I woke up this morning while dreaming. This has been happening more frequently lately, and for the most part I’m enjoying these episodes. Sometimes, though, there’s something strange and troubling in those dreams.
Today as I was waking I was dreaming that I was in line to pay for coffee at a local Peet’s. The cashier smiled at me and called me by my full name before I had even handed her a credit card or used my phone to pay with Apple Pay. Before I could say anything, she smiled and said, “You’re probably wonderi;g how I know your name. Well, Peet’s has installed a device that scans your wallet and devices for anything that has an NFC chip and it finds your name and puts it on my screen. I hope this doesn’t creep you out.”
I’m not sure this is possible with NFC (now I feel like I need to do some research) but it did creep me out a little. I have no idea how the seeds of these dreams take root, but it felt like I was getting a nocturnal warning about the need to be vigilant about privacy.