re: #39 wrenchwench

From near the end of the article:

What about if the people promulgating the idea are batsh!t insane, would that make it a bad idea?

“batsh!t insane” is not so easily defined. A century ago, similar labels were applied to people who believed that black people should have the same civil rights as white people.

Ignore the mentality of the proponents of the legislation and think about the long-term consequences of the growth and continued use of such technology. People think of such things as leading-edge, modern technology, and they are, but that is a narrow view, focused on the here-and-now. The problem is that technologies are never static. Compare Thomas Edison’s original phonograph with the stereo systems available today - you see an expansion of capability that would have astonished the people of Edison’s time. What can implantable biochip technology grow into in the next 100 years? It is better to think about such things beforehand than to react to abuses and failures afterwards. Imagine the consequences of a widespread human biochip use that grew up with the same lack of foresight that is embedded in today’s Internet e-mail technology.