Implanting microchips under an animal's skin for identification purposes has become quite common but it is still an ethically controversial issue in human beings. Nevertheless, there are already workplaces where employees are opening doors or photocopying without chip cards using chips under the skin on their hands. Employees of the new Epicenter office complex in Stockholm are the pioneers of this technology.
Epicenter is a hi-tech office building for approximately 700 people offering the most advanced work options. The offices are rented by various companies, including the Swedish branch of Google and Microsoft. Four hundred employees in the complex have already agreed to get the chip implanted. It is a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip about the size of a rice grain which is injected under the skin between thumb and forefinger using a syringe. At this time, the chip can only be used to enter the building, to open other doors and to use photocopiers. Also, employees will be able to use their chips to pay in the canteen and other possible uses will soon follow. The chips are already able to communicate with computers or smartphones via the Internet.
Will chips be common?
A BBC reporter, Rory Cellan-Jones, tried the implantation and use of the chip for himself in Sweden. He also shot the video report available on this page. He said that the implantation procedure is only as painful as any routine vaccination, so it is not particularly annoying. However, when he tried copying, he had to turn his hand into an unnatural position to be able to copy using the chip. While working on his report, he met people who were really looking forward to getting their chips, but also others who had significant doubts.
The whole project is being carried out by the Swedish Biohacking Group. The members of this group want to help people do routine things at work more easily. However, they have an even a bigger mission. They see testing the chips in practice as an opportunity to prepare for the future when human chipping will not be voluntary, but mandatory. "We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped - the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip," Hannes Sjoblad of the Swedish Biohacking Group told BBC.
Are you a fan of modern technology to the extent that you would let yourself get chipped? How far in the future do you think it will be when microchips in human bodies will be the norm? Is it ever acceptable?
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