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'Pacemaker'-like GPS Device for Humans
LunarFox writes "Applied Digital Solutions has announced successful field trials of a prototype GPS device that can be implanted into humans. The device, which is internally rechargable, can wirelessly transmit location, movements and vital signs via the Internet, storing the info in a database. It's said to be the size of a pacemaker, but they intend to miniaturize it to one-tenth that size. You may recall this company as having designed the 'Digital Angel,' and 'Verichip,' a ricegrain-sized RFID chip like injectable pet tracking ID chips. This same company apparently made several denials in 2002 that their product(s) would be anything but externally worn. (like a wristwatch) Many other related links can be found at WorldNetDaily." On one hand the potential cool uses astound me, while the possibilty of abuse frightens me. A lot.
I'm not really into conspiracy theories, and generally not very paranoid; but this really makes you think of what "Big Brother" or anyone for that matter can do to track people.
I wonder what all the future applications of this device will be? I wonder if in the future they will require known convicted felons to wear these? Just think about all the scary applications such devices can be put to.
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Mike
I'm going to kick the next person that I see with their karma rating in their sig.
x-rays would tend to show if people had a GPS device with antennea implanted in them
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" -- Josef Stalin
All those folk with a cell phone?? You allready have one of these, no need to fret. Just have 3 base stations sent pings to your phone, triangulate position, and big brother will be there shortly. Oh, your phone is not turned on? Sok, no need for it to be on. This type of device continues to become more popular, and the amount of power that goes into the hands of people who control this is amazing. Just because its in the terms of service that they will not release this information, how much would it take for someone who REALLY wanted to find you to go see a low level tech @ the cell phone place, pay a bit of $$, and whamo get your exact position and heading. The age of privacy has been over for a long time, people are just waking up too it.
No I didnt spell check this post...
when the US may reduce non-military GPS accuracy?
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http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/19/034
The potential for abuse is more terrifying, really.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Captain Picard: Computer, where is Commander Data?
Computer: Lieutenant Commander Data is no longer aboard the Enterprise.
We were frantically patching our beloved systems for Y2K compatibility crap, faithfully taking backups and all - the most frequently asked qn. was:
Will this work on Jan 1st 2000?
After a while, things got so paranoid, and my boss wondered innocently:
Are you sure we'll be alive on Jan 1st? Our hearts and brains are Y2K OK?
Made us all laugh then.. but if these GPS pacemakers were around, we wouldn't have been laughing surely.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
For fellow geeks with P800s, just put it in "flight mode" for the same effect.
"I could super-impose an RF signal on the telephone line that would "jump" or "short" out the hook switch on the phone effectively creating an off-hook condition" has precisely bog-all to do with modern GSM digital handsets.
Also, any site with a cute .gif button mentioning "The Ark of the Covenant: against Satan New World Order" probably isn't exactly a technical journal, dig?
Step 0: Use tracking device to locate potential target and analyse daily movement schedule...
So they're not going to be implanting these while you're not looking, unless they can also talk you into recharging it yourself later.
The overall ickiness of having something inserted, plus of course the overtones of nazi tatoos will stop this being mandatory for a very very long time.
It's the biometric id cards/credit cards/mobile phones that'll be the really useful peasant-tracking devices. They don't need RFID implants.
Besides - there'd only be a market in back-street surgeons/hackers to take them out again. This wouldn't be a terribly effective way of tracking criminal types (it would be fine for ordinary citizens of course, but then they're easy enough to find at the moment anyway).
I would like a little more proof that this was intended to be racist. The obvious intent is to identify tracking children and pets as a use.
One of the major problems I have with accusations of racism is that behavior frequently is assumed to be racist without any investigation. To illustrate, a few years ago a news program covered racial sensitivity training that a resturant chain was ungoing as part of a court settlement. Cashiers were told to always place the change in the hand of the customer, never on the counter. Because many blacks interpret putting the money on the counter as meaning "you don't want to touch them." This hit me directly, because I have a habit of putting it on the counter regardless of whether the person is white, black, or other. Mainly because I found it easier. So the question becomes how many people thought I was racist, for doing something that I do to everyone. My futher thought is, I want more proof that things are racist before believing so. Racism exists, but not every innocent act is racist.
Submit to the chip, join The Club - or live on the outside. Very scary.
It has probably been posted on Slashdot before (and been thoroughly pooh-poohed), but "Digital Angel" sounds an awful lot like the "Digital Demon" mentioned in Revelation chapter 13, the "Mark of the Beast" (666). In Rev. 13, everyone is required to get a mark before they can buy or sell.
It seems odd that John would come up with the idea that you would have to have a mark (I'm told it means "etching, as with a needle" in the Greek, but I'm sure some Greek-speaking-geek here can probably shoot that down if it isn't correct) to buy and sell. I'm sure he was thinking of it as a tatoo that they would merely look at, before allowing you to use your cash. He probably wasn't thinking of a "cashless society", but I've often heard people talk about the benefits of a cashless society (thwart drug-dealers, kidnappers, extortion rings, etc). Supposedly, we'd all start with a "debit card" arrangement. But they could be stolen or forged. An implanted chip would be harder to fake.
As a starting point to mandatory chipping, I've heard people suggest that you would chip criminals, aliens, and of course, "the scum of the earth".... gun owners! If you want to own a gun, you must get a tracking chip! Small price to pay for a "privilege" that the government lets you have...
I'm not saying that D.A. would be the Mark, just that it sounds hauntingly familiar... that similar technology could be used for that purpose.
So most readers here probably don't read or believe the Bible, but if you see it happen someday..... think about it.
dochood
Frightened? Just think how effective we could fight terrorism! Every person in the US could be tracked, we could see who they meet and if they're sleeping, working maybe, in the future, what they're talking about. Of course, only criminals who have something to hide would fear this prospect.
Yes a device like that is frightening, especially in the hand of a totalitarian regime like the United States' government.
(Yes, mod me down... I know there are regimes where I couldn't say something like that without risking my life and I'm grateful I can still say that. But the US government do put people in jail without accusing them properly, they torture people outside the country, etc. Just say a person is a suspected terrorist and he automatically loses all human rights. I can still say I disapprove of that. But I'm afraid it's slowly becoming like the USSR in Stalin's times...)
I don't need a signature.
If you had the choice between being in jail and undergoing an operation that would let you get out, which would you choose?
I'm not sure that they would use this with criminals anyway. It would seem more secure to me to add it externally with a lock for criminals. Internally, it seems to me that they would just get another operation and have it removed.
The Patriot Implant by Halliburton. Only terrorists refuse them.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Paranoid parents wanting to know their children's location at all times?
I hope not.
Of all the possible blunders of parenting that exist, I think that parents, training their children to expect omniscient monitoring, zero privacy, heavy interrogation, and heavy discipline as a substitute for earlier, time-consuming, caring, training to be a responsible person, is one of the scariest ways to construct a future society.
It's the kind of society that I don't want to live in.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Tracking of Sar's patients in China would come to mind seeming how they never really stop spreading the disease even after they stop having symptoms.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
perfect for ex-cons
ex-cons are exactly that. Ex. They have served their debt, and are now able to resume (more or less) regular lives.
Why would you need to track them?
"I've fallen and I can't get up"
Seriously; the health monitoring industry isn't that small. What if you could implant a device in your alzheimers patient grandfather, so he couldn't forget to put it on, and you could always find him if he wandered away, and an instant 911 call went out if he started having an irregular heartbeat, crazy blood pressure, etc.
I think this thing has some SERIOUSLY good potential uses. But as typical on slashdot, every technology is only seen in the most paranoid possible way. Hey, it's a good idea to think of how new technologies can be abused, but get real; the mere existance of this technology does not immediately create a police state in which everyone can be forced to have the chip implanted. It's society that decides whether such a thing can happen to law-abiding citizens (and yes, who is defined as "law-abiding").
Technology is neither good nor bad, nor does it promote good or bad behavior. It may enable a behavior but it does not, on its own, immediately cause a police state or any other societal change, unless and until society is ready to change.
Non-law-abiding citizens already have this, it's called a radio collar.
I just had this thought: Yes, government use of an implantable tracking device has a lot of implications for infringing on my privacy. But it also has substantial non-infringing uses.
...
And then my head began to hurt. It has always fascinated me how some technologies are vilified BECAUSE of their potential for abuse, whereas others are idolized DESPITE their potential for abuse. Which is right? I don't have the answer, but I do know its fun to watch.
And no, I'm not suggesting that Big Brother watching my every move is in any way equivalent to me downloading the latest Britney Spears via p2p. Although if I'm listening to Ms. Spears, maybe someone SHOULD keep an eye on me
> Of all the possible blunders of parenting that exist, I think that parents, training their children to expect omniscient monitoring, zero privacy, heavy interrogation, and heavy discipline
Chip 'em at birth, deeply (maybe even against or into the bone) so it can't be removed with a pocketknife, and make the technology as widespread as possible, as quickly as possible. Let the benefits propagate faster than the drawbacks.