Dear future,
Don’t be surprised when I tell you what this machine does.
Let me describe it a little bit. It is a stand alone ticket machine deployed in dozens of metro stations of Taipei city. It’s in no way small - roughly less than human’s height, but larger in width. Sort of like a medium sized refrigerator, yeah.
What can it surprise me, or anyone? Since it is a ticket machine, it should be selling tickets or something like that. What’s there to surprise then? Oh, it must be so intelligent that it can help you with lots of things as a traveler right!? I know! There were something called information kiosks at your times! I saw it in the museum! I know that information is not so easy to access decades ago, so a machine as an access point can really help! I got it, right? I do know a lot of ancient stuffs …
You said. I imagine.
But, I am afraid not. On the contrary, I am going to tell you what it exactly does - the one thing and the only one thing it does.
That is, topping up your Easy Card (Taipei MRT payment card). It only does this.
Furthermore, for this specific kind of ticket machine, it only allows you to top up ONE NOTE only. If you want to add more money into your card, you’ll have to do it twice - that is,
Put Easy Card on the designated area -> insert one note into it -> wait for note verification -> press NEXT -> wait for topping up to process -> OK. you can take away the card now.
All these trouble just for adding $3 or $30 (NT100/1000) to your card. Not to mention that I believe that pressing NEXT is totally a redundant process (if it’s only gonna process ONE note, why does it need me to confirm NEXT?)
A machine of this size in your time, I believe, should be capable of like navigating itself to explore a far away PLANET on its own. But for this dumb machine in 2018 Taipei, it puts one note worth of money into your card to make your trip more convenient! Woohoo
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願你在未來有個美好的一天!
此致,未來。
#dearfuture
photo credit - deanliu
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