Jealous lovers will soon have the perfect tool to track and catch cheating spouses. Parents anxious about their child’s safety will lose less sleep about kidnappers and abductions. In short, the world soon will be a much better place, all thanks to a little under-the-skin microchip that tracks a person’s movements, similar to LoJack technology used to thwart car thieves.
Panicked parents have inundated Cybernetics expert Kevin Warwick from Reading University near London with requests to implant a tracking microchip into their children.
Hysteria mounted after two 10-year-olds were murdered in the area. The British reaction mirrors that of America’s to the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart, Samantha Runnion and Danielle van Dam earlier this year.
Several options exist, including the possibility of using a mobile phone network to transmit a signal and linking it to a global positioning system. One family has offered their 11-year-old daughter as the first guinea pig to test the electronic tag, which Warwick hopes to perfect before Christmas.
The operation would implanting a small transmitter about 2.5 cm long either into the child’s arm or stomach. Therefore, no abductor would know about the device, which, when not in use, could be switched off to conserve battery power.
Watches that perform the same role already exist and are available in the United States. Unlike the microchip, they are easily removed and discarded by abductors or husbands wanting to stay at the bar a while longer.
So bring on the new technology! This is the information age, so let’s make sure all our information is available to anyone and everyone. Free implants for every child in America! As they grow, teachers would know when students are really sick or just playing hookey, employers could check on workers – in traffic or sleeping in?- and spouses could check on those “late nights at the office.”
Technology we once laughed at – Big Brother and microchips tracking our every move – has become a reality. Science fiction books and movies are now non-fiction.
As the next generation of leaders, we must decide how far we will allow the government to encroach upon our freedoms. We must seriously consider the meaning of “free.”
Do we really want someone knowing our every move?
