Posted on 02/09/2002 4:47:57 PM PST by handk
February 7, 2002
Why Not Implant a Microchip?
by Charlotte Twight
Charlotte A. Twight, professor of economics at Boise State University, is author of "Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans" (Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, January 2002).
Why bother with national ID cards? Some in America have sought such cards for years. The most recent type comes with magnetic strips and biometric identifiers. It's being peddled by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) in concert with federal officials in the Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, the General Services Administration, and elsewhere. Yet these ID cards would be technologically obsolete before the system could be implemented. And think of the problems: physical cards can be counterfeited, damaged, misused, and more. Way too low-tech.
In their struggle to come up with a politically palatable national ID system, proponents of the ID card are being far too timid. So here's a modest proposal: Why not implant a microchip under everyone's skin?
If we mean to fully protect our security we should immediately seek federal legislation to establish standards for the implantation of microchips uniquely identifying each and every individual residing in this country, linked to central databases that could protect all Americans against terrorism. In fact, similar technology has been used in veterinary medicine for years to facilitate the return of lost dogs and cats to their owners.
The system could be voluntary at first, to allow time for Americans to get used to the idea. No doubt many Americans will quickly see the benefits of such an implant for themselves and their children. Think of it: a single microchip linked to a person's medical records as well as financial, tax, employment, Social Security, welfare, criminal and other records--along with appropriate biometric identifiers. It would be so much more convenient and less subject to abuse than physical cards. Even if terrorism does not strike us again, Americans could be sure that if they had a medical emergency in a distant city, authorized physicians could scan the microchip to access the patient's medical history and avoid administering an inappropriate--or potentially life-threatening--medicine.
Sound crazy? Well, it is. But as a thought experiment, it well illustrates how incremental incursions on liberty can lead to dramatic losses of privacy over time. Consider our experience with Social Security numbers.
People worried when the Social Security Act was passed in 1935 that the Social Security number (SSN) would become an all-purpose identifier--an understandable public response, at the time, to a rather dramatic institutional change. But government officials reassured the public that the SSN would not be used for any such purpose. Equally important, they showed restraint and only gradually expanded the federally mandated uses of the SSN--not mandating its use by other federal agencies until 1943. A step at a time, during the 1960s the SSN became the taxpayer identifier used by the IRS, the identifier for federal civilian and military personnel, the Medicare identifier, and more. In the 1970s Congress passed laws requiring the SSN's use for legally admitted aliens and anyone seeking federal benefits--and also gave the states free rein to use SSNs for identification purposes. A series of federal laws passed in the 1980s required the issuance of SSNs to ever-younger children if their parents wanted to claim them as dependents on federal tax forms--by age 5, age 2, age 1, now at any age. People got used to it.
Legislators so far have failed to establish a national ID card with any real public traction--despite extraordinary efforts by some proponents. In 1996 Congress did pass one law to establish what amounted to a national ID card. It was a provision called "State-Issued Drivers Licenses and Comparable Identification Documents," whose passage was achieved by placing it on page 716 of the 749-page Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, tucked between a section entitled "Sense of Congress on Discriminatory Application of New Brunswick Provincial Sales Tax" and another entitled "Border Patrol Museum." But opponents discovered the measure, and it was repealed a few years later.
Now the AAMVA is proposing a similar system--this time initiated by state officials who are seeking federal financial, legislative, and rule-making support for their effort to turn American drivers' licenses into national ID cards.
Over half of the population now supports some form of national identification. If Americans accept a National ID system as they accepted SSNs, and if the intrusiveness of such a system expands as did government-mandated SSN usage, ten years from now the idea of a national microchip system may not seem as alien and repugnant as it does today. As with SSNs, people will get used to it.
Dr. Charlotte Twight
Professor
Education Ph.D., Economics, University of Washington
M.A., Economics, University of Washington
J.D., University of Washington School of Law
B.A., English and American Literature, California
State University, Fresno
mailto:ctwight@boisestate.edu
There will be no microchip implanted in me. NEVER.
There will be no microchip implanted in me. NEVER.
Yes. And they're advancing liberty. Elitist scum.
From their website:
meta name="description" content="Promoting an American public policy based on individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peaceful international relations.
It's called sarcasm.
But, ya know what? You'd better get used to the idea. It's definitely on the way. There may be terminator chips, also. No need to chase a crook, just signal his chip via satellite and he dies. Of course, our government powers-that-be would NEVER abuse such a system, would they?
Did you not find this piece to be satirical, as in Swift's A Modest Proposal?
By the way, SURFS in the Middle Ages were made to wear collars identifying who their master was. Ours will say "Property of the U.S. Government".
It's called sarcasm.
Well then, she's not very good at it. I found the article to be a bit schizophrenic.
Guess again, Big Brother.
This idea is too frightening for words. If anyone is familiar with Revelations 13, verses 16-17 talking about the AntiChrist and his own number 666. "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." Many theologians are saying that this mark is a computer chip. God, I hope no one buys this idea from people like Twight.
See above. And by the way--the word is serf. Surf is what dudes do.
Just wait til you have to reboot.
Of all things, life is about change. How does the information in the chip get updated and who gets to update it? Talk about separating good uses from evil uses, there's a quagmire!
Only a quagmire until the individual is the only person allowed to update their own chip. Thus obliterating the quagmire but also eliminating the purpose of the chip in the first place--government control. Implanted chip = a part of your body that you are not allowed control over.
The only way an implanted chip will be a net benefit to people will be when the individual controls that part of their body by being master of the information stored on the chip.
As with free market business a person may want to do business with a company that has the customer put certain information on their implanted chip. Whereas another person doesn't want that type of information on their chip goes to a business that doesn't require a customer to update their implanted chip. And there would be companies that offer both types of services.
Times have changed dramatically since the inception of the Social Security number and it's legacy. You see how the federal government ID control freaks are relegated to dancing on egg shells to make any headway. Already they've been reduced to circumventing honest discussion and have backed themselves into a corner of using a convoluted state driver's license data base to achieve their goals. Times are rapidly changing and the ID control freaks are being increasingly left in the dust with their outdated and rapidly obsolete dogma/status-quo/establishment/collectivist entrapments.
The key seminal question is: Who controls what information is or is not stored on the chip that is to become a body enhancement part not unlike a metal pin, breast implant or plastic surgery?
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