by Grandpa Chuck
On Oct 13th - 2004, the Food and Drug Administration said that Applied Digital Solutions of Delray Beach, Fla., could market the VeriChip, an implantable computer chip about the size of a grain of rice, for storing medical information.
This is something that has been building in the news. Let’s look at some earlier news releases.
In
April it was reported in the news that VIP customers at the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona,
Spain could buy drinks and food with a wave of their hand and didn't need to worry about
losing a credit card or wallet after being chipped. "From
the moment of their implantation they will also have free entry and access to the VIP
area," a club manager was quoted as saying in reference to customers receiving the
chips.
Then in July a news article it was reported that Mexico’s Attorney General Rafael Macedoo de la Concha had a chip implanted in his arm for security reasons. Macedoo was quoted in the article that 160 of his employees had been implanted with the rice-grain-sized chips, manufactured by the VeriChip Corp., of Delray, FL.
It should be noted that Professor Kevin Warwick, director of cybernetics at the University of Reading in the U.K., on Monday, Aug. 24, 1998, became the first human to host a microchip. Professor Kevin was quoted as saying, "My wife finds it really strange," he says. "She didn't want to go near my arm for a couple of days. It was as though I had some funny disease." His 16-year-old daughter reportedly called him "crazy."
While tens of thousands of the tiny radio-frequency identification (RFID) devices have been implanted in animals for years, it is now obvious that they will be used in humans.
The name RFID stands for radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have been shrunk to the size of a grain of rice. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries instead getting power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
Is the human body a fit place for a microchip? The debate is no longer hypothetical. The same computing power that once required an entire building to harness now can be inserted in your left arm.
Is this a medical advancement, or an example of technology gone wrong? Are you ready to “Get Chipped”?
