Mulling over George Pope to Steve Asher 19 Apr 2005

Hi George,

 SA>  GP> I can't believe that they can send an email just by THINKING!
 SA>
 SA> I have a feeling the reporter was thinking of Professor Warwick, of
 SA> Reading University, who was chipped a few years back, & who apparently
 SA> uses the chip to control a computer which communicates with his wife.

 GP> Wasn't this a story in Asimov's Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine?

Quite possibly, though I haven't heard of that magazine. Warwick's work
is not fantasy or science fiction, so might not qualify, but you can
see more about him at http://www.kevinwarwick.com if you are interested.

 SA> We need the chips so our children can get their free school lunch
 SA> without their peers knowing they can't afford to buy it, or so we 
 SA> won't hold up Macca's staff when we drive our e-tag equipped cars 
 SA> through their remotely controlled "drive thru" to get our burgers 
 SA> & fries (and so on).

 GP> What "need"?

The "need" that that those pushing biometrics / RFID etc are creating,
in order to meet the "need". 

 GP> Never underestimate the power of mass passive resistance!

Hmmm... the whole thrust of e-commerce and e-government is to "educate"
"consumers" into buying and selling "online"; to access
government
"portals" in order to pay library fines, book access to national parks,
pay for licences (etc). While "consumers" are not falling over themselves
to access these "web-enabled" services, with their requirement that people
must be uniquely identified, the problem isn't seen as "passive
resistance",
but lack of effective "education" and "accessiblity".
Solution: employ
consultants, focus groups and the like to market the unpalatable and
unwanted. "ID Card" has bad overtones, so call it a "Benefit
Card" and
"let" people use it to pay for public transport, borrow library books,
pay fines, get pensions etc etc.

 GP> They told us we needed a Pentium running 32-bit Windows to exist in
 GP> the world today, but here I am, on my fave 'puter -- my IBM 486
 GP> running DOS 6.22!

This has a bit more grunt than that, but only to allow a couple of
telnet nodes to coexist with the dial-up node, and runs happily under
OS/2 Warp.

Cheers, Steve..

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