II is upon us ... the brave new world. Now, employees of Three Square Market in Wisconsin are voluntarily getting RFI microchips implanted between their thumbs and forefingers that identifies them as employees and allows them to swipe their hands to open doors and get soft drinks ... see: ABC Wbay Story.
This developmention is eerie. There is something very Ray Bradbury about this story ... the use of technology to strip people of their autonomy ... almost like making them part of the corporate machinery ... and, in a way, frightenly reminiscent of the tattoos placed by the Nazis to indelibly identify Jews during the holocaust. One could also liken it to branding cattle.
Three Square Market downplays the implications of this development ... saying that there is no GPS capability to this chip, it's voluntary, and it can be removed like a splinter. However, what is the next step? Such removal of our inalienable rights will surely not obey stop signs. This insideous trend seems to point to the eventual loss of our humanity. Elon Musk may be a bipolar Chicken Little ... but he does have a point -- we must be ever vigilant about giving over even the smallest part of our lives to the cyber world.
They likely will not give it back ...
5 comments:
Dogs and cattle have had these implznted for years now. They identify the animal when externally visible tags are lost. I'd worry more about someone reading your chip and then replicating it to assume your identity. I'd worry less about not being able to be anonymous.
Good point ...
To reinforce the point, i don't imagine any Jews were copying other people's tattoos to assume their identity.
Another good point ...
Brings to mind Ira Levin's "This Perfect Day."
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