Implanted Chips?

[Azalroth]

Ok so I was looking through my morning comics, yes I enjoy reading online comics, and I came across this post on Ctr+Alt+Del. I figured this would be a great topic for debat here as the discussion is of great interest to me.

 

Article

 

Read this above article and tell me what you think about the idea of Computer Chips being implated in you to use for ID.

 

Discuss.

[garsk]

well for all the good it could do, like located lost or stolen children, there is bad, the government would know where you are all time (i had to beat the left-wingers to that), which would make our world more like 1984. but on the other hand, if your kid gets kidnapped, that would free up a ton of money that you could use for something like a pool.

[supercanuk]

Well tracking devices have been used for a while, RFID chips on student cards in the states, Onstar in your SUV, the logical extension is of course in your body. It wouldn't take much, maybe even another terror act for governments to start wondering whether or not you have the right to personal autonomy. At the same time, maybe we will resist such heavy surveillance?

[garsk]

well for sexual criminal, i dont think it wouldnt be a bad idea. children, there is argument that we could locate them faster. but as you said, will the public be willing to get them. no. i dont know why we would. but then the government would spike the flu shots and get some mind control stuff into us, and then we will say yes.

[Azalroth]

Well tracking devices have been used for a while, RFID chips on student cards in the states, Onstar in your SUV, the logical extension is of course in your body. It wouldn't take much, maybe even another terror act for governments to start wondering whether or not you have the right to personal autonomy. At the same time, maybe we will resist such heavy surveillance?

How are we to resist? With Nano Technology coming up, as much as I'm excited about it, it will be a great possibility to have RFID's in everything, even the food we eat. If you have a cell phone with you then you can be tracked at anytime. I know my phone personally has a GPS device in it, I can turn it off but then I loose some of my signal.

 

We can already be tracked no matter what we do, even now as I post this I'm sure the government looks for keywords about things that they want to control...like "terrorist" attacks being planned, or the even the general opinion of the public about topics such as this. We all have computers, each one of them have unique MAC address' burned into the Network Interface Card, this is highly trackable even if you are protected through a firewall, whether hardware or software.

 

As for privacy, do we really have such a thing? The paper trail we leave everyday when we do transactions of any kind. They know our bank account information, how much we make, how much we owe, who we owe.

 

So I ask again, how can we resist such heavy surveillance? It's already happening and we haven't done anything yet.

[supercanuk]

The way to resist is open revolt. I'd make some violent suggestions but would be quickly flamed by pacisfists, who, well meaning, don't know how to resist. For the record, the Jews who fought back against the Nazi's in WW2 had a better chance of survival during that time, especially the ones who fought ghettoization of their communities. So allowing things to go "buisness as usual" is not the answer, fight back. Dont use a cell phone. Find other sources of transit. Use cash. Get a fake ID. I mean sure, you can't live like a normal individual, but if you want a greater level of privacy those are viable options. I'm not saying we should have to do any of this, but if you don't revolt, there are your options.

[Guest jsunC]

Obviously has it's ups and downs. It's not if this technology will come into effect, it's when. Eventually this will happen in some form or another, heck Onstar and cell phones are a start. And a random question, how come the chips that they put in dogs doesn't pass through their digestive system, making them poopoo it out.

[Azalroth]

The way to resist is open revolt. I'd make some violent suggestions but would be quickly flamed by pacisfists, who, well meaning, don't know how to resist. For the record, the Jews who fought back against the Nazi's in WW2 had a better chance of survival during that time, especially the ones who fought ghettoization of their communities. So allowing things to go "buisness as usual" is not the answer, fight back. Dont use a cell

Edited July 28, 2006 by Azalroth

[Lauren]

i think having a chip in me would be annoying. and wouldn't it set off metal detectors and stuff?

 

seperate question: why don't denatl fillings set off metal detectors at airports and stuff? or do they and i just don't know...

[Azalroth]

It all depends on what they use for parts in the chip. Fillings aren't made out of metal now a days, but I believe they are too small to be detected.

[cringleman]

Not to try to pull a dead thread out of its comfortable grave, but I'm on a newfound posting spree on this messageboard that I joined over a year ago.

 

You can get nonmetal fillings, now, but they're still usually gold or mercury amalgam; you were right, however, that it's simply not enough metal to set off a metal detector (just like the iron in your blood isn't).

 

I don't ever want government property permanently attached to me. I prefer owning all of my parts.

 

After I read Tim Buckley's post on CAD about this (yay CAD!), it got me to thinking about logical justifications for resisting (aside from this being one of the signs of the biblical apocalypse, if that's your thing). How about making ID theft worse?

 

Losing your wallet sucks, right now, but imagine losing your Infallible ID Implant. Suddenly you don't exist. Maybe biometrics will solve ID problems, but for a lot of reasons, they're just not catching on.

 

Plus, getting mugged for your credit card probably hurts a hell of a lot less than having a chip torn out of your skin (after, still, being mugged).

[supercanuk]

Not to try to pull a dead thread out of its comfortable grave, but I'm on a newfound posting spree on this messageboard that I joined over a year ago.

 

You can get nonmetal fillings, now, but they're still usually gold or mercury amalgam; you were right, however, that it's simply not enough metal to set off a metal detector (just like the iron in your blood isn't).

 

I don't ever want government property permanently attached to me. I prefer owning all of my parts.

 

After I read Tim Buckley's post on CAD about this (yay CAD!), it got me to thinking about logical justifications for resisting (aside from this being one of the signs of the biblical apocalypse, if that's your thing). How about making ID theft worse?

 

Losing your wallet sucks, right now, but imagine losing your Infallible ID Implant. Suddenly you don't exist. Maybe biometrics will solve ID problems, but for a lot of reasons, they're just not catching on.

 

Plus, getting mugged for your credit card probably hurts a hell of a lot less than having a chip torn out of your skin (after, still, being mugged).

Good post, and you're providing a good point as well, this ID chip has multiple danger's that probably won't be presented to the "consumer" at all when the PR campaign for this stuff starts to come. It may not be tommorrow, but im sure its comming.

[Moonlight_Graham]

down with chip implants! up with breast implants!

[cringleman]

It's coming, for sure.

 

Who really wants to carry around six or seven pieces of plastic. That's hard, man.

 

When the men in white coats (or blue uniforms, or black suits, or fluorescent pink shoes for all it matters) come knocking to stick one in you, tell them no. That's all we can do. Or let's all move to Tokelau, instead.

[Azalroth]

Another issue, which I thought of at the start, would be hacking. If these things are wireless and through satellites they are no infallible. This would NEVER reach PR campaigns thats for sure and I'm sure government already has this thread tagged for keeping an eye on. But I digress.

 

I mean if someone can hack into your cell phone to access phone records and videos that you may have on there then it can be done with a wireless implant that is inside your skin. Besides I'm sure the place they will likely end up putting it is inside your head. There's a whole different area of problems with that.

[garsk]

how about a little computer chip with your medical history? would that be a bad idea? you wouldnt have to carry a health card around and it could have your whole family's medical history. it might make the doctors lives a little bit easier.

[supercanuk]

But it depends what's on this chip. RFID technology? What if your whole family's history isn't exactly up-beat? Will you be able to get insurance? Will this information remain private? Is there any possibility of it being public? I'd say that these are scary realities that are all too possible.

[cringleman]

I sincerely doubt that there are plans to have the implanted chips networked to satellites, nor actually tracked via GPS (though a lot of people think that that would be awesome for finding missing persons).

 

As to the medical comment, my paranoia about having a chip that's implanted in you for ID purposes, so that you can't lose it, scares me. You can lose anything, it's just harder to fix the problem when something's harder to lose (the steps to replacing an implanted chip would undoubtedly be vastly more difficult than replacing, say, a MediCare card).

 

This is not to say that there isn't a great deal of merit to the idea of having ID made much more simple, but I disagree with the implant idea at a fundamental level, just personally.

[Azalroth]

Personally I find TOO many reasons NOT to have implanted chips to deny any possibility of having a implanted chip in me. I don't mind carrying around my identification and whatever else is in my wallet.

 

Huge Downside: Can't carry a condom in an implanted chip!

[Prometheon]

I dunno, I read that CAD bit a few weeks ago, and there a few replies that pretty mich summed up what I wanted to say. First of all, the uncynical part of me thinks it'd be a great idea, but sadly I think right now there are too many problems.

 

The hacking bit is really a nonissue, as the chips could send outgoing signals only or something, thus making remote hacking impossible. I think human error is the biggest problem. Someone on CAD said something like "Now, if someone screws up my driver's liscense registration, my name may be spelled wrong, or my birthday might be a year off. These are fixable. I don't want the pimply faced kid at the DMV accidentely labeling me a convicted sex offender." Of course, different computers would have different priveledges related to chip technology, but still.

 

I dunno. I still can't figure out where to stand on this.

[Hyphnip]

it's all wrong, thats all I have to say.