Simply papering over the cracks of the inevitable digital future

We live in a curious time of in-between, an interregnum in which we have left many of the demands of the past behind but have not yet embraced the ways of the future. Which is a shame, since the future is so much easier, quicker and more efficient. For example, our payment system is finally leaving behind the old plastic card technology that demanded a signature on a piece of paper, which then had details of the transaction imprinted through a so-called zip-zap machine.