Escape Artist

This RFID (radio frequency identification) thing has got me a little spooked now. When I first started reading about it, I thought it was an invasion of privacy and more actions designed to take away more of our civil rights.

Among the things I read were indications that these chips could eventually be implanted into human bodies. Well when I read that my thought was this is the stuff science fiction is made of.. and started putting together a novel plot. I figured there were more people more paranoid than I am and was feeling pretty much superior.

Then I was sort of channel surfing and stopped on one of those late night talk shows (that I normally don't watch). What caught my attention was the guest this guy had on who had one of these RFID chips implanted into himself. He was all for these implants, said how being hooked up to the computers at his office opened doors for him, unlocked things, greeted him by name as he entered etc. He had taken things a bit farther as well, he has some kind of electrons injected into his system that hooked him up to computers as well. His premise was that eventually people would be able to access computers by just thinking, and that people would be able to communicate brain to brain with this technology.

You need to understand that it takes the same mentality to be a good cop as it does to be a good criminal. If it did not take the same mentality, the cops would never catch the good crooks. I say this in defense of where my mind went with this new input.

If I was say, a bank robber, in this future of tracking people via their implanted chips, I would kidnap someone who had access to all the target banks doors and vaults, force him through all the doors I needed, and have a much easier time getting into the goodies I was intent on making off with.

Even if they had systems to grab all the information on MY chip (assuming I was so unlucky as to have one) I am relatively sure I would be able to find a way to jam my signals to foil anyone being able to identify me.. or worse yet, I could jam mine, steal someone eles' chip (the scenario for that obviously would include harming the poor sap who I wanted to pin things on.. digging around in his/her flesh for their chip) and carry it in my pocket so that when two people went past the sensors, they picked up two chips. Now if some of the more sensitive areas needed both to be cleared for passage, then my victim would have to be another high mucky muck of the same financial institution.

Then I had an even worse thought about RFID. Lets say that upon induction (voluntary or in-voluntary) into the military, they planted these chips in all the soldiers, and broadcast instructions to jam whatever brain waves give us our flight instincts in danger.. so that they could send them off to war and know they would never retreat? Or if at birth one was mandated to have a chip installed (I am quite sure it would be under the guise of protecting the children from abduction or some other "for the greater good" scenario) and they had the technology to short circuit any free radical ideas about servitude, civil disobedience or other things, like free speech?

I visualize such a world as a bunch of walking zombies with no free thought, no free speech, no freedom of movement and certainly no free will. If you got out of line, zap you with a little bit of nationalist rhetoric, or just plain fry the part of the brain that is having such thoughts with an electrical charge.

The hero or heroine of a science fiction book with this outline would have to be someone who had learned how to block all the signals, or with great pain and sacrifice dug their chip out of their own body.. (I am not sure how one would get rid of the thousands of little electrons injected into the system without causing instant death.)

I figure another way the administration would work on the conscious of Americans would be to start with these kinds of tracking devices on people like convicted sex offenders, murderers and then spread to political dissidents (labeled or wrongly accused of crimes) under the auspice and even the sanction of groups who already want to make sure no sex offenders are near their schools and parks.

Don't get me wrong, I believe repeat sexual offenders should not be living close to temptation. I just don't think it wise to put into motion laws that will begin the tracking and electronic surveillance of the masses.

I can hear someone thinking as they read this, "this would never happen in America" but then, there were German's who did not believe Hitler would ever rule. When I was young and idealistic, I never thought I would see the day when our civil rights were taken from us as they are today. The government can tap your phone, gain access to your finances, your e-mail and much more.

To date I do not believe I am of any interest to the powers that be. I am not important enough to justify any extreme measures to track me, or invade my privacy to any great degree. That does not mean that I do not think that eventually, even the least important of us will be spared this violation of our rights. With this in mind, even though in my last post I mentioned this, you might want to check out www.poundprivacy.org as one small step towards maintaining your right to privacy.

Another thought has just struck me, if brain to brain transmissions became the norm... what would stop them tracking your very thoughts? Spooky stuff.