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."

Comments

3 Words

[dcollins]

Horrible, dystopian, inevitable.

Re:3 Words

[smash]

Only if their prints are on file. If everyone is chipped at birth, their chip ID will certainly be on file from birth.

Re:3 Words

[knuthin]

You think it's worth getting your self permanently IDed just so that a bunch of soldiers could identify each other in combat? Wouldn't that application demand ONLY the soldiers to be chipped?

Also, you really need to give your privacy away with shit like that?

Re:3 Words

[Rude Turnip]

The first 4 words that came to my mind when I read this proposal were yourself, Elizabeth, fuck, & go.

Re:3 Words

[ThePeices]

so you thought; yourself Elizabeth fuck go.

Even Yoda would be proud.

Re:3 Words

[Altrag]

There's a major upside to current identification methods requiring time and effort -- it relegates their usage to only those people with the resources available to identify you.

With a chip system, even if the government by some miracle of fortune managed to keep their database secure (which is highly unlikely,) it wouldn't be long before someone realizes that the encrypted message itself is necessarily unique, and therefore could easily be used to start generated an (effectively unencrypted) database without even bothering to break the encryption.

Of course, there's always the "nothing to hide; nothing to fear" argument, but everybody has something they want to (or need to) hide from somebody.

The "nothing to hide.." argument stops being useful once you expand it beyond basic law enforcement duties (where you only would need to hide criminal behavior.) But unfortunately people get judged by more than the law in everyday life (bosses, significant others, family members, classmates, your pastor/rabbi/whatever if you're into that kind of thing, etc.) Expand that set far enough and you'll eventually hit somebody you'd rather not explain that drunken night from 15 years ago to.

Re:3 Words

[eudaemon]

Hi, paranoid science lady. Thank you for putting a friend or foe chip in every enemy soldier fighting against my glorious and righteous cause. I have adapted all my improvised incindiery devices to trigger from their presence. My soldiers can now quickly and safely sweep an area for enemy combatants with nothing more than an RFID gun. Encryption, you say? We destroy all the chips in our equipment so any response at all whether we understand it or not is enough to attack or retreat as we see fit. Of course the secret back door installed by your government was easily reverse engineered and decoded with a few million dollars invested with the right Chinese lab and their scanning-tunneling microscope. I understand your government is enjoying similar benefits now that there are no more anonymous protests, or really anonymity of any kind. You were so right! "something could happen", you said. And now that everyone is chipped it has! We've always been at war with Eurasia.

Re:3 Words

[Macgrrl]

The 'file' will only be as good as the records management system used to maintain, store and secure such records. Given how poor most large scale record systems are, I would still expect identity theft to be rife, just harder to restore.

Re:3 Words

[rev0lt]

Also, you really need to give your privacy away with shit like that?

What privacy? Unless you live under a rock, you are already being monitored - from surveillance cameras to cable channel preferences.

Re:3 Words

[arglebargle_xiv]

Having such a unique barcode would have many advantages. In war soldiers could easily differentiate legitimate targets in a population from non combatants.

"I say, would you chaps mind stopping your shooting at us for a few minutes? I'd like to come over with a barcode scanner to verify which if you are supposed to be the enemy, so I don't accidentally hit the wrong person. I'll be right over as soon as I've finished this cup of tea".

"Oh I say! the Cads!"

Re:3 Words

[ozmanjusri]

Chipped or not chipped.

Soon it won't matter.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/Facial-Recognition-Technology-in-SF-Bars-Defended-Not-Too-Intrusive-151579195.html

Re:3 Words

[euroq]

Interestingly enough, there was a guy in my HOA (condo association) that was running for the president or whatever the name of the head executive officer was. Someone else in the HOA was a former member of the FBI and illicitly and illegally did a background check on him - the type of background check that was only available to the FBI and not someone just renting a home. He told everyone about what this guy did (robbery from OVER THIRTY years ago) and nobody voted for him.

Perfect example of why it's bad to have this information in the government's hand in the first place. Once it's there, it's inevitable that it is going to be exploited and misused in a manner the original framers didn't intend.

Re:3 Words

[just_a_monkey]

To be fair, her starting point is "If I were empress of the Universe...".

If I was Emperor of the Universe, you would all be tagged and chipped at birth too. And if the secret police finds the slightest sign of dissent, bzzt, doors won't open for you, computers won't let you access them, cars won't start, banks won't deal with you (and of course there is only electronic money), public buildings won't let you access, and so on. So behave!

hmm

[smash]

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.

We're already chipped

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called DNA.

Dear Elizabeth

[SilverJets]

I am not a number.

Kindly STFU.

Oh god are we falling for this?

[AbRASiON]

I'm not even a smart guy and I can put 2 and 2 together here.
NOTE: "Sci-fi writer" ,............ 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!"

We're better than this aren't we?

I sided with Elizabeth before...

[Nova Express]

...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.

Because it's so hard to change

[Qubit]

a chip or a barcode on the skin...

oh, wait.

Re:Elizabeth Moon

[Dyinobal]

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.

Hold on folks

[Dyinobal]

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.

Stupid Woman

[TiggertheMad]

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....

Re:Elizabeth Moon

[iphinome]

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

Re:Elizabeth Moon

[Macthorpe]

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.

Re:Utopia??

[Viol8]

"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.

This was a debate.

[Gonoff]

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.