electron zoo

Well, I posted about bionics/cybernetics yesterday, and today the Washington Post website features a front page article about radio-emitting ID chips being implanted into Mexican police officers. Now, this isn’t such a bad thing on it’s own — being able to find and identify cops can be very important — but companies that make these things are talking about a day when everyone will have one. They anticipate that these surgically implanted microchips will become a person’s driver’s license, credit card, ATM card, AAA card, etc. all in one.

Have these people never seen a dystopian, Orwellian-style science fiction film? No, I don’t base my entire world view and concepts of the future on science fiction, but I am imagining where in Minority Report, the biometrics of a person’s retina was used for complete identification. And if you haven’t seen that movie, I won’t be spoiling it by pointing out the gritty effect this had on street crime: people were mugged for their eyeballs.

Of course no one wants some mugger in a dark alley running off with their arm, but further, I don’t want to be identified without identifying myself. I don’t want a microchip to constantly project my whereabouts and identification any more than I want my face to be scanned and identified when I’m walking down the street. Just because I don’t have anything to hide does not mean I don’t want to hide it.

Maybe privacy is just becoming old fashioned. What a shame.

Uh oh. More evidence that the robots are taking over. (Okay, not really.)

We are engaged in an epic battle between genetic engineering and cybernetics — that is, which will become the standard for tampering with human potential? (Well, if Microsoft gets involved, I guess we can just let them decide.)

I like to refer to this epic struggle which will determine the fate of mankind as … MONKEY VERSUS ROBOT!!

But maybe that’s just me.

For your listening enjoyment: a little ditty about the FCC by Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame).

When I logged into Amazon.com this weekend, I noticed they jumped onto the blogging bandwagon with their new "Plog" feature. I wasn’t exactly impressed … but interested. Then I managed to get absorbed into the viral crack that Amazon has become. I wrote six or seven reviews and even a So You’d Like To … guide. It was fun, but probably a big waste of time. Oh well.

But one thing that wasn’t a waste of time — reading reviews of the Celestine Prophesy. (I am sort of a fan of this book, but I’m no nut — there are many valid criticisms of this book to be made.) You don’t even have to read them, just check out some of these titles:

Not a *total* waste of time
Utterly worthless
I don’t think so…
Awkward…Painful
Looking to waste your time & your money?
Celestine Prophecy: Or How I Lost My Faith in Humanity
Possibly the worst book I’ve ever read….ever!

And my ALL TIME FAVORITE …

This "Book" "Changed" My "Life"

(I laughed out loud at that one.)