things like an ultimate supercard have always been fantasies and only now can we see they are possible, likely and litterally just around the corner technology wise.

My thinking, however, is that the nature of our society is such that we will invent the supercard, oh sure... But then they will come out with supercard II and III, and of course, like with Microsoft, there's the beta patch you have to get or else.

I can see it now: some old man who flew like the first freakin plane ever walks into the airport his own son happens to work at and knows everyone there but when he swipes his card and the system is down, they wont even call him by name due to policy and security. "Sorry sir, the CARD says you are not even here right now."

"What's that you say, sonny? I have been coming here since before you were born! Lemme on the dang plane!"

Nope!

And then of course, whichever company puts out the uber card is going to have competition, in fighting and scandal. You could even get the Martha Stewart designer supercard but of course, that one wont work while she is in prison!

then there's the Red Sox supercard but when in NY airports, they dont take that card.

And so some supercards work at some airports and some dont. Not all countires agree and they have their own. Trying fitting the weird sized Euro one into your new walet!

And so the government takes over but as already so cleverly mentioned above, all the alien-worrying people finally figure out what was really so important about regime changing of the November 2004 voting date. Too late!

And then govt regulation comes in and the supercard is broken up. By now there's space travel too, which was never figured into the whole idea to begin with and so it does not work on Branson's planes and the Russians and Chinese still havent gotten it up and running properly in their countries.

IN the end, the supercard fails. we lose all our miles and this time, when you get a parking ticket, they delete all your medical details and remove all those hard earned miles you thought you were going to use to go see your son who works in some airport hub someplace. DO you wanna supersize that supercard, Sir?...
MM