brave new world, 1964 model

Thanks to a loan from a generous friend, I'm rereading the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. Not quite a private eye, McGee nonetheless follows clearly in the footsteps of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade before him; he's an ethical man, with a code of behavior which seems increasingly out of order with the too up-to-date, overly modernized world through which he makes his way. This passage, from a book published in 1964, has McGee mulling over the future, as seen from the vantage point of the early 60s. (I wonder sometimes what MacDonald- who died in 1986- would make of this brave new world... then think that it's probably just as well I'll never know.)

"...these are the last remaining years of chance. In the stainless nurseries of the future, the feds will work their way through all the squalling pinkness tattooing a combination tax number and credit number on one wrist, followed closely by the I.T. and T. team putting the permanent phone number, visaphone doubtless, on the other wrist. Die and your number goes back in the bank. It will be the first provable immortality the world has ever known."

-from The Deep Blue Good-by,
by John D. MacDonald
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