I handed my passport to the TSA agent. She told me to look at the camera, which I did. She handed the passport back and told me to have a nice day. The system matched my photo to the one on the passport, verified my identity, cross checked me against active flight reservations and no-fly lists, and approved me to fly. The whole thing took about two seconds.

Because of a delay in Cleveland, we had a tight connection in New York for the international flight. We walked, briskly, from our seats on one plane directly to the boarding line of the other. The gate agent didn’t ask for ID or a boarding pass. Look at the camera, see a green checkmark, welcome aboard. That’s it.

We arrived in London, and I was prepared for a wait. Our last visit was in 2015, when we spent the better part of an hour in line waiting to talk to a customs agent. There was no wait for the online kiosk. Passport scan, photo match. That’s it. We followed the signs for “nothing to declare” and found ourselves on the ground side looking for the train to London. We didn’t talk to a person, and barely stopped walking.

On my first trip to Europe in 1998, we changed money almost every day. These were pre-Euro days, and we visited 9 countries in 28 days, each with their own currency. This time, the only cash I spent on the entire trip was for the tip for the airport shuttle in Cleveland. More than that, though, I only pulled out my credit card twice. The rest of the trip was entirely tap-to-pay with the computer on my wrist.

We used the subway quite a bit. But there were no tokens or cards or passes or anything. We didn’t have to figure out zones or transfers or how much a week-long pass costs versus how much we planned to use it. At the turnstiles, we tapped our watches against the reader and rode the train. The system automatically figured out the best fare. On days where we rode a lot, it knew when we hit the daily cap, and stopped charging us. The entire system was friction-free.

On the way home from the airport, we stopped at a medical center so I could get a vaccination for the next trip. It was on the way home, and it saved me another trip. The receptionist needed my ID and credit card. She asked for my insurance card, even though all of that information is already in the system. She handed me a clipboard with a printed form on it that was identical to the one the same person had handed me in the same clinic eight days earlier. I needed the shot, so I filled out the form. Again.

When we stopped for lunch, the server gave me a printed receipt showing the charges, and I gave her a credit card. She took it away and came back with another receipt that I added a gratuity to with a pen and signed. Then, she had to enter it manually into the system so she could get paid for bringing us our food. We’re definitely not there yet.

But on the way home, we didn’t have to stop for toll booths. They figured out how much money we owed and automatically charged our account. So I guess there’s hope.