It is simple but ingenious, easily accessible -- and it gives people what they want without fuss or argument. It is, in short, one of the great conveniences of modern technology: the ATM, or automated-teller machine.
Only a few years ago, getting your hands on real money meant waiting in line at your (and only your) bank, or knowing the corner shopkeeper well enough to cash a personal check. The ATM changed all that, using a fusion of computer chips, telepad, phone line and dispensing mechanism to transform the way people access their money. Armed with only a plastic card and a functioning index finger, a customer can now obtain cash as easily in Tierra del Fuego as in downtown Tulsa.
Yet the ATM's great convenience and relatively humble working should not obscure the fact that it is in the vanguard of the information age, no less than the Internet, interactive TV or video teleconferencing. By applying technology to people's everyday needs, it epitomizes what Yale University computer scientist David Gelertner calls ``the true potential of the information superhighway: making everyday life for most people somewhat easier and less irritating.''
To that end, the new age of technology is already well launched, fueled by a long stream of techno-driven goods and services that is flooding the consumer marketplace to change the ways people live and work. So advanced is this transformation that even some of the most recent innovations are already taken for granted. The heart of the cyberrevolution remains, of course, the personal computer. Cheaper, faster, more versatile and easier-to-use PCs are infiltrating the social fabric. Software like Mosaic and Netscape has made navigating the Internet a lot less daunting for average citizens, who are rushing to buy modems and sign up for online services.
The modern, well-wired home already offers its occupants a head-spinning array of computer-borne activities. Children use CD-ROMS to play games and hear music. Teenagers flock to online services not only to ``chat'' but also to reach primary schoolwork sources, such as images of original works of art, documents prepared by experts, even possible exchanges of E-mail with the experts themselves. Adults have access to instant stock-market quotes, to online versions of magazines, from Ad Week to Women's Wear Daily, and to a host of ``clubs,'' where people gather to discuss astronomy, genealogy or bicycling.
Using online programs and the Internet's increasingly crowded World Wide Web, one can find not just information about products and services but help in bringing the transactions to a conclusion as well. Real estate agents are discovering online as an efficient way to sell properties. The Homes and Land Publishing Corp.'s Website lists homes nationwide -- by state, then by city (there are 110 communities under the Michigan heading alone). The Austin Real Estate Connection in Texas gives information on the full range of home-buying services, from photographs of the houses to the names of builders and mortgage lenders, lawyers and title companies. Using a search program, prospective buyers can enter preferences, such as price range, style, school district and number of bedrooms, and thus narrow the field to homes that meet those criteria.