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Sci-fi Writer Elizabeth Moon Believes Everyone Should Be Chipped
Bob the Super Hamste writes "The BBC has an opinion piece from science fiction writer Elizabeth Moon who believes that everyone should be chipped or barcoded at birth. Her reasoning is that it would prevent identification mistakes and even allow soldiers to identify combatants from non-combatants. Her comments came as part of a discussion on future wars hosted by the BBC World Service."
Horrible, dystopian, inevitable.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
Dont forget to put them in prison exactly after their birth, because, we will know from the very beginning who is the robber, killer, gangster, etc.... Why stop here? Why not give them the appropriate degree and job once they are born, then i wonder, what would be the future assignment of the "Pizza Delivery Boy"? Any guesses? Fry, you shut up, we already know your case.
I'd rather be misidentified than have my ID chip blacklisted. Do something the government doesn't like? They disable your chip... then you're screwed. No thanks.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
It's called DNA.
I am not a number.
Kindly STFU.
I'm not even a smart guy and I can put 2 and 2 together here. ,............ this screams "please read my books" or "I have a new book coming, I need my name out there in popular culture for a couple of weeks!"
NOTE: "Sci-fi writer"
We're better than this aren't we?
...when she was attacked by the FailFandom brigade for comments ever-so-mildly critical of Islam.
But I strongly oppose this. A government with the power to barcode everyone at birth is the sort of government powerful enough to commit just about any abuse of its citizens. And the well-connected will still be able to get data related to their barcode altered for their benefit.
I'll pass on the Panopticon society, thank you. And strong private property laws are the first step from preventing it from happening.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
a chip or a barcode on the skin...
oh, wait.
coding is life
Too late. Suggesting universal chipping a social faux pas that skips right over Hitler. It is kind of like going straight from 'dare' to 'triple dog dare' without the appropriate 'double dog dare' in between.
Seriously you'd black list an author simply because you disagree with something they said? Man I cannot imagine how many good books I'd of missed if I did that. I don't have to agree with someones world view to enjoy something they write and moon does write some good scifi and they aren't just a way for her to espouse her beliefs world views etc.
Dear Elizabeth Moon:
The world does not have one culture. Many do not have the same goals or motivations as yours, some have a different culture, religion, history, sense of self, pride and worth from what you experience in your circles.
I understand how one comes to love one's own culture. It's obvious, really: you make certain choices and it suits you well, the natural conclusion is that if everyone made those choices, they would do as well.
This is wrong, and you should learn to identify the ways in which it is wrong. Hasidic Jews do not try to force their ideas on everyone else, we generally don't allow White Supremacists to force their views on everyone else, and we try not to allow other cultures to terrorize us into following their views.
We are not breaking the law, we are quite happy doing what we do, and we don't need to be forced into things "for our own betterment". You needn't concern yourself about our welfare.
At all.
Feel free to convince everyone in your circle of friends, associates, or community to chip, but please don't try to force your views on everyone, who may have a different opinion.
Signed: Someone with a fucking clue.
If they put it on my shoulder, I'll be very angry...
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
I'll likely get down modded for this like crazy, but I think everyone is over reacting a huge amount. I actually listened to the clips and it is clear that Elizabeth is talking about a hypothetical situation. She isn't saying she advocates chipping everyone with ID chips in the real world. She was discussing a fictional hypothetical situation she even states it "if I were empress of the universe". Plus she does discuss, the privacy implications, and it's very reasoned. Her main objective was for some sort of method to identify Friend of Foe on the battlefield. She even admits to draw backs and such. You guys are acting like she is some raving lunatic wanting to destroy your lives.
Why don't you go listen to the actual audio clip it's in chapter 2 a bit past the half way mark. She isn't some lunatic, and at the end when they are all done discussing the draw backs and downsides to her 'idea' she even says "in fiction it would work" it's just an idea they throw out for discussion on their show. It isn't like she is campaigning to have governments do this.
Why prepare to have your sons and daughters Id when they die in war? If you have 18+ years to prepare for something, why not work on diplomacy? You have the time....
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Revelations Ch 13
16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,
17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
You might be interested to discover that she wasn't actually advocating chipping people. She was asked for wild ideas, not good ideas. It was discussed on her blog when I, myself took her seriously and called her out. http://www.paksworld.com/blog/?p=1574#comments
What the hell are you talking about? She was invited to a radio show where they discussed theoretical ways of dealing with futuristic combat. That is exactly where people should throw things to see what sticks. Further to that, she didn't write anything about this. The article was written by the BBC about the show she was in.
The problem here is you've been suckered in by yet another inflammatory article on Slashdot that mentions her suggestion as if it's her core belief, but then fails to mention she later admits it wouldn't work.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
Filip J. Fry, is that you ?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
"The difference between distopian and utopian is only in the application of technology."
Your idea of utopia might not be mine.
"Imagine the benefits of such a technology if there was no crime,"
Does crime include violent uprising against oppressive governments?
"Never again would a wrong blood transfusion be given, if you have an accident the ambulance would know your allergies instantly, not that there'd be as many accidents as disqualified drivers may actually stay disqualified. No need to worry about losing a credit card since the payment could be made based on the chip in you person. "
Thanks, but i'll put up with that in exchange for not being some 24/7 monitored zombie.
"Or how about the Bill Gates system of a house that is smart enough to adjust tastes depending on who is in the room, with art, music, mood lighting, etc."
And what if there are 2 people in the room? Also for those of us who haven't yet degenerated into a lipid filled spheroid who can't move from a sofa its quite possible to do that manually in , oh , 10 seconds?
"The difference between a distopia and a utopia is the existence of bad guys in the story, nothing more."
And the difference between life and death is simply a beating heart, nothing more. Short of genetically engineering the entire human race to weed out "bad" genes (how do you define bad?), there will always be "bad guys".
I suggest you take a break from star trek re-runs and wake up to the real human condition.
I heard the programme. I get it as a podcast.
Someone is given 60 seconds to make a suggestion that would change the world. Has nobody else never had to take part in a debate? This is a mental exercise or entertainment not a serious statement of intent. The previous week, the speaker suggested that as people took too many crummy digital pictures, we should all be limited to one picture per day.
Go and listen to the article and get some context before criticising what we can all agree would be a seriously bad idea.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
So we need a universal way to identify individuals? We have thumbprints. Moon could just as easily have called for portable devices to scan thumbs and identify the people attached to said thumbs, but she didn't. She had to make it all weird and terrifying by suggesting a well-known staple of horrifying dystopian societies. Oh how sci-fi writers have changed!