Passwords are like a time machine to the past

Have you been thinking of passwords lately? All the space that was once used for multiplication tables and George Michael song lyrics and all my friends’ phone numbers and the difference between capybaras and tapirs has been overtaken by my PAN card number, my Gmail password, my bank customer ID, my bank passwords that change every three months, the pin to my phone, my Amazon password. What kind of person loses something that important?” Having stared in total blankness at many secret questions supposed to help me remember my password, I fully sympathise with Thomas. You don’t really really know how you will feel about having grey hair or whether you will be the person who begins a sentence with “no daughter of mine…” or someone who says to themselves, “I accept the possibility of going to jail this year.” Trying to imagine how you will feel in the future is much like trying to feel hungry a second after a large meal. Yet we can approach the future with wisdom from Stefan Thomas, the German engineer who says he has accepted his Schrodinger’s bitcoin situation, who says “time heals all wounds”.