When Cash Is Only Skin Deep (Embedded ID Code Alert!)

Wired News ^ | 02:00 AM Nov. 25, 2003 PT | Julia Scheeres

[vannrox]

A Florida company has announced plans to develop a service that would allow consumers to pay for merchandise using microchips implanted under their skin.

Applied Digital Solutions CEO Scott Silverman said he believes the company's VeriChip -- a subdermal microchip that uses radio frequency signals to broadcast an identification number to a scanner -- could someday replace credit cards. Under Silverman's plan, rather than swiping a bank card to make purchases, micro-chipped customers would scan themselves using special readers.

[vannrox]

The VeriPay service is one of several the company has launched to promote its product. Applied Digital has positioned its microchip as an anti-kidnapping device (VeriKid), emergency ID system (VeriMed) and as a way to control access to secure buildings (VeriGuard).

[vannrox]

Implantable Chip, On Sale Now

[baltodog]

This is going to lead to a series of hand-choppings. I just know it.

Seriously, this is biblical. Not for me. Even if it means starving to death. This is hillaryclintonesque.

[vannrox]

[the_devils_advocate_666]

VeriGood way to make money.

[vannrox]

Politician Wants to 'Get Chipped'

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Although the biochip payment plan may strike some people as a bit X Files-ish

No...this strikes me as a bit Revelations-ish.

This isn't good on ANY level.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Seriously, this is biblical. Not for me. Even if it means starving to death.

It's not biblical, it is evolution (or intelligent design). Do you mind carrying the tiniest possible cell phone around with you... so you can get an annoying sensory jab, whenever anyone wants to give you one?

[baltodog]

Huh?

[xzins]

"This is a gigantic step toward the mark of the beast, " said Gary Wohlscheid, whose website, These Last Days Ministries, keeps tabs on what many Christians believe are the signs of a coming religious Armageddon. His site is one of dozens that link VeriChip to the apocalyptic prophecy. Applied Digital officials say such concern is unfounded because people are chipped voluntarily.

It is correct that this is a step in the wrong direction.

It is also correct that word "voluntary" is significant, although backwards

The mark of the beast will not be something that one can receive involuntarily. It will somehow require the assent of the will for it to damn, or perhaps even function.

[4mycountry]

No...this strikes me as a bit Revelations-ish.

This isn't good on ANY level.

Ditto that.

[Astronaut]

Oh can I get one, please? I really want my movements monitored by Visa, Mastercard, and Amex! Can I please send a biometric data stream to marketers for every store in the mall I walk into? And of course, Big Brother Government will monitor me too.

This idea is too hideous to contemplate.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Scary, scary stuff indeed.

It starts as a simple "convenience"...a light-hearted bit of technology.

Soon, it'll become mandatory if you want to participate in "normal" society.

Living off the land will be the only alternative.

Someone remind me how this ends?

[billbears]

"This is a gigantic step toward the mark of the beast, " said Gary Wohlscheid, whose website, These Last Days Ministries, keeps tabs on what many Christians believe are the signs of a coming religious Armageddon. His site is one of dozens that link VeriChip to the apocalyptic prophecy.

Applied Digital officials say such concern is unfounded because people are chipped voluntarily.

For now

[vannrox]

oh...

If you disliked this idea....then you'll HATE what our Tax supported AAMVA is up to...

Federal Drivers License to include medical and financial information.

[vannrox]

oh...

If you disliked this idea....then you'll HATE what our Tax supported AAMVA is up to...

Federal Drivers License to include medical and financial information.

[renosathug]

VeriBig Brother.

[cyborg]

I am going to back to putting cash in my cigarbox.

[4mycountry]

Everyone who doesn't have the mark can't buy any goods; they'll either be killed my force or by malnourishment, etc.

To make a long book of the Bible short -- in the end, the people who manufacture (for lack of a better word) the mark will be wiped away and the good people will live. There'll be a thousand years of peace (in which people can decide whether to accept Christ or not), and then everyone who was alive and saved during the 1000 yrs will be taken to heaven.

Mind you, this is from Revelation. I'm explaining this on Biblical terms.

Well... that's how it ends.

[MissAmericanPie]

The chip is not the mark of the beast, and there is no escape from this replacing the credit card and eventually cash. When the anti-Christ rules, the chip is either disabled, or ineffective unless you also bear his mark.

No man, rich or poor, bond or free, can buy or sell without the mark of the beast. Not a toothpick, a cup of coffee, or a tank of gas. This will be promoted as destroying the drug trade, preventing money being paid under the table, and as making an underground economy impossible, ending income tax evasion, etc. It forces everyone to have a bank account to keep track of debits and credits.

But in and of itself, it is not the mark of the beast.