This is wildly OT, but I just thought, given the advocacy nature of a number of monks (qv tilly et al), that this might be of interest. <pAn article on ZDNet (that I can't get to link right) discusses the idea of implanatable ID chips. A poll at the bottom of the says that 70%(!) are opposed to using this.

While it is abusable, I would say that the following are rather neat uses:

  1. Identity theft more difficult (though never impossible)
  2. Identity verification a snap
  3. Tracking kidnapped victims more easily
  4. Tracking criminals made easy
  5. Heck, tracking people lost in the mountains made easy
  6. No more ID badges at work
  7. Medical information immediately available to first responders
And the article had more neat uses. Personally, as a Wiccan and a liberal, I can see many of the potential abuses of this type of system. But, McCarthyism didn't have an implantable identity card, and neither did Nazism. They did just fine in terms of suppressing their populace. This will not give rise to a 1984-type society, anymore than the explosion of the internet gave rise to utopia, 50% of purchases via the WWW, or any of the other stupid predictions from 5 years ago.

Just remember - for every futuristic novel that claims doom'n'gloom, I can point to ten that use the exact same technology, but it's a comparative paradise.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

In reply to (OT) Implantable ID chips by dragonchild

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