"The Real Big Brother": tracking chips & trans

[foliagecop]

"The Real Big Brother" has just finished on BBC2 (7pm - 7.30pm). Did anyone see this? In a nutshell, it laid out the very real possibility that, in the not too distant future, everyone will be implanted with a microchip which will act as a tracking device.

Of course, the BBC spin was angled more at its benefits: easier access to clubs, quick access for hospital staff to medical records, etc. There wasn't much talk about the far more dangerous implications of such a global scheme, ie. the fact that governments will be able not only to know every single thing that we do, but exactly where we're doing it. And we can only imagine what they'll do with THAT kind of information.

The talk is that it will increase efficiency, cut crime, root out the terrorist; that, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to lose. Aside from the fact that it's only our sense of personal identity - the very thing that separates us from animals - that we stand to lose, this argument takes as read a very large assumption: that the system is foolproof. As even the least IT-literate teenager will tell you, NOTHING is foolproof where computers are concerned. Information, whether it be physical or digital, can be manipulated.

Tracking devices under the skin? Thumb scans for food? Iris identification for travel? The police state isn't coming, folks, it's already here.