Motorola has been involved in Smart Card technology for
nearly two decades. It is the world’s leading supplier of microchips and
is the current supplier for the MONDEX Smart Card. Today’s chip cards
can exchange information through contact with a reader. Incredibly, the
newer contactless and combination smartcards add a miniaturized radio
modem for sending and receiving data via a radio frequency.
Motorola is also involved in the development and
production of automotive and wireless microchips that work in conjunction
with Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. An automobile can be
fitted with one of these chips which allows the car owner to get road side
assistance, or even directions, at the push of a button.
The applications for these technologies seem to be
limitless. Just last year the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
introduced the use of Smart Cards in its central office. The card is
heralded as the solution to security problems. The GSA also claims
that eventually every federal employee will carry a Smart Card.
Furthermore, the GSA lists as one of its objectives the wider usage of
these cards for citizens at large.
There are problems, however. Although the Smart Card’s
makers claim that it is virtually impossible to duplicate, it is still
subject to damage, loss, and theft. These weaknesses will ultimately lead
to the next logical step; a much easier, much more secure, implanted
microchip. After all, if the microchip is about the size of a grain of
rice, it will fit comfortably under the skin.
This technology is being widely used with animals even
now. If you have a dog that likes to roam, you can take Fido down to your
local veterinarian who will provide a syringe gun implantable bio-chip
that will be injected under the skin of your pet. This system boasts that
it can track over 1 billion pets by GPS satellites and cellular towers.
According to an article posted at CNN.com in September
of 1998, Professor Kevin Warwick of the Cybernetics department at the
University of Reading in the U.K. claimed to be the world’s first
cybernetic man. He inserted an active microchip into his arm which is
powered by a system that uses electrical fields commonly found in offices
and retail stores as the power source. His device trips nearby sensors,
activating various computer processes when he passes by. Imagine your
apartment building or workplace elevators automatically recognizing you
and choosing the appropriate floor. Or, what if your car would only start
if you were sitting in the driver’s seat. Just think, you and only you
would be able to spend your money, or rather, electronic currency. That
would drop the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ crime rate in a hurry.
Used together with the GPS, some obvious uses for these
chips could be in the military, helping them to locate downed pilots. In
partnership with DNA information, there would be no more unknown soldiers.
Additionally, the problems of identity theft and missing children could be
eliminated virtually overnight.
But at what cost? Are we willing to give up privacy,
what little we have left, and our freedoms for "security"? It
would allow the government or unscrupulous organizations to control your
purchases, track your activities, and even determine your present
location.
It cannot be said with certainty when the implantable
chips will be put into wide use. It can, however, be said with certainty
that the monitoring of every human being on the planet is possible with current
technology. Those versed in the Scriptures know how this technology is
likely to be ultimately used: "And he causeth all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right
hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he
that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation
13:16-17. V ks
