my iphone, a critical piece of my shitfrastructure, has broken, and I have to care about it

On three recent air travel legs, going Germany-England-Portugal-Brazil, there were around three cases of needing mobile internet access at the airport, to fulfil requirements before being allowed to fly.

If I had been really thorough at preparing for all government requirements beforehand, perhaps I would not have needed mobile data and device at the airport, but I'm not sure.  The chance of somehow being not allowed to fly, having turned up without mobile data (roaming) and a device, seemed high.

To board towards England, I had to do a government form called "Passenger Locator Form".  I hadn't heard of this before I got to MUC, but I was not allowed to board without it.  To get it, I had to order a test for my second day in England, and put the reference number from that into my Passenger Locator Form.  That was another chunk of admin.  You need a payments card to pay for the second-day test.  All the shitfrastructure requires all of the other shitfrastructure; it is impossible to do without any of it.  I estimate that I had to enter today's date a dozen times while doing my Passenger Locator Form, and each time, I had to select the day from a drop-down list (scrolly on iphone), and then I had to select the month, from a drop-down list (scrolly on iphone), and then I had to select the year, from a list (scrolly on iphone).  I think the reference number was then enough to board.

Portugal was okay, I think, from memory.  The airport lounge, service already paid for in advance as part of business class ticket, refused to serve me food unless I used a smart device with camera, web browser, and internet access, to access their menu via the URL in their QR code.

Brazil had its own government form.  This wasn't as bad as the British one, but you had to have QR showing on a device screen at the boarding gate.  Device mandatory?  You also had to have a test at the airport, results in around 15 minutes, delivered by email.  You better have that email account working on that smartphone with that data roaming.  Shitfrastructure element working with shitfrastructure element working with shitfrastructure element, and in this case it did happen to work, but it could easily not have, and you don't have a choice any more, whether to have any of these shitfrastructure elements.  You have your email address and your apple/google smartphone and your data roaming and your payment card, all of them, or you can't get your test results, and you can't get your government entry document QR code, and you can't travel.

Depending on how you count, that's four: UK entry, UK second-day test booking, Brazil entry, Brazil airport pre-flight test.

Today my iphone broke.  The charging has been glitchy for a while, but today it was dead, and connecting a charger sometimes brings up a little nearly-empty symbol, but I can't switch it on, even after leaving a charger connected for a while.

Normally I wouldn't care.  I'd lament, again, my failure to back up my own photos from this device, be glad that contacts and calendar are synced, briefly consider what apps were on there, and queue it up for putting in that drawer of broken phones to maybe process later, when I work out how to rescue data off them.  I do lose access to 4 bank accounts, 3 personal and one business, by losing this phone.  I guess I let my guard down for a while, with regard to phone-dependence.  For all bank authentications I now insist on separate, standalone, bank-provided devices.  That means 4 visits to banks over a fairly large geographic range to sort out access, and various administrative tasks I can't accomplish in the mean-time.  Never mind.  I still wouldn't have cared that much.

But in this new world, still only around a year old, I have to care about the broken iphone.  I need at least an apple or android smartphone, with working data roaming, configured for access to a working email address, and working payment cards, to be able to travel.  I basically need the full shitfrastructure ensemble, all tuned up and harmonising with each other, to travel.  This is a factual statement based on recent travel experience.  Whether anyone, including me, thinks this is acceptable, is irrelevant; it's the current reality.