I work in a large open space without any separation between each desk. The developers are very close to each other. It's impossible to focus more than 5 minutes in a row. The only way to get something done is to arrive very early or leave very late.
In my opinion, open spaces are bad for productivity. We're not factory workers. We need calm and intimacy to solve complex problems.
And, obviously, your phone can act as a contactless credit card -- but one with much better security because the phone has the ability to authenticate the user where the card doesn't, necessarily.
I don't think so. A smartcard is much more secure than a phone. In fact, I've worked on an NFC project where the phone was just a relay between the user and the SIM card. All the cryptographic operations were done on the card. The phone was just used as a user interface to enter the PIN code.
Before Xerox, five carbons were the maximum extension of anybody's ego.