living though. The convenience! The safety! The freedom! I love my smart city.