Want to gain entry to your office, get on a bus, or
perhaps buy a sandwich? We're all getting used to
swiping a card to do all these things. But at
Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden,
they are trying a different approach - a chip under
the skin.
Felicio de Costa, whose company is one of the
tenants, arrives at the front door and holds his hand
against it to gain entry. Inside he does the same
thing to get into the office space he rents, and he
can also wave his hand to operate the photocopier.
That's all because he has a tiny RFID (radio-
frequency identification) chip, about the size of a
grain of rice, implanted in his hand. Soon, others
among the 700 people expected to occupy the
complex will also be offered the chance to be
chipped. Along with access to doors and
photocopiers, they're promised further services in
the longer run, including the ability to pay in the
cafe with a touch of a hand.
On the day of the building's official opening, the
developer's chief executive was, himself, chipped
live on stage. And I decided that if was to get to
grips with this technology, I had to bite the bullet -
and get chipped too.
The whole process is being organised by a Swedish
bio-hacking group which was profiled by my
colleague Jane Wakefield recently. One of its
members, a rather fearsome looking tattooist,
inserted my chip.
First, he massaged the skin between my thumb and
index finger and rubbed in some disinfectant. The
he told me to take a deep breath while he inserted
the chip. There was a moment of pain - not much
worse than any injection - and then he stuck a
plaster over my hand.
Before trying my chip out, I wanted to know more
about the thinking behind it. Hannes Sjoblad, whose
electronic business card is on his own chip and can
be accessed with a swipe of a smartphone, has the
title chief disruption officer at the development. I
asked him whether people really wanted to get this
intimate with technology.
"We already interact with technology all the time,"
he told me. "Today it's a bit messy - we need pin
codes and passwords. Wouldn't it be easy to just
touch with your hand? That's really intuitive."
When I tested my chip, I found that it was not all
that intuitive - I had to twist my hand into an
unnatural position to make the photocopier work.
And while some of the people around the building
were looking forward to being chipped, others were
distinctly dubious. "Absolutely not," said one young
man when I asked him if he'd sign up. An older
woman was more positive about the potential of the
technology but saw little point in being chipped just
to get through a door.
But Hannes Sjoblad says he and the Swedish
Biohacking Group have another objective -
preparing us all for the day when others want to
chip us. "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." Then, he says, we'll all be able to
question the way the technology is implemented
from a position of much greater knowledge.
I've returned to Britain with a slightly sore hand -
and a chip still under my skin which has my contact
details on it. Not that useful, but no doubt more
sophisticated chips will soon replace wearable
technology like fitness bands or payment devices,
and we will get used to being augmented. All sorts
of things are possible - whether it becomes
culturally acceptable to insert technology beneath
our skin is another matter.


so urce: http://m.bbc.com/news/technology-31042477

Can't wait wen dey start chippin koboko nah punny, no more long scoping 2 lick d pot as d male chip wuld easily detect if d gal is in her heat period..

Buh come oo.. Dis world done dey reach climax oo..
Off 2 mosque to go confess my sin to d priest...

The name of your condition is hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. You can take solace in the fact that nobody is forcing you to receive the chip in your right hand or forehead; you can simply take it in your left hand, to be safe. However, if this is indeed the mark of the beast, then I'm sorry to inform you that you have missed the Rapture. Prepare for hardship in your life.