(Note: Conditioning Americans to accept implantable
micro-chips. Hey, it will keep track of your kids, you won't have
to carry cash or credit cards, it's super convenient, and it will save
you from those evil boogie man terrorists! Don't worry, we in the
government won't track you, promise! Resist this insanity.)
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I, Chip?
Technology to Meld Chips into Humans Draws Closer
By Paul Eng [ABCNEWS.com]
Feb. 25 — It's 10 p.m. You may not know where your child is, but the chip
does.
The chip will also know if your child has fallen and needs immediate
help. Once paramedics arrive, the chip will also be able to tell the
rescue workers which drugs little Johnny or Janie is allergic to. At the
hospital, the chip will tell doctors his or her complete medical
history.
And of course, when you arrive to pick up your child, settling the
hospital bill with your health insurance policy will be a simple matter
of waving your own chip — the one embedded in your hand.
To some, this may sound far-fetched. But the technology for such chips is
no longer the stuff of science fiction. And it may soon offer many other
benefits besides locating lost children or elderly Alzheimer
patients.
"Down the line, it could be used [as] credit cards and such,"
says Chris Hables Gray, a professor of cultural studies of science and
technology at the University of Great Falls in Montana. "A lot of
people won't have to carry wallets anymore," he says. "What the
implications are [for this technology], in the long run, is
profound."
Indeed, some are already wondering what this sort of technology may do to
the sense of personal privacy and liberty.
"Any technology of this kind is easily abusive of personal
privacy," says Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. "If a kid is track-able, do you want other
people to be able to track your kid? It's a double-edged
sword."
Tiny Chips That Know Your Name
The research — and controversy — of embedding microchips isn't entirely
new. Back in 1998, Brian Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at Reading
University in London, implanted a chip into his arm as an experiment to
see if Warwick's computer could wirelessly track his whereabouts with the
university's building.
But Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. in Palm Beach, Fla., is one of the
latest to try and push the experiments beyond the realm of academic
research and into the hands — and bodies — of ordinary humans.
The company says it has recently applied to the Food and Drug
Administration for permission to begin testing its VeriChip device in
humans. About the size of a grain of rice, the microchip can be encoded
with bits of information and implanted in humans under a layer of skin.
When scanned by a nearby handheld reader, the embedded chip yields the
data — say an ID number that links to a computer database file containing
more detailed information.
Building a Built-in Digital Guardian
Keith Bolton, chief technology officer for ADS, says that VeriChip is
only the beginning.
According to Bolton, the company has already started experimenting with
combining the Verichip with another ADS product called Digital Angel.
That pager-sized device allows caregivers and parents to monitor the
health and whereabouts of seniors and children through the use of
space-based Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites.
"In the migration path, those two products that can be bundled
together," says Bolton. The resulting product would be about the
size of an American quarter coin and offer an improved way of monitoring
patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, for example.
Safety Against Terrorists?
And the interest in testing embedded chips has been steadily increasing —
especially since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Dr. Richard Seelig, a former surgeon but now a medical consultant for
ADS, became the first to embed a VeriChip in his arm and hip on Sept. 16.
He says his decision to become a willing guinea pig came when he saw
World Trade Center rescue workers scrawl information on their skin as an
identifying marker should they get hurt in the wreckage.
"There is a clear need for a more secure [form of]
identification," says Seelig. "This was another useful
application for VeriChip and to move the process along and [help]
evaluate the possibility, I had the chips inserted."
And Seelig isn't the only one who feels this way.
According to ADS' Bolton, about 50 people have already signed up with the
company to become part of the VeriChip experiments. Some volunteers, such
as the Jacobs family in Boca Raton, Fla., believe that the technology
will provide for a much needed additional security and safety.
"What it does for me is give me a peace of mind because it speaks
for you when you can't," says Leslie Jacobs, a journalist in Boca
Raton, Fla. Her 14-year old son, Derek, had first heard of the VeriChip
on a local newscast and had persuaded Leslie and her husband that this
new chip technology would be the wave of the future. And after looking
into the technology, she believes that her son was right. "I really
think this could help make the world safer in the future," she
says.
Chipping Blocks
But making the world safer or allowing missing children to be found
easily won't happen anytime soon. In addition to waiting for FDA approval
— a process that may take years — some experts point to many other
obstacles that would need to be cleared.
Most embedded chip designs, such as ADS's VeriChip, are so-called passive
chips which yield information only when scanned by a nearby reader. But
active chips — such as the proposed Digital Angel of the future — will
need to beam out information all the time. And that means designers will
have to develop some sort of power source that can provide a continuous
source of energy, yet be small enough to be embedded with the
chips.
Another additional hurdle, developing tiny GPS receiver chips that could
be embedded yet still be sensitive enough to receive signals from
thousands of miles out in space.
In addition to technical hurdles, many suspect that all sorts of legal
and privacy issues would have to be cleared as well.
Tien of the EFF is concerned that while embedded chip technology may be
beneficial in locating lost loved ones, he worries that it could be
easily abused. "Once this thing is in you, what's the guarantee that
not just anyone won't be able to track you?" asks Tien.
Tien is also concerned that the "benefits" of being able to
track people clandestinely may be forced upon others. "If it works
here — finding lost loved ones — so then we'll use it for released
prisoners and sex offenders," says Tien. "If the choice is
offered to a person to either stay in prison for another year or to go on
parole as long as they have this monitoring chip in them, then that's not
really much of a choice in my opinion," he says.
And while the EFF isn't openly condemning embedded chip technology,
"Our critique of proposed technology solutions — whether they be
chip implants or national ID cards — is that people will abuse
them," says Tien. "That's the fundamental issue of human
nature."
Crawling Toward a Race of Cyborgs?
Such qualms over privacy, whether real or overblown, are likely to keep
any mass "chipping" from happening in the near future. And that
may be the ultimate problem for the technology overall.
"It's a chicken and egg problem," says Paul Saffo, director of
the Institute for the Future, a research firm in Menlo Park, Calif.
"Hospitals and ambulances aren't going to invest in new detectors
[for these chips] until people start using the chip, but people aren't
going to use these chips until there's a wide availability of
readers," he says.
Still, Saffo and others don't doubt that one day we may become a race of
cyborgs — part man and part machine.
"We put all sorts of implants in [our bodies] today," says
Saffo. "If we have metal hips, it only makes sense to have chips in,
too."
-end article-
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-InfoWarz
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment
was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for
the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not
worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither had received his mark upon
their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived
and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
-Revelation 20:4