I read a heart-warming story last week about a dog that returned to its former home from its current one – the family and the dog had moved to the new home 57 miles away from the old one. Even more remarkable, the dog must have crossed several major highways and a river to get there. Presumably the dog made the journey from the old home to the new one in a car so how on earth did she find her way back? That story started a conversation about microchips inserted in pets to allow their owners to track them if they run away.
How long, I wondered, before we do the same thing with children and even adults?
The new social security number could be a chip implanted under the skin of a baby’s forehead – permanent identification. A frightening thought, but a somewhat inevitable consequence of society’s increasing concern with security and identity theft.
I guess someone will figure out how to change, or exchange, the chip and thus defeat the system but I think we’d better anticipate the possibility of governments tracking all citizens like this before some maniac of a president somewhere thinks it is a good idea.
Think of the possibilities. If you could track everyone, you might be able to steal their vote………Donald Trump’s dream…………but I digress!
A Swedish company has experimented with implanting a chip in the wrists of all employees that gives them authorized access to all the doors, photocopy machines and telephones in the office and also to the parking garage entrance. No keys necessary.
A practical idea, maybe, but the ramifications of such technology could be horrendous. As someone once said, if it exists – the technology – someone will figure out how to exploit it for their own benefit and that may be an individual, a country or a terrorist group.
Food for thought.
I think it might be more productive for mankind to figure out how that dog managed to find her way across 57 miles of country she had never seen before to arrive exactly where she wanted to be and only took a few days to do it. That’s useful technology, especially for people who get lost in their own streets or even their own houses.
