Is this the wave of the future, when it comes to how personal data will be managed and used?
Apparently in Sweden it is, and it seems that this is actually being done right now and is not just theoretical: people having microchips implanted in their hands, in the flesh at the base of their thumbs, to be used for all kinds of purposes. So when the person stretches out his hand, the implanted chip can be read by nearby scanners. This leads to a literal wave of the hand doing a host of activities, such as unlocking doors, buying things, gaining access to transportation, and, apparently, just about
anything.
Of course there are critics, with the arguments against cyborgs applying here, although this would be a pretty small case of being a cyborg (although technically that's what it is).
But what's really interesting about
this application in Sweden is that it's actually being done now, in about
3000 people so far, and should provide some very interesting feedback on applying this sort of thing in a real world setting.
And maybe this technology, if it ever does become widespread, isn't all that OT. Perhaps in the future when a patient shows up for his cancer radiation treatment, for example, all he'll need to do is go up to the RT machine, stick out his hand so that the scanner reads the chip, the machine gets everything ready, and then all the patient has to do is lie down.
And what about
the future? How about
a microchip data collector implanted in one's prostate (or where it used to be) which continually collects and transmits data on what our prostate (or prostate bed) is doing, to a server somewhere that keeps a constantly updated profile on us, which a doctor can then read at any time? And things like that?
But how far would all this go, assuming something like this becomes both practical and accepted? When a baby is born in the future, will the first thing done to him/her be to implant a microchip at the base of his tiny thumb, to be there for his whole life, constantly interacting with all sorts of other devices, as long as he lives? (Well, I guess one advantage would be that it would be nearly impossible to mix up whose baby is whose in the hospital nursery. But still ...).
Oh brave new world indeed ...
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/22/658808705/thousands-of-swedes-are-inserting-microchips-under-their-skinA Youtube video showing some visuals of this implant chip in action:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sweden+chip+implants+youtube&view=detail&mid=8079038683aef7a4b3668079038683aef7a4b366&form=vire