(SF Chronicle) – Last year, I got an RFID implant in my hand. The chip is about the size of a grain of rice and takes just seconds to install via a syringe. A friend injected it in me, and I barely even felt it. The implant can do all sorts of things, like unlock my electronic house door, act as my password on my computer, and even send a text message when people with the right phone and app come near me. My auto text says: “Win in 2016!”
As the 2016 presidential candidate for the San Francisco-based Transhumanist Party, I may be the first candidate to get chipped (at least according to public knowledge). However, I’m guessing by the 2020 elections, other candidates will also have them. And maybe by then the Transhumanist Party will be on the California ballot (it hasn’t qualified for the 2016 ballot, as it’s difficult for small parties like mine to gather the tens of thousands of signatures required to qualify).
Many people ask: Why should anyone get chipped? As the late Steve Jobs pointed out, people dislike unnecessary accessories. Keys, credit cards, ID cards, medical records and passwords — these are all things that can be replaced by a tiny chip in the hand. And they likely will be, as transhumanism — using radical science and technology to modify the human being — grows in influence and outreach.
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The chip-implant movement is being led by biohackers — mostly young kids who have taken body modification into the technological realm. Their aim — like mine — is to one day become a cyborg, and some already have much technology in their bodies, such as tiny speakers surgically implanted near their ears to wirelessly hear music from their smartphones.
If having technology in your bodies sounds wacky, consider the millions of people around the world who have artificial hips or dentures, or deaf people who use cochlear implants to hear sounds.
In fact, former Vice President Dick Cheney famously asked to have the Wi-Fi on his heart valve turned off, just in case terrorists tried to hack it.
The merger of humans with machines is well under way. For example, if you have access to the technology, many forms of blindness can be overcome. A company in Sylmar (Los Angeles County) called Second Sight already has FDA approval for bionic eyes.
I recently consulted with the U.S. Navy about implant technology. Four officers came to my home in Mill Valley and asked me questions. One of their concerns was that new recruits with civilian chip implants might be stationed on bases and ships with nuclear arms. How does the U.S. military deal with that? Are the chips a threat to national security? Should the soldiers be forced to remove their implants?
The answers are complex, and there’s little regulation around such technology. In fact, most of the implant tech is being crafted by biohackers in their garages. But even the government knows this type of tech is inevitable. President Obama’s BRAIN initiative earmarked $70 million for using brain implants to treat soldiers with mental disorders. Already, thousands of people around the world have been using brain implants to treat Alzheimer’s and epilepsy, with some success. Two colleagues of mine are even planning to surgically implant EEG brainwave chips in their skulls in order to be able to commune directly with artificial intelligence. Talk about the Matrix.
On a more practical level for the general public, I’ve been told by biohacker friends that many next-generation implants will have payment technology, so the next time you’re at Starbucks or out shopping, you won’t need to worry about bringing your wallet or having cash — you’ll just swipe your hand by the payment scanner.
On my recent campaign bus tour across America, especially in the South, religious people complained to me my implant was the Mark of the Beast, where the Antichrist tags human beings to spur the coming apocalypse. Of course, some people said that about driver’s licenses and cell phones when they came out, too.
Implant tech may be controversial to some, but with chips only costing about $60 and being able to replace about 50 percent of the contents of your wallet or purse, the question of using them is more a matter of convenience. I’m guessing millions of Americans will get them before the decade is out.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Chip-enhanced-political-candidates-coming-soon-8694149.php
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