Isn't science & technology wonderful? This article on the BBC science website got me thinking. After reading the article I thought, "what a wonderful idea!". Then I thought of a more darker side. But let's not get depressed, just yet. Let's look at the potential benefits. Planting an electronic chip under the skin to remotely pump out drugs into a sick person's system when the programme, or a remote medic, recognises the patient's need for the drugs is, in my humble opinion, a fantastic idea. Eventually sick people, like diabetics, won't have to give themselves their insulin injections as the chip would be able to recognise the need for insulin and either automatically pump it straight into the body's system or inform a remote medic who can decide to send a message to the chip to start pumping. Diabetics, and other people suffering from a various list of diseases or abnormalities, will no longer need to remember to take their medicine; the chip will do that for them. They can then get on with living a fairly normal life. The chip will pump in the required drugs and monitor the patient giving the medic an almost instantaneous and continuous medical update. People at risk from heart attacks would have a chip subcutaneously inserted which, on detecting an approaching heart attack, will pump into their system the required drug and, more importantly, inform the remote medic that this patient is about to suffer from a heart attack. This system will save millions of lives. Now to the dark side.
We have all heard the scare stories about big brother being able to know exactly where we are by locating out mobile phones. Thereby allowing big brother to track our movements in time and space. However, for it to work we would need to carry the mobile phone [cell phone to you American cousins] with us. Having a memory like a sieve I am constantly forgetting my mobile thereby making it difficult for big brother to trace potential anti-government activists/terrorists [like myself or even you?]. Having a chip implanted under your skin obviates the need of Big Brother to trace their targets by their mobile phone. So, Big Brother gaining access to the medical computer, which observes the 'chipped' patients, under the guise of state security is such an easy step to take. But there is more. Imagine a state 'target' that the security services would wish were no longer a 'threat' to their society being remotely executed by the state by allowing certain chips to include cyanide, or some other drug, to be included along with the patient/target's medicine. Far fetched? Not so far fetched as one might think.
No comments:
Post a Comment