Candidate for California Governor Promotes Transhumanism, While Swedish Train Using Implanted Chip in Place of Tickets

SCDigest has reported several times over the past few years about the small but it appears growing interest in having one or more RFID chips or similar technology implanted in someone's body, generally in the fleshy area between the thumb and index finger, and using that wireless device to automate an increasingly broad array of everyday tasks.

Supply Chain Digest Says... Governor candidate Istvan agrees, writing that "With so much going for it, I'm expecting a mainstream cultural wave of chipping to take place over the next decade." What do you say? Click here to send us your comments Click here to see reader feedback

It largely started with a man name Amal Graafstra, who made news in 2010 by publicizing the fact that he had a RFID tag implanted in each hand, which he used to perform tasks such as opening his garage door or turning on his computer with a wave of his hand. (Are RFID Tagged Humans Closer than we Think?)

This summer, there was news that Wisconsin company Three Square Market offered employees implantable chips to open doors, buy snacks, log in to computers, and use office equipment like copy machines. It's not clear how many workers have taken advantage of the offer, though some 50 were said to have signed up initially.

There have been a few similar examples in Europe between Graafstra to Three Square Market timeframe. Graafstra has even managed to started a business selling kits for individuals, perhaps with some help, to implant their own chips using a type of syringe.

The movement in some circles goes by the name transhumanism, which is about people who want to use radical technology in their bodies.

Writing last week in an opinion column in the San Francisco Chronicle, transhumanist Zoltan Istvan - who is running for governor of California as a Libertarian, by the way - writes that "I got my RFID implant two years ago, and now I use it to send text messages, bypass security codes on my computer, and open my front door. Soon I'll get the software to start my car, and then my life will be totally keyless."

His implant cost $60, he says.

Also, recent news that a new program is being developed in Sweden that will allow train riders to use implanted chips instead of a physical ticket. Conductors will use a mobile phone app to match up the rider's membership number on the chip with a purchased ticket.

The company providing the technology said it initially expects around 200 people to join the program.

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An image of a train employee using an app to read a passenger's chip and calling up his account and ticket information is shown below.

It is worth noting that around 3,000 people in Sweden have already had a chip embedded in their hand in order to access secure areas of buildings.

"You could use the microchip implant to replace a lot of stuff, your credit cards, they keys to your house, the keys to your car," a company executive told the BBC.

That is similar thinking to that on a report on NBC last year, which predicted the microchipping of children will happen "sooner rather than later" and that Americans will eventually accept the chipping process as something just as normal as the bar code in a grocery store.

Governor candidate Istvan agrees, writing that "With so much going for it, I'm expecting a mainstream cultural wave of chipping to take place over the next decade as implant technology becomes increasingly more functional."

There are of course concerns. Many privacy groups worry about where all this is headed - will the government be able to track citizens using the implanted chips - and there are also concerns from Christian groups.

For example, implants fit the biblical warning of the "Mark of the Beast" quite well - but there were similar concerns. But that was true of bar coding as well, and such concerns hardly slowed the adoption of the technology.

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