Why talk of banking at all, though? One reason of drawing the analogy is because the way in which millions of individuals around the world obtain money from their bank accounts (and on happier occasions make deposits) by interacting with machines and software, is a real example of how an individual memory - the discrete memory of the contents of your bank account, the movements in and out of that account, the details of who you are and where you live - can reside securely and independently within a computer system. A network which everyday manages to cater for millions of individuals and countless billions of transactions throughout the world. It is worth reflecting on the extent to which we already accept the abstract representation of capital `value' through computer systems.

More pragmatically, bankers are hardly notorious for their interest in technology, per se, for flights of experimental fancy or for doing anything without a very good - and ultimately - profit-related reason. The explosion in the use of networked banking technology is a reflection of the fact that - within the context of the banking industry - not only might such a system serve a useful purpose, but that such a system can actually be built and made to function reliably. From the banks' perspective Automated Teller Machines (ATM) `work' because they reduce staffing costs, extend trading hours, and allow banks to reach a greater number of potential users.