My wife and I created a human with a text message
My wife and I recently had a baby boy and after getting over the realisation that we now have 3 children to keep alive, we set out on the expected chore of registering his birth. My expectation was that dealing with a government department was going to be a painful ordeal – but in reality, it was an efficient delight.
The hospital gave us a handout – which explained that birth certificates are now issued completely online. My expectation was that we would fill in a glorified form, we would then print, scan and send in the mail. But to my surprise after entering in both mum and dads details we were sent a text message and we simply had to reply with ‘Yes’. A week later his birth certificate was in the mail.
We literally created the most important document in a person’s life - Medicare, passports, tax file numbers, driver’s licences can’t be obtained without a birth certificate and we did it with a simple ‘Yes’. Yet, relatively mundane agreements like borrowing a car or receiving a parcel needs a scribble on a piece of paper or screen.
A reply via a mobile phone at least guarantees that the holder of the phone agreed to a contract at a precise time and that they at least gained access through the phone’s security – which a signature scribble can’t provide. In more serious matters, a court order could also obtain the location of the phone user.
If a text message is good enough to create a legal human, then I believe a text message should be good enough for most commitments we make in society. The important aspect of a contract between parties is that they all know they have made a legally binding commitment – people have been conditioned to accept that the act of writing their signature is important – the challenge is to replicate this with an SMS reply.
For a while now, test drive and loans cars on drivible are agreed to via an SMS reply and in a few months, drivible will make it possible to agree to buy a car via text message. Not as important as having a baby, but still important.