Seems that there’s more than a few people worried about chips implanted under our skin that would allow us to make purchases (there’s a catchier way to put that but I can’t recall it).
But I don’t see why anyone would want one to begin with? Sure, you wouldn’t forget it or lose it, but how often does that happen? Credit cards are too convenient as it is if you ask me. I think that having to get an operation to use a credit card would be a tough sale.
If we’re going to get all high tech, how about a retinal scan? No operation, or risk of host rejection required.
Well, an implant is much more difficult to steal or lose. Also you save a few seconds because you don’t have to dig around for it in your purse. Whether the convenience and security is worth the price, I’m not sure at all.
Retinal scanners are expensive, complex and time-consuming to use. A chip reader is much cheaper and faster. You can also read a chip from a few feet away so you can program your car or home to unlock when you approach, for example. Unfortunately, it also means that someone can, for example, install one by a sidewalk and get a list of people who walked by. There are probably encryption and other technical fixes to make this difficult, but the possibility is there.
They are not just for credit card purchases! These things would contain all of your information: Date of Birth, medical records, criminal background, SSN, hieght weight etc, finger print data, DNA genotype, current GPS location, EVERYTHING.
Get pulled over? “Chip please!” (no more license registration and “prrof” of insurance. It is all in the chip)
Get arrested? Info added to chip.
Forget to pay a bill? Credit flag added to chip.
Child lost? “Where do you live son? You don’t know? Well let’s get the police to scan your chip and find out your NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, PARENT’S PHONE NUMBER!”
Your example about making purchases with ‘the chip’ is only one of the MANY uses they propose for it.
Then it starts to scare the tinfoil helmet community because it could theoretically be used to track us from satelite. “Oh no, your child was kidnapped” or “You lost your child at the mall?”- Lets find out the exact Lat. and Long. and go get her!
Besides that though, do we really want ALL that information to be so easily obtained? THIS is the great debate. Grocery shopping with ‘the chip’ is barely even an issue. People are worried about the potential threat to privacy and Big Brother.
Personally I can see both the very good and the bad sides of having one.
Shhh! Don’t you know? The chips, which are being made by the U.N. New World Order, likely in Communist China, will be secretly implanted in everyone one night, by men from the black helicopters, and it’s really the “Mark of the Beast.” Revelation, 13: 16-17:
"16 and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, on in their foreheads:
17 and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark of the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
And then the UN will have complete control over the economy, and keep the US from ever going back on the gold standard, and will use this diabolical “credit” to undermine the economy! It’s all coming together now…
A buddy punching me on the arm
Flexing a little too hard
A little too much playing around with those EM pulse generators everybody has in their basement…
But if retinal scanners are expensive, what about the chips? AFAIK there still pretty experimental. They’d have to find a cheap way to implant something under millions of people’s skin. They’d also have to deal with FDA approval I bet. The possibility of lawsuits over host rejection, or health risks due to bad design are tremendous.
Maybe I’m a little out of the loop here, but could they really fit a global positioning unit inside a little microchip?
That is why they are not out yet. MANY hurdles to overcome! Right now they are just an idea. MIT has developed similar things that do not get implanted into the sking. It is a little device that would be quite similar, though. The unit was integrated into the person’s shoes I think. And as the person walked, the kinetic forces would keep the unit charged. Anything the person touched could be communicated with. Somehow the device used the person as a medium to transmit information. You could shop and do most of the things that you could with the chip, just by pressing your hand to something. One neat idea they suggested was that the unit could hold all the information of your business contacts. Just by shaking someone’s hand, all their professional info (business address, phone, fax, cell, relative personal info etc) would be transferred to the unit. No more business cards they say. Also, this unit comes with a little eye piece that gives the wearer a HUD display constantly. Ever forget an important person’s name? All you would have to do is shake their hand and all the info you need would pop up on your screen. Pretty cool shit, but FAR AWAY from being practical in the present.
Well, actually I would not be suprised if they could. But the idea is that by the time all this chip garbage became a reality, they would definitely be able to put a GPS transceiver into a small microchip. Such technology would probably be small potatoes by that time.
BTW, all that shaking hand crap I was talking about:
The person whose hand you shake would have to have one of the units on his person as well. By shaking hands, the two units would communicate and trade data.
…just in case I confused anyone.
What’s currently available is much like the foil anti-theft tags on consumer items. It doesn’t do anything itself, but it reflects a particular set of frequencies at another particular set of frequencies: encoded in the reflected set is a “serial number” of sorts. The chip doesn’t need batteries or power because it doesn’t really do anything itself; another source has to give off the original set of signals and listen for the reflected set. How far away the reflected signals can be detected depends heavily on the detecton equipment used. For pets, vets have a little hand-held thing that has to be within a few inches.
Many expensive items are said to have them concealed (great works of art and the like) and even a few rich people already had them implanted in their bodies (it didn’t say where) to hopefully foil potential kidnapping/ransom plots. Detecton by satellite was said to be iffy but for a helicopter flying over a large city, detection is said to be pretty easy.
And anyway, you can already get them for your pet. In some cities hazardous animals such as bears and big cats are required to have them. - MC