PHONE NUMBERS OR BAR-CODES?

Wow, I wrote the main idea of this rant in 2012. Can you believe it came true? 

I had a reason recently to be sat in the waiting room of my local doctors, where I had time to reflect upon my own realisation of what I had thought would happen, had in fact, just happened. Upon entering the surgery, where I am not registered, I was asked for my phone number, before my name.

With the invention of the Smart Phone becoming more and more ‘useful’ and ‘needy’ and with everything connected to everything else just by our phone numbers, how long will it be before we are recognised only by a set of 11 digits?

“Hey, there goes 07815******, did you see his hair?”

(Remember written in 2012) How long till the first question on any form we fill in, obviously on-line and more probably done on a smart phone, will be ‘what is your number?’ rather than asking your name?

Now in 2021, we are constantly asked for our email, phone number, user name and then, actual name, as if it actually matters. In the plot of my new book, I have given letters to name the characters. The future awaits.