I know how often I use cash now. Hardly ever. I buy my Oyster card online, which enables me to tap in and tap out with swiftness at various ports around the city. I pay all my bills by direct debit which is like some kind of financial eclipse when, at the end of the month, the euphoria of seeing your paycheck in your account is darkened by despair as, moments later, it disappears before your eyes - as authorised by you.

I also use the self express stations at supermarkets and pay with my card. Any other purchase of consumer goods will certainly result in me popping in my PIN, that is, if I’m not in the comfort of my own home shopping online. It seems that not only have I eliminated the need to carry cash, I’ve also eliminated any opportunity to make small talk or have exchanges, polite or otherwise, with strangers.

I’ve been saying for years that one day we’re going to have a note or some change in our hands and not realise that will be the last time we’ll see physical money. No one believes me. But the no-cash revolution is coming - remember where you heard it.

This morning I received an invitation from my credit card company to try their new PayPass card. And what is that exactly? In short, it’s an Oyster card for bits and bobs, used to purchase goods in a pharmacy, cafe or petrol station. You pick up what you want, go to the check out and wave your PayPass over the thingie. A green light marks it’s been approved and you leave. The innovation doesn’t stop there either - PayPass technology will soon be fitted onto a keyring or a mobile phone. I just got used to Chip and Pin.

The credit card company has described it as a new “contactless” way to pay. What a word - contactless. Is that the new selling feature? The ability to retreat further into your own individual world picking up where the iPod has left off. Is this how much we loathe each other?

The exchange of money is quite a social affair. From the early days of bartery, any exchange of currency be it sheep, shillings or sheckles requires some degree of conversation and human interaction. If we don’t need to exchange money, would we speak to each other at all?

And what will become of traditions like the tooth fairy? Will you wake up in the morning to find in place of your milk tooth, a USB stick to which you can electronically download the financial equivalent of a baby incisor to your PayPass. What will throw in a busker's hat? Chewing gum? Though I suspect some already do...

This is the beginning of the end for cash, people. And those are the words of HSBC's marketing department. The whole world is going to change, with more reliance on machines than ever. So don’t be surprised when instead of swanning on to the bus, scanning your Oyster card across the reader with such swiftness you don’t even pause to glance at the driver’s face, you actually take a second to look around and realise, with horror, that he’s actually a robot.