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United States Privacy

Former Health Secretary Pushes for VeriChip Implants 638

Posted by CowboyNeal from the getting-under-your-skin dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Tommy Thompson, the former Bush Health Secretary after implanting a chip into himself, is going to submit a proposal within the next 50 days to promote it for everyone in the USA. VeriChip spokesperson John Procter said 'virtually everyone could benefit from having a chip inserted.' Enjoy your assimilation in the land of the free, citizen."
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Former Health Secretary Pushes for VeriChip Implants More

Former Health Secretary Pushes for VeriChip Implants

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  • Medical Purposes Only (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DosBubba ( 766897 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:03PM (#13258194)
    Of course, VeriChips are for medical use only [findmellc.com].
    This will be introduced as optional and quickly become as voluntary as credit cards, drivers licenses, and cell phones. Sure, you can opt-out of these, but you will never be accepted at a job that requires them.
    • According to Procter, the chips can also be used for financial transactions.

    • Re:Medical Purposes Only (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Potor ( 658520 ) <farker1NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:27PM (#13258351) Journal
      This puts the consumer loyalty card thread into perspective, now, doesn't it?
    • This will be introduced as optional and quickly become as voluntary as credit cards, drivers licenses, and cell phones. Sure, you can opt-out of these, but you will never be accepted at a job that requires them.

      Now where have I heard that before?

      "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wis

    • Re:Medical Purposes Only (Score:5, Insightful)

      by canuck57 ( 662392 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:42PM (#13258433)

      As you point out:

      Sure, you can opt-out of these, but you will never be accepted at a job that requires them.

      We can add that a credit card is necessary to travel. Sooner or later this chip, or one like it will be required. Saying it is optional is kind of a misnomer if you want a life.

      I recently attended a "National Identity Card" presentation and the subject of implants was raised. I initially walked into the conference thinking it was a good idea. But after listening to the speakers it became quite clear this is about population control by government. Business will love it as they can profile you for insurance (all kinds), purchasing habits, travel patterns and target marketing.

      I walked out realizing liberty and freedom are in fact at risk from with-in.

      Lets realize the fact that 95% of the terrorists of 9/11 and more recent bombings in London had valid papers. They could also have had valid implants too. It is a myth these new technologies of tracking people are any more effective than a tried and relatively cheap passport. Techo hype companies don't like this fact and the population is getting marketing, and not reality message. Good security is about people keeping their eyes open.

      • Re:Medical Purposes Only (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Oculus Habent ( 562837 ) * <oculus.habent@gm ... Nom minus author> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @01:14PM (#13258598) Journal
        I see no reason that a chip like this couldn't be carried. Embed the chip into a card or an ID bracelet. Sure, then some people won't have their ID on them at all times, but you can save plenty of lives without tracking people.

      • Re:Medical Purposes Only (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Tim C ( 15259 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @02:27PM (#13258949)
        Lets realize the fact that 95% of the terrorists of 9/11 and more recent bombings in London had valid papers.

        As I understand it, the London bombers were British citizens. They didn't just have valid papers, but a cast-iron legal right to be in the country. No amount of ID can protect from a legal citizen with no record "suddenly" turning suicide bomber.

      • Re:Medical Purposes Only (Score:3, Interesting)

        by thewiz ( 24994 ) *
        Lets realize the fact that 95% of the terrorists of 9/11 and more recent bombings in London had valid papers. They could also have had valid implants too. It is a myth these new technologies of tracking people are any more effective than a tried and relatively cheap passport. Techo hype companies don't like this fact and the population is getting marketing, and not reality message. Good security is about people keeping their eyes open.

        You are absolutely right; good security IS about people keeping their eye
    • Back in the 40's, when they started requiring driving license, citizens argued against it. They said that ultimately it would lead to our government to impose IDs on all its citizens similar to the way that Hitler operated (hitler did not make changes overnight). This was esp. thought so with SSN being required. If the feds required DL and SSN, they would have a huge control. So the feds (dems and republicans) said that they would never ever take control in such a fashion. In particular, the idea of brandin
    • This will never make it out of a commitee. The religious fundis would immediately seize upon this as "the mark of the beast". It's dead even before being submitted.

      ~X~
    • Of course, VeriChips are for medical use only.

      And if that's what Tommy Thompson is going to sell it as, then here's my proposal to him.

      Any VeriChip enabling legislation has to come with an amendment to the US Constitution saying...

      a.) No person shall be required to have a VeriChip if they don't want one

      b.) Verichips may contain useful health background data, but they may not carry personally identifiable information. (Such as name, bday, SSN, et cetera.)

      If that occurs, and passes, you may possibly have my

  • Newsflash (Score:5, Insightful)

    by daveschroeder ( 516195 ) * on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:03PM (#13258195)
    Newsflash 1: Director[1] of company that makes RFID chips extols virtues of RFID chips!

    Newsflash 2: There is a revolving door between executive-level government and industry!

    Newsflash 3: A former government official might use his contacts to lobby for his benefit!

    Newsflash 4: Company in question presents its product in a positive light!

    Newsflash 5: Melodramaic slashdot sumbission contains no actual news at all.

    Frankly, there could be benefits from and novel uses for a universally globally unique identifier that is always with you and can't be lost. But the potential for abuse, obviously, outweighs those benefits. (In fact, if it could only be activated and/or read when you explicitly wished, it might be a good, albeit voluntary, idea. But that's not how this system is applied.)

    And further, it's probably not a bad idea for health applications. However, like the Social Security number, it's bound to get misappropriated and misapplied for all manner of other uses. Some of which we

    So far, where has it been used? Bars and clubs as gimmicks.

    So what does this all mean?

    We have a former government official with no official standing or position in government whatever promoting a product of a company of which he's a member of the board.

    Stunning.

    Bottom line: Sure, absolutely: be vigilant. But there will never be compulsory "implants" that will be required for all. Does that mean a company that would benefit massively from such an idea wouldn't try to promote it? In fact, I'd be worried if a for-profit company operating in a quasi-capitalist society didn't attempt to promote its products. (And no, having national standards for state driver licenses and identification cards was/is not a bad idea.)

    [1] Tommy Thompson, while he incidentally may have been the former HHS secretary, is a director of the company that makes the RFID chips.

    • "MOVE ALONG NOTHING TO SEE HERE" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:16PM (#13258288) Homepage
      Bottom line: Sure, absolutely: be vigilant. But there will never be compulsory "implants" that will be required for all.

      Well, the company that makes them is lobbying to move things in the direction of making them compulsory for all. They may not ever succeed at this. But does that make it okay that they're trying?

      Yes, the practice of ex-political officials entering industry and using their contacts for lobbying purposes is common. However just because it is a common thing does not make it a good thing.

      At any rate, you are probably right that these things won't ever become mandatory-- in the United States. But there are lots of other places in the world. The government of China, for example, already has national "citizen identification" cards, and already has a precedent of compulsory medical care (for example abortions). Do you think it would be the least bit unusual if this kind of chipping became mandatory there? Because I don't.
      • Well, the company that makes them is lobbying to move things in the direction of making them compulsory for all. They may not ever succeed at this. But does that make it okay that they're trying?

        I don't have any problem with a company making a product attempting to promote it. Viewed in a vacuum, as I said, these products, like many others, could have positive applications. That they would try to promote the product in such a fashion as it would be used as widely as possible comes as no surprise to me.

        If we
      • Imagine a world where, after a subdural implantation of a chip in your head,
        * 'they' always know where you are when 'they' need to know,
        * can know if there are two of you (one's got to be an impostor!)
        * can free you from carrying cash (they can issue a transaction against the bank of record,),
        * where losing your wallet is not a problem, if fact it can be dispensed with altogether,
        * where applying for a job, a loan or a credit card is not a process that somebody else can do "for you" with forged credentials
      • The government of China, for example, already has national "citizen identification" cards,

        Yah, but on this side of the pond they are called 'social security card', so that makes them completely different, and 'good' because a 'citizen identification' card is 'bad'.

      • Re:"MOVE ALONG NOTHING TO SEE HERE" (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sfjoe ( 470510 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:56PM (#13258505)
        At any rate, you are probably right that these things won't ever become mandatory-- in the United States.

        Don't bet on it. Of course the first people to be tagged won't be Republicans. It will start with convicted felons. Then it will be required for other types of disenfranchised people, such as retarded citizens, "for their own good". Then it will be required for airline travel "for our own safety". Then there will be a knock on the door....

        You never realize you're on the slippery slope until you've stepped on it.

    • Re:Newsflash (Score:4, Insightful)

      by slavemowgli ( 585321 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:27PM (#13258352) Homepage

      But there will never be compulsory "implants" that will be required for all.

      While I agree with most of your post, I'd be careful with statements like that. Never say never - there's already lots of stuff going on today that people probably wouldn't have believed would ever happen some 230 years ago.

    • Frankly, there could be benefits from and novel uses for a universally globally unique identifier

      Being treated like cattle is not a benefit. This is a step backward. What happens when everyone has an implant and I refuse to have one?

    • Re:Newsflash (Score:2, Insightful)

      by flamingnight ( 234353 )
      be vigilant. But there will never be compulsory "implants" that will be required for all

      Just as there will never be internments for all Japanese- or German-Americans in certain states, or random searches on the NYC subways.....

      • Re:Newsflash (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Taladar ( 717494 )
        ...or prison camps beginning to resemble Nazi concentration camps built and used by the USA...

        • Re:Newsflash (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Zak3056 ( 69287 ) * on Saturday August 06, 2005 @03:17PM (#13259261) Journal
          ...or prison camps beginning to resemble Nazi concentration camps built and used by the USA...

          Let me know when the chimneys are being raised and the forced labor begins.

          I'm not happy iwht the things my government is doing right now, but it's a far cry between the current policies of the US government and that of the Nazis of the 1930s and 40s.

  • Company spokesman endorses own product (Score:4, Funny)

    by The Hobo ( 783784 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:03PM (#13258197)
    In other news, umbrella manufacturer thinks everyone could benefit from an umbrella.

    Film at eleven.
  • "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."

  • Only if it includes DRM (Score:5, Funny)

    by liquid stereo ( 602956 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:05PM (#13258206)
    I want my freedom restricted.

  • Too easy (Score:5, Funny)

    by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:05PM (#13258210) Homepage
    I know where spokesperson John Procter can insert his chip!
    • I know where spokesperson John Procter can insert his chip!

      The best part is that his last name is derived from the Greek word proktos, which means anus.

  • My RFID is blinking red.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nick of NSTime ( 597712 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:05PM (#13258211)
    Will I be renewed?

  • Just a "health chip"? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gavin Rogers ( 301715 ) * <grogers@vk6hgr.echidna.id.au> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:05PM (#13258216) Homepage
    From the article:

    "According to Procter, the chips can also be used for financial transactions."

    Which reminded me of:

    Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to
    receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
    Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

    Easy access for doctors to our medical records or an easy way for someone to control everything we do, go or buy? "Sorry sir, no chip, no entry". hmm.

    What does the Electronic Frontiers Foundation say about all this?!
    • Wait, the Republicans are the party of the Anti-Christ??
    • I am a complete and unappologetic athiest. However, were a bill like that to pass. I'd be watching out for some horsemen.

      I have a weird thought thou. Bush is a fundie, and it is known that Bush things we *are* at the end times. The reason that fundies support Israel, is the bible says the isrealites will be in the holy land and the end times. Could/would he promote a bill like this to inch towards the end times, which he firmly believes in?

      • You may think it odd, but most Christians actually want to stave off the end times, because most of the signs of the end times involve Satan subjugating the world to his will. Being in opposition to Satan, Christians generally want to prevent these things from happening.

        That doesn't necessarily mean that all Christians will oppose things like implantable RFID tags. Some will see it as representing the mark of the Beast and all that, and others will see it as just another piece of technology.

      • Re:Just a "health chip"? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Mattintosh ( 758112 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @01:10PM (#13258578)
        Actually, the Bible says no such thing about the Israelites.

        The Bible says that "spiritual Israel" will exist, that is, the people who actually want to serve God will be his approved people and will have his protection. It also says that the "war of the great day of God the Almighty" will happen when they "gather at the place that is, in Hebrew, called Har-magedon". That literally translates to "mountain of Megiddo" but there isn't a mountain anywhere near the plains of Megiddo.

        Megiddo was a place where many decisive battles took place in ancient times. A battle on a mountain would be something everyone would see for miles around. So when all the nations gather at the "mountain of Megiddo", expect a battle of all the nations of the world vs. God's kingdom army. Everyone will see it, and it will be a decisive battle. As it says numerous times in Ezekiel, "and they shall come to know that I am Jehovah." There will be no escape from this conclusion. It will be completely evident to all onlookers, and that will include everyone in the entire world.

        The nation of Israel has no more to do with this than any other nation. They'll be destroyed like all the rest. Why? Because God rejected them when they rejected and killed his son. Their rulership was "cut down" in 607 BC, but they were restored to freedom. But when they out-and-out rejected the Messiah, that was the end of any favor shown to them by God. The Romans destroyed their "nation" in 70 AD and there wasn't even a fight. Even when they were "punished" in 617-607 BC, there was a 10-year fight. The literal nation of Israel no longer has any backing from God. Heck, they went completely out of existence for almost 2000 years.

        Of course, you're correct in your assertion that Bush (and the rest of the world's leaders) are pushing toward that final battle. "The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." So said the apostle Paul in an inspired letter to a first-century Christian congregation. Satan has control of the political, economic and religious systems of the world. That makes George W. Bush a tool of the devil. (Along with every other president in history, and all other kings, chancellors, prime ministers, premieres, dictators, etc...)

        Jeremiah 10:23 states that "It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step." Man should not, cannot, and will not rule himself. Only God's kingdom has the ability to rule mankind. And that is the issue here.

        People think that the number "666" is going to literally show up on tax forms or something. It's not. 6 is a number that signifies something falling short of heavenly perfection (which is symbolized by 7). 3 is used for emphasis. So the number 6 repeated 3 times is something emphatically deficient. The failing governments of the world fit that bill perfectly.

        Perhaps you're an atheist because of all the "fundie" idiots out there that sound crazy. (And truly, they are!) Don't misunderstand the Bible and reject it because people have twisted it. Read it. Study it. Perhaps you too may learn what it says and why it says that. Then you can calm down, enjoy life, have a happy hope for the future, and laugh when people start mingling conspiracy theories with biblical allusions. (Yes, I laughed before I posted all this. It's quite refreshing to be able to laugh and shrug something off when it's as disturbing as this story is.)

  • hacking (Score:3, Funny)

    by gid13 ( 620803 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:06PM (#13258220)
    Well, if it's easy to misuse the system to track people, at least you'll know where to find the people responsible. ;)

  • Oh god (Score:3, Insightful)

    by utopianfiat ( 774016 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:06PM (#13258222) Journal
    When is someone going to say the three words we've all wanted to say to this:
    WHAT THE FUCK?

  • I see it now... (Score:2, Informative)

    by mrMango ( 858259 )
    I'm sure you could opt out of these things, but I'd bet most employers would require them. Sounds like a precursor to GATTICA to me.
  • The only chip that goes inside my body is the potato kind...possibly the tortilla kind too.

  • This is a terrible idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ReformedExCon ( 897248 ) <reformed.excon@gmail.com> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:08PM (#13258239)
    There are many reasons why this is a bad idea, the first and foremost that it violates the 4th Amendment. Americans have the right to be secure in their person. It's the first right laid out in the amendment.

    The second problem is that there is very little benefit compared to the cost. The cost being the pain and suffering involved in getting implanted in addition to the medical costs involved in having it inserted.

    Add to this the amount of conspiracy talk that's bound to arise, and you're looking at a real lashback from the populace.

    You'll find me in favor of the government doing a lot of things, but this is not one of them. It's a poorly thought-through idea and should be resisted as much as possible.

    • There are many reasons why this is a bad idea, the first and foremost that it violates the 4th Amendment...

      Since when has violating the various amendments stopped, or even bothered, "our" government anymore?

  • "We finally got it right" (Score:5, Funny)

    by Loundry ( 4143 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:08PM (#13258240) Journal
    "We've been working on this for years, it almost feels like an eternity," quipped thompson while lighting a cigar. "It took us 665 iterations before we feel like we got it right. Now we think everyone should have it. Now."

  • Way ahead of you! (Score:4, Funny)

    by jfengel ( 409917 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:09PM (#13258249) Homepage Journal
    I've been wearing my stylish tin-foil hat to keep the mind-control rays OUT. Fortunately, this flexible and fashionable garment also serves to keep RF identifiers IN.

    And if they decide to plant the chip in a more sensitive place, my tin-foil cup has been protecting my precious bodily fluids for years.

    (Yes, I know that RFIDs respond to outside RF, not generate it themselves. The gag is funnier my way. Relax.)

  • New tech, same old issues. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:11PM (#13258259)
    There is no doubt that these chips can benefit a significant number of people...from medical information to bar tabs, the applications are endless. However, we shouldn't lose sight of one important application these chips are being pushed for...

    From TFA:
    Civil liberties groups such as Caspian in the US fear that the need for increased security in the wake of terrorist attacks could act as a catalyst for a more widespread use of VeriChips.

    That's really what this is all about, isn't it? Unfortunately, although many may consider implanted RFID chips to be the security 'magic wand', this simply isn't the case. If a beach club can program and insert a chip for you, it's not too far a stretch to imagine terrorist groups programming and inserting bogus chips in their operatives. In the context of security, all this does is create a false sense of security.

    The other major concern regarding implanted RFID chips is the increased danger of information/identity theft. If all a thief needs to do to lift your information, including your identity, medical records, and bar tabs, is stand next to you on the subway, we're going to see a whole new chapter written in the history of information theft.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @01:07PM (#13258558)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Good luck (Score:4, Interesting)

        by DragonHawk ( 21256 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @03:11PM (#13259216) Homepage Journal
        "If anyone ever pressures me to get one of these, he will get a vigorous refusal, which may include the use of firearms."

        I don't disagree with you. But, if this sort of thing becomes "mandatory by law", that reaction will generally mean you either get killed in the shoot-out, or incarcerated -- and doubtless when you are incarcerated, you get implanted involuntarily. So it's death or implantation. Maybe you'll choose death. I might just make that choice as well, if it came right down to it. But I suspect most people won't make that choice, and I'm not just talking about the mindless sheep. Most people value their lives more then their freedom.
      • I always wondered how many people would actually resist when confronted with a carefully crafted scenario where their peers accept any ridiculous measure. I remember there were psychological experiements on peer pressure, where individual participants had a very high likelyhood of agreeing with a clearly wrong statement, provided that their peers (who were actors) agree with it first.

        How cool would it be to run an experiement like that in an airport and ask random people to submit to an cavity search behind

  • Medical uses are realistic (Score:3, Insightful)

    by InternationalCow ( 681980 ) <[moc.cam] [ta] [lesneetsnaveciruam]> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:12PM (#13258260) Journal
    Before we all jump to the obvious conclusion that implanting chips will interfere with civic rights (which it can), it is worthwhile to consider that such implants can be useful. As a medical doctor I encounter patients everey day, who have no clear recollection of their medical history or the medication that they use. In the recent I've prescribed medication that was potentially dangerous because of interference with another drug that the patient was taking but forgot to tell me about when asked. If the pharmacist hadn't noticed there might have been a serious problem. The same applies to genetic conditions that affect medical care. These are often too complicated for the average patient to understand or report correctly. Adverse drug reactions, idem. An electronic patient file can solve these problems but one does not always have access to those. So, there are definitely opportunities here to improve medical care and ease the administrative burden for doctors. I would like to have this technology. As for the privacy issues - if you use a credit card to pay your way through life, you have already given up a lot of your privacy. Same goes for any other process that involves the registration of personal data (such as buying a car). Thorny issue, though.

    • Re:Medical uses are realistic (Score:4, Insightful)

      by CarrionBird ( 589738 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:28PM (#13258355) Journal
      Martial law can be useful too. Doesn't make it a good idea though.

      Thing is, this could be put in a card or a brecelet and be only minimally less effective, with fewer bad implications.

    • Doctor, you already HAVE this technology and you've had it all your life. It's called pieces of paper. People who WANT to keep a good record of their medical history have always had the ability to do it. It's a matter of their choice, not your convenience. It's certainly no reason to dog-tag the entire country.

    • Re:Medical uses are realistic (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Reverberant ( 303566 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:35PM (#13258397) Homepage
      In the recent I've prescribed medication that was potentially dangerous because of interference with another drug that the patient was taking but forgot to tell me about when asked

      Instead of storing this data in an implanted chip, why not encode this data on re-writable magnetic strip on a credit-card-type card (with no personally identifiable info) that you can keep in your wallet/purse/keychain etc?

      It's a good idea to have this info available for legitimate medical uses, but an implanted RFID doesn't do enough to strike a balance between privacy and usefulness.

      • Instead of storing this data in an implanted chip, why not encode this data on re-writable magnetic strip on a credit-card-type card (with no personally identifiable info) that you can keep in your wallet/purse/keychain etc?

        Because if you lose your wallet/purse/keychain, or forget it at home, or it gets damaged, or whatever, you're fucked.

        With the chip implant, you can't forget it at home when you take that short drive to the grocery store that you don't need to put your seatbelt on for.

    • I cant help but wonder, if the medical system wasn't pumping people full of various magic cocktails of drugs, would you still have this problem. Never ceases to amaze me when I see the adds on tv, how many people see those adds, have no clue what they mean, but go to the doctors saying 'i need drug x', and when the doc says 'no you dont', they go find another one, who will give it to them.

      Seems to me, you are actually misunderstanding your own problem. If you dont know the cocktail of drugs a specific p

    • In Canada where I live they're talking about a centralised database for all medical records. They're thinking about how they can do it all while keeping people from needing a chip inserted in their body or having privacy issues about it. A way this could work is by having only emergency personel allowed to access the info without a key (PIN number you would key in) and everyone accessing the records would be logged in the database too so it would be traceable. It isn't implemented yet but they're thinki
    • I encounter patients everey day, who have no clear recollection of their medical history
       
      Probably safe to assume lithium.

  • I Am Not A Number, I'm A Free Man! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blueZhift ( 652272 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:12PM (#13258262) Homepage Journal
    Obligatory Prisoner Quote:

    "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

  • Yeah... (Score:3, Funny)

    by kc0re ( 739168 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:13PM (#13258264) Journal
    But does it run Linux? Could you imagine a Beowolf Cluster of Humans? Wow.
  • Procter said 'virtually everyone could benefit from having a chip inserted.'

    Virtually everyone has an allergy of some sort, a medical problem of some sort, or a prescribed medication of some sort. If everyone who ever visited a hospital had a chip implanted with their medical data on it, there is a clear benefit. Assuming the /. crowd is mostly computer geeks, think of it as having the option of fixing a computer with a full history of what has been done to it or fixing a computer with no knowledge of who

  • In the NEWS (Score:2, Interesting)

    by shareme ( 897587 )
    In the NEWS ... Murder increasing by leap s and bounds as gangs figue out you can make money by stealing the new identity chip implanted in all US citizens.. Some gangs not even using a reader to check whether person ahs a chip.. beofre they shoot..
  • I'm surprised that bible thumpers haven't called in about the reference to the beast on this one.
    Something along the lines of "no one shall be able to enter any commerce without the mark of the beast on his hand or forehead".

  • Dont do it (Score:3, Funny)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:18PM (#13258295)
    The English have been implanting chips in themselves for years and all it has done is made them fatter and depleted the oceans reserves of cod.
  • after implanting a chip into himself, is going to submit a proposal within the next 50 days to promote it for everyone in the USA.

    After wanking myself and jerking off yesterday, I submit a proposal now to promote it for everyone in the USA.

    What a creep...

  • It would still be possible to spoof an RFID chip. Really this is nothing more than an implantable ID card. One that potential terrorists could, eventually, reverse engineer. With biokeys like fingerprints or retna scans it's much harder to fake, always on you and takes a willing effort by the person being identified.

    The potential for abuse exists in either arena. Real progress won't happen until we stop trying to find an easy solution for security issues. Technology will only provide a false sense of

  • Slashdot and religious conservatives...agreeing on something.

    RC's (some of them, anyway) think a chip like this might be the "mark of the beast"; if you don't accept it, you wont be able to work, eat, or travel. Amazing that I'm seeing so many similar predictions for slashdotters here...

  • I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by lendude ( 620139 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:33PM (#13258389)
    ...it'll be called "The Freedom Chip".
  • Exactly how do you do a product recall when your product is injected into the bodies of 300 million people?

    Assuming the guy hasn't been misquoted, he is a fool who hasn't given a single second of thought to the failure modes of the scheme.

    This is apart from the stupid idea that you deal with the bad guys by treating all the good guys as if they were the bad guys.
  • I sure hope these chips have a field for the homo sapiens injectee's religion, like their predecessor, dogtags. With extra precision datatypes. Then, when we finally get the Rapture Thompson's bosses in the Republican Party promised us in the last couple of elections, the government can help the apocalypse along, maybe by separating out the chosen from the infidels, "for our own mutual, eternal convenience". I sure would hate to have a glitch send me to some heaven with only 27 virgins, especially when they
  • It's all in Revelation: "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." The mandatory chips are only a matter of time. See: [1] [dccsa.com] [2] [revlu.com]
    [3] [endtimeprophecy.net]
  • just stick your arm in the microwave for a minute.

    No wait...

  • This can bring us all together... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Breeze ( 140484 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @03:46PM (#13259427) Homepage
    This is a wonderful idea, if for no other reason than we finally have an issue that unites the most atheistic, rabid Slashdot privacy fanatics squarely with the fundamentalist Christian religious right.

    Seriously, the fundies are going to go apeshit if this even makes it into draft legislation - and the atheists and agnostic pro-privacy people can join them. The Christians have the grass roots political network to block this with a bit of help - I hope that both sides (athiest privacy advocates and Christian fundamentalists) can put aside their differeces long enough to defeat stupidity like this, and, perhaps learn a bit from each other.

    Oh, yeah, it's not enough to stop this from becoming law - you also have to pass NEW laws banning insurance companies from discriminating against those who don't get the chip, which is most likely the real danger.

    -Steve

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