Mexico's criminal concerns might lead it to adopt an unusual new technology: microchips, the size of a grain of rice, programmed with a serial number and implanted under a person's skin to protect them from kidnappings or identity theft. \nThe company responsible for the product is Applied Digital Solutions Inc., based in Palm Beach, Fla. Even though it's a U.S. company, its product is greeted more enthusiastically in Mexico than in the United States, where the public is more sensitive to privacy issues. \nPutting things in or on your body is in itself not a new concept. Between pacemakers, Norplant birth control implants and outré piercings, the practice is a well-established one. Nor is confirmation of identity particularly novel. People with health concerns carry cards identifying their illness and emergency numbers; criminals sometimes are forced to wear electronic bracelets, and ID cards serve a similar service for the public at large.\nOn the surface, there is no reason for concern. The practice is voluntary, and it is not up to society to protect its individuals from their own follies. Some people with health concerns might be genuinely well served by the nascent technology. It is a not a particularly pertinent issue for Americans since the major market lies with our southern neighbor.\nBut for a generation well versed in Philip K. Dick novels and spy movies, a new technology like this has chilling implications. The danger lies in social acceptance of a chip implanted in a person that can be "scanned" or "tagged." While there is nothing wrong with a voluntary implantation, the concept might become so comfortable that involuntary implantations -- perhaps for criminals or the mentally ill -- might not seem so outlandish. For the time being, information is stored in a database, but as we strive for efficiency, perhaps it will be transferred to the chips themselves. Maybe the scanning wand will prove to be inefficient and be replaced by a laser gun that can scan a chip from across the room? Perhaps there even will be a shock implanted in it, in case the individual carrying the chip is a criminal and needs to be quickly neutralized to prevent a crime. The chip itself might be an innocuous innovation, but its implications for society's incremental acceptance of the erosion of rights to privacy are a disturbing aspect of the invention. \nAs a society, we have grown comfortable with the idea of self-monitoring. Driver's licenses, social security numbers, even the do-it-yourself scanning devices at a grocery store which greet you with "Welcome … Kroger … plus … member" have gone a long way toward ushering us ianto a social panopticon. In such an atmosphere, implanted chips lose their eeriness and are not a major cause for concern. Maybe in a not-very-distant future, upon your entrance into the building a polite electronic voice will welcome you with "John Doe … Blood type AB positive … voted Republican in the last election."
-- Lize Kolar for the Editorial Board
