As part of Verge Hack Week, weve invited great minds from around Vox Media to contribute their thoughts on the future of everything — from food to fashion to the written word. The future of the restaurant industry — if all the startups and venture firms have their way — will be devoid of inefficiencies. A swath of apps and sites — OpenTable, SeatMe, City Eats, Resy, Zurvu, and more — are battling for dominance in for paid and unpaid reservations with a good deal of venture money on the line. Priceline-owned OpenTable is getting into the payment game, and serious investors are also backing nascent payment apps, including Cover and Settle.