• Elders choosing between Wi-Fi or medication, because without Wi-Fi they can’t even refill the damn medication.

I read an article by James Corbett about attending an event in Malaysia and confronting the reality that everything he encountered there was tied to electronic services. He couldn’t use cash — even that country’s legal tender! — for something as simple as breakfast in a hotel or a cafe, nor could he summon a waiter in a restaurant (QR code needed for that!).

He called it PPaaS, playing off the trend begun by Software as a Service, which he acronymed from Public Participation as a Service. More and more of the world is only accessible as a monthly subscription to something that requires an electron device (and all the surveillance and permission-granting by governments and government-connected entities that are inescapably part of the package deal).

So, yes, you probably already need Wi-Fi or similar to access medical products in some parts of the world. Thankfully, ironically, the U.S. is a little late to the party in this regard. We still have “old fashioned” services and methods of exchange as legacy instruments in our economy. But the change is coming; look at Nashville or even places like the college town up the road from where I live in South Jersey. Better have your spy device on you at all times, and make sure all your monthly subscriptions are up-to-date . . .