“When Patrick McMullan wants a Diet Dr. Pepper while he’s at work, he pays for it with a wave of his hand. McMullan has a microchip implanted between his thumb and forefinger, and the vending machine immediately deducts money from his account,” Rachel Metz reports for MIT Technology Review. “At his office, he’s one of dozens of employees who have been doing likewise for a year now.”
“McMullan is the president of Three Square Market, a technology company that provides self-service mini-markets to hospitals, hotels, and company break rooms. Last August, he became one of roughly 50 employees at its headquarters in River Falls, Wisconsin, who volunteered to have a chip injected into their hand,” Metz reports. “The idea came about in early 2017, he says, when he was on a business trip to Sweden—a country where some people are getting subcutaneous microchips to do things like enter secure buildings or book train tickets. ”
“A year into their experiment, McMullan and a few employees say they are still using the chips regularly at work for all the activities they started out with last summer. Since then, an additional 30 employees have gotten the chips, which means that roughly 80 of the company’s now 250 employees, or nearly a third, are walking, talking cyborgs,” Metz reports. “‘You get used to it; it’s easy,’ McMullan says. As far as he knows, just two Three Square Market employees have had their chips removed — and that was when they left the company.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Considering the way most people are about their privacy, thinking they are invisible or something (after all, Facebook still has over a billion users), we expect chipping to spread, not recede.
“Like it or not, it’s the next logical step. At first, it’ll even be optional. Welcome to a Brave New World. We’re surprised it hasn’t come sooner.” — MacDailyNews, July 24, 2017
SEE ALSO:
You WILL get microchipped – eventually – August 10, 2017
Wisconsin tech company to start microchipping their workers – July 24, 2017
In the accompanying photo of him “swiping” his hand next to a chip reader, he’s wearing a watch. I imagine some kind of wrist-worn device with NFC might be a tad more comfortable than having a chip physically inserted into the body. Perhaps a forward thinking California tech giant will invent something like that.
A sycophant’s paradise, a democrat’s dystopia!
The Right Wing is going to love it….
“The Right Wing is going to love it….” UH NO, based upon my 6+ decades of life experience, NO doubt it will be the Left
If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host or a social network, he switches channels or stops visiting.
A liberal demands that those he doesn’t like be shut down.
If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God silenced.
If a conservative decides he needs health insurance, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.”
People who are anti-authoritarian of any stripe, left AND right, will strongly resist anything like this becoming mandatory.
Don’t confuse left/right with being authoritarian. The worst dangers are from those who love a strong authoritarian power figure. In the U.S. right now, it’s pretty obvious where _that_ danger lies the most.
What’s not recognized by most is that authoritarianism has been a danger for… well, since the beginning. Like it or not, it’s inherent in politics.
The case could be made that every President has acted with authoritarian impulse at some time and overreached their Constitutional authority.
It can easily be argued that ol’ Honest Abe was an authoritarian, and not necessarily due to his actions during the Civil War. Somewhere I read that Abe said the purpose of government is “to do what the people can not, or will not, do for themselves”.
That’s pretty much a blank check.
Me: NEVER EVER GOING TO HAPPEN.
If a soft drink dispenser can read your chip then countless other systems can too.
And yes, I do keep my credit cards and other RFID cards in a RF blocking wallet (including when I carry my passport).
You’re Fired! Then what? Or, maybe the company can “encourage” good work through the chip.
The Mark of The Beest…continues to develop in-spite of fairytale characterizations.
I doubt that the US will go full on. Most likely Fascist nations like Turkey may first force inmates and Kurds. Sheep nations like Sweden are good candidates for full on. Some corporations like the NSA or AT&T who is a gov. spy ally may go for it.
So, in short, 80 frogs are now happily sitting in a pot of water that’s just been put on the stove…
Something takes over me
Every moment they scan my hand —
Chip’s working fine
As the bits all align and I understand
That the best part of me
Is you.
(with apologies to Lee Brice)
If they’re in Silicon Valley, I believe it. If you are talking about the real world, probably not going to fly. Ordering a soda with a wave of my hand is not high on the list iof my priorities. So great they are crushing all these first world problems.
Patrick, Congratulations. Always ahead with Innovation!!
RE: MDN take. Nothing is inevitable, except that many people will continue to make foolish, short-sighted decisions for the sake of mere convenience.
Nothing is inevitable… anymore than something is too big to fail. Which, as we’re seen repeatedly over the past 50+ years, is patently false… as one after another of too-big-to-fail companies did just that… failed and disappeared (or may as well have) from our economic landscape.
Pan Am, anyone?
MGM?
GM? Who, at the rate they’re shedding nameplates will probably be known as General Motor (or just Chevrolet) in a decade or so.
Let’s be honest. Just who really benefits from the “convenience” of being chipped?
Consumers? Citizens?
Sure they do… just like the proverbial frog sitting in a pot being brought to a slow boil.
The corporation pushes chipping because it benefits itself.
If there were such a law, I say force legislators who pushed for it to be chipped first, secondly force corporates who will benefit from it, members of the security state next, then make it optional for normal folks.