This Company Embeds Microchips in Its Employees, and They Love It (technologyreview.com) 250
Last August, 50 employees at Three Square Market got RFID chips in their hands. Now 80 have them. From a report: The idea came about in early 2017, president of Three Square Market Patrick McMullan 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. It's one of very few places where chip implants, which have been around for quite a while, have taken off in some fashion. The chips he and his employees got are about the size of a very large grain of rice. They're intended to make it a little easier to do things like get into the office, log on to computers, and buy food and drinks in the company cafeteria. Like many RFID chips, they are passive -- they don't have batteries, and instead get their power from an RFID reader when it requests data from the chip.
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. "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.
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. "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.
walking, talking cyborgs (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a reference to "Captain Cyborg" (Score:3)
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Don't minimize Project Cyborg.
The array implanted in his arm allowed him to use a mechanical manipulator to perform some non-trivial work over a significant distance. He was also receiving tactile feedback. This was far from just implanting a chip under one's skin.
I mean, Kevin Warwick may have made some embarrassing predictions, and participated in some ill-advised publicity stunts, but Project Cyborg was a legitimate proof of concept, both science- and engineering- wise.
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"They're not "walking, talking cyborgs". They are just chipped like cats and dogs."
Sure, but those cats and dogs can enter the house through the electronic flap and the automatic feeder gives them food and the vet knows their name, owner, their allergies and medications.
I just don't understand the reluctance, people have had radio-playing tooth fillings for decades. :-)
If you don't want one, don't get one, use a card, a ring or your phone, but these can be lost and stolen.
Re:walking, talking cyborgs (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't want one, don't get one, use a card, a ring or your phone, but these can be lost and stolen.
Do you even see your own ignorance here? You just described the very excuses businesses will use (loss/theft) in order to take away the option of choice. And at this rate of blind acceptance, it won't be long before getting chipped will be a condition of employment. Don't like it? Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. I mean after all, it only took you 3 months, 200 resume submissions, and 4 interviews to land a job...you can easily decline the offer, right?
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At least it is less invasive than what we have to go through at the airport.
Re:walking, talking cyborgs (Score:5, Insightful)
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They're not "walking, talking cyborgs". They are just chipped like cats and dogs.
Sssh... my cyborg cat will hear you!
Re: walking, talking cyborgs (Score:2, Insightful)
Livestock might be a better description
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> They are just chipped like cats and dogs.
Correct. For "cyborg" to be applied, you have to either regain abilities or gain new ones via integration with something external. If you have some tail that is reading tiny muscle movements or even nerves, that would count. Some kind of bone conduction thing might work. Even something that pricked your skin slightly in the presence of magnetic fields is arguably counting, because it lets you "feel" magnetism (some people did this via implanting small magnet
Re:walking, talking cyborgs (Score:4, Funny)
The article didn't mention anything about them being married... or were you referencing a different type of leash?
Re: walking, talking cyborgs (Score:2)
So yes, I can understand that point of view.
In the Future... (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone in the concentration camp will get a chip.
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Everyone in the country will get a chip.
Fixed!
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Liberals, leftists, communists, socialists, terrorists, antfa thugs, feminists. Such a list!
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Liberals, leftists, communists, socialists, terrorists, antfa thugs, feminists. Such a list!
Don't forget that the communists (who were liberals, leftists, socialists, etc.) had the Gulag "Corrective Labor Camps" [wikipedia.org].
As long as it's voluntary (Score:2)
As long as it's voluntary, then more power to 'em. It's not something I would choose, but if they're happy, then I'm happy for them.
Re:As long as it's voluntary (Score:4, Insightful)
not me, with potential for mob rule making this a requirement
Re:As long as it's voluntary (Score:4, Insightful)
not me, with potential for mob rule making this a requirement
But then it's not voluntary, which was GPs stipulation.
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But then it's not voluntary, which was GPs stipulation.
Well he didn't say by law, he did say mob rule which can be a lot more subtle. For example say you want to buy your groceries in cash, well there's four self-checkout lanes (electronic only), two card-only registries and one cash registry. Which always has a line. Or they want you to pay for an electronic ticket on the bus, it starts as an alternative. Then you start getting a rebate on electronic tickets. Then you start selling period cards only electronically. Then the physical ticket machines start disap
Something like this usually is "voluntary" (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm left thinking of Hijabs and how they're voluntary in a lot of countries, even though there's enormous societal pressure for women to wear them. I've been watching a lot of Genetic Skeptic on youtube, hence the thought train, but there are other examples. Like "indentured servitude" where you sell yourself into slavery or for a slightly less controversial aspect how about standing for the national anthem. There's just lots and lots of things that are technically voluntary but very much not.
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80 people out of 7 billion; one company out of countless. That is a pretty small and insignificant sample size.
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Yeah, true true, but there is the possibility that out of 250 employees; 170 declared right up front, "Fuck this shit."
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Re:As long as it's voluntary (Score:4, Insightful)
If I put a gun to someone's head and tell them "either you obey or you die", is that voluntary? If I put an economic system to someone's stomach, and tell them "either you obey or you can't feed yourself", is that voluntary?
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Voluntary is a scary word.
Voluntary as in it's totally up to you to have this convenience, or else we give you a badge like everyone else, is fine.
Voluntary as in you can take this RFID or you can find another job is not. This is the one I see on the road ahead, and the laws need to get ahead of it. This is voluntary only for lunatics.
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Ah, the Ed Meese school of employer rights (employees have none). Everyone who is employed should routinely have their body fluids screened for whatever substances employers choose to test for (goodbye medical privacy), and employers can and should monitor what employees do outside the place of employment and make employment decisions based on these words and deeds.
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>"As long as it's voluntary, then more power to 'em. It's not something I would choose, but if they're happy, then I'm happy for them"
The problem is that it really isn't truly "voluntary" if there is pressure, coercion, discrimination, etc to comply. The more people that can be convinced into doing it, the more it becomes "normalized" and expected. At some point there will be "rewards" to those who comply, and those rewards exclude those who don't.... which essentially becomes a punishment. I am not s
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No need to drag Christian mythology into this. We can fuck up our society enough by ourselves without the help of the Christian Cosmic horror (or its so called Devil).
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Wow, you go dark fast!
Cold day in hell (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll be a cold day in hell before I get chipped.
Chips are for pets and property. Get one if you're looking to join the 21st century chattel slavery.
WATCHES? Did people forget about them? (Score:2)
RFID bracelets and watches and smart watches should have been a thing long ago. Medical ones exist but they lack RFID. This is an ACTUAL PRACTICAL USE for the watch or wrist band.
Hell, rings with RFID data in them should be the next big thing. wedding rings with wedding photos in them and pointless crap like that... but then everybody must think "Why would I wear anything with data in it because I'm attached to my phone anyway."
Those people too lazy to pull out the phone now just look at their wrist...
Yu
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You can get ID cards and bracelets with QR codes on them [qrepublik.com] today, mostly to hold contact information rather than medical records. RFID ones probably exist too but I don't think paramedics or nurses are normally looking out for them. But if you get into a car accident someone will flip through your personal belongings after you've been admitted and attempt to contact your family.
Within a hospital it is normal for patients to wear disposable bracelet, and RFID patient ID bracelets [pdchealthcare.com] are now readily available to
Convenience for rights? (Score:2)
One day, while it might not be mandatory, there will be so many advantages in being chipped vs many disadvantages in not being, that it will become essentially mandatory.
That presumes that people would be willing to go along with the action politically. I think that is unlikely to be the end result.
Can you hold on to your quaint sensibilities when being chipped means a fast track to the job you covet?
Probably. I'm certainly willing to take the challenge.
When not being chipped means having to sacrifice time and effort to do what the chipped achieve effortlessly?
My time and effort would be spent lobbying the government to make this an illegal practice. Possibly futile but I doubt I'd be alone.
You might think it would be cool to defy the "system" when you're young and single, but what will you do when you have a family to feed, hmmm?
If you aren't willing to fight for the civil rights of your children then you have no spine whatsoever. I'd fight this tooth and nail so my daughter wouldn't have to deal with it. I have a h
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Can you hold on to your quaint sensibilities when being chipped means a fast track to the job you covet?
I can, because I'm old enough that I can retire by the time that day comes.
The next generation will have to decide to either accept this as beneficial technology, or actively work against this as invasive and unnecessary. And form legislation to limit it.
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I don't have my ID permanently inserted into my body. Nor am I'm going to get my driver's license number tattooed on my arm for example.
Also realize I do not carry my ID everywhere. I have no interest in providing identification to authorities when I legally travel within the borders of my own country.
If I were forced to get a subcutaneous RFID tag I would considered that to be assault. And I'd definitely talk to a lawyer in order to proceed with both civil and criminal charges. But realistically I think t
80 out of 250 employees? (Score:4, Insightful)
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or, perhaps those employees don't 'need' them because they don't work in highly-secured environments or with sensitive data and/or they don't have any other job functions that could use the chips to enhance efficiency or increase security
Highly-secured environments? Three Square Market provides vending machine and business kiosk solutions. Let's dial back the James Bond bullshit already.
Best implanted... (Score:3, Interesting)
... in the forehead or in the hand.
Re:Best implanted... (Score:5, Funny)
Smash head into keyboard to log in.
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Nah, right around the jugular vein or carotid artery will have the most fun returns on the law of unintended consequences.
rfid reader - rfid writer - OH SHIT (Score:2)
Hmmm. Have they attached rfid readers to atm's yet?
I wonder how much there trade secrets are worth?
And traveling around the country on someone else's dime?
KOOL!
Keep your damned chips
I foresee a future (Score:3)
Where implanted microchips will be so ingrained into society that you must have one in your right hand or on your forehead as your government id to drive your car, or to buy, sell, or perform any other kind of business transaction ---- all the functions of your driver's license, car keys, house keys, debit card terminals, etc, will be implemented so that they use the chip to identify you.
With maybe a slight complication of you type a 3-digit number and push the "Visa" or "Paypal" button to identify which of your credit cards you intend to use for a purchase, etc.
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And the number of typing shall be 666.
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I shall take 668: The Neighbor of the Beast.
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I think you mean "668: The neighbor of the neighbor of the Beast."
Reminds me of grandma's stories (Score:3)
She was a jew.
Why not simply bracelets? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure there are a few industries where shoving a microchip under your skin would be "better" than simply wearing a bracelet with the same chip...but, I mean, why implant it? Sure it won't get lost, but seriously. Take some responsibility of your secrets and wear it instead of injecting it semi-permanently. I just don't see the point (aside from the aforementioned few industries).
Give the user the choice to take it off.
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Give the user the choice to take it off.
1.) They did.
Two took advantage.
2.) If they can take it off, they can give it to someone else.
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1a) Yeah but you can't take it out yourself, can you? You need to have your employer do it for you. What if they have an issue with taking it out?
2a) This is true. But again, as I said, take some responsibility for your secrets. They can just as easily walk with the other person up to that soda machine and use their chip.
Re:Why not simply bracelets? (Score:5, Informative)
Come on... We all watch sci-fi here. All you need to remove your own tracking implant is a dirty mirror, a dull butter knife, a bottle of vodka, and a lighter to cauterize the wound.
That said, I'm sure any doctor would remove a foreign body from your hand without needing your employer's approval.
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That said, I'm sure any doctor would remove a foreign body from your hand without needing your employer's approval.
Still to great inconvenience vs. simply removing a bracelet and putting it somewhere safe. What if your doctor is out for the week? Why have to spend 1-3 hours at the hospital or M.D. office? Seems like a silly argument to me. People would have to be pretty darn incompetent to require it to be embedded in their own bodies for the sake of "not losing it" or something.
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First of all the implant is stuck into the loose bit of skin between the thumb and forefinger, just under the skin. It would be trivially easy for you to remove on your own and patching it up would probably involve some antiseptic, super glue, and a band-aid. Sure it's probably safest to have a doctor remove it since they'll have clean implements and local anesthetic, but by no means required.
If I was offered to have an implant like this I'd very likely take it. As it stands if I misplace or lose my RFID ch
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"As it stands if I misplace or lose my RFID chipped access card I could end up having to take a week or so of leave."
Why?? The point of RFID is that the things are basically disposable. Lose the card? Okay, we'll cancel that number in the database and here's a new card. Be more careful.
Last time I locked my hotel RFID card in the room they made me one in about ten seconds.
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What if they have an issue with taking it out?
Then they don't have an issue with giving you a paycheck.
If they don't want to give you money, then they have to deal with you having unobstructed access, even though you don't work there.
You could have thought of that.
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If they don't want to give you money, then they have to deal with you having unobstructed access, even though you don't work there.
You could have thought of that.
No, that's a silly assumption. They would revoke your secret from the systems that give you access. You don't change access rights to a system by removing a chip from the user, you change or disable the secret on the authentication back end.
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Then how would this work?:
1a) Yeah but you can't take it out yourself, can you? You need to have your employer do it for you. What if they have an issue with taking it out?
2a) This is true. But again, as I said, take some responsibility for your secrets. They can just as easily walk with the other person up to that soda machine and use their chip.
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I don't follow. What I said would work.
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The issue does have an element of distrust.
I had a card that I had to display to human or machine many times a day.
How cool would it be to just tool around without those speed bumps, especially in the cafeteria??
The need for security and validation exists, no matter what.
I see this more as a convenience to the employee.
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I'm sure there are a few industries where shoving a microchip under your skin would be "better" than simply wearing a bracelet with the same chip...but, I mean, why implant it? Sure it won't get lost, but seriously. Take some responsibility of your secrets and wear it instead of injecting it semi-permanently. I just don't see the point (aside from the aforementioned few industries).
Give the user the choice to take it off.
Too big. A ring is better.
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Too big. A ring is better.
A ring would be awesome too.
What is the matter with (Score:2)
putting the chip on their company ID badges?
I really don't like having things put in my body that will need to be removed when I rage quit the job. /s
It's just a matter of "convenience" or laziness when you can't even keep track of a lanyard with a badge on it.
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That's the point.
A badge is portable.
Embedded iRice isn't.
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Sunny Day Scenarios (Score:2)
I don't know the security features of this system, but it sounds like something that can be easily hacked. If you meet someone at a bar and have with a concealed RFID reader, you could get the information of the chip, encode your own chip, and have access to the facilities. With a card on a lanyard, you can at least keep the card in some place safe. And a remote RFID reader can't read it.
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Businesses and governments have been using these things for decades now. The RFID chip usually acts as a username and you still have to enter a PIN or password to actually access anything. I'm pretty sure there are also more complicated setups using encryption for query and response.
The newest thing I've observed myself thought that largely negates people scanning it covertly is that the RFID chips transmit antenna being made weaker. Older chips had out sized antennas and could be ready from a foot or more
dang (Score:2)
Surgery just to start a job (and surgery again when you leave the job?) seems a bit extreme.
which means that roughly 80 of the company's now 250 employees, or nearly a third, are walking, talking cyborgs.
Wha? If this makes you a "cyborg", then a cochlear implant must make you The freakin' Borg ...
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"You get used to it" (Score:5, Insightful)
And therein lies the path to slavery and servitude...
There is a name for this! (Score:2)
>> 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.
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Leave it to da Svwedish!
What happens when.... (Score:2)
Revelation 13:16-17 (Score:2)
It causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
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So, if they put it in the left hand, does that get around this prophecy?
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Well, I put it in my left hand because I'm right handed. So, if I got an infection/cancer, I'd only lose my non-dominant hand.
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See, the whole "implantable computer chip" thing has been a recurring thing since the late 1970's; the movie "A Thief in the Night" was the first to widely circulate the idea.
However, on the topic of "the Mark of the Beast", implantable RFIDs aren't what worries me. China is currently doing the heavy lifting.
Instead of FICA scores, China's got social credit scores through Alibaba. One person not paying their bills affects everyone else who does, so they are far more likely to be ostracized. Many places won'
Will they pay doctor bills if it goes bad for life (Score:2)
Will they pay doctor bills if it goes bad for life? Or will you have to use the workers comp system to get them paid?
Well... technically... (Score:2)
A chip like that only accounts for losing two, maybe three humanity points. So they're all good. Now pacemakers on the other hand...
They love it, huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
i hate this (Score:4, Insightful)
Company presidents come up with stupid ideas and justify them all the time by saying nobody objects.
You're the president, you moron. Nobody is going to object to your pet project unless they want to get fired, demoted, or put on the eternal "troublemaker" list.
Re:cancer anyone (Score:5, Informative)
The materials used to encapsulate these is quite well understood., often it is glass. Cancer risk seems low as this material has been used in humans and animals for many decades.
If you were serious about preventing cancer you'd end the use of gasoline powered vehicles in major cities (benzene, etc), stop using those plug-in air fresheners (Acetaldehyde and 1,3-Dichloro-2-propanol), regulate ingredients in sunscreen (oxybenzone), etc.
Re:cancer anyone (Score:5, Funny)
Also, Research has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats.
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Yeah if those stupid Tasmanian Devils stopped raiding candy factories maybe they wouldn't be going extinct from cancer
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If the body is fed well and devoid of excess sugars toxins are easily dealt with
What is a sugar toxin?
and cancer is next to impossible.
A bold claim. My pet mouse got tumors and he never ate white foods or refined sugar.
You are misinformed.
In my previous post I didn't order anything in terms of most likely cause. My intention was to list a few alternative things to worry about that seem more significant than a glass capsule. If you have new information that is relevant and based in reality, that's great.
Please save yourself the embarrassment if it's pseudo-science crackpot stuff collected through hours of internet "research". Because no t
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There is a much higher chance of infection then Cancer. But over the last hundred years or so, we have learned what type of stuff when implanted in the body doesn't hurt us.
Re:Mandatory chips for UBI. (Score:5, Insightful)
If they do force everyone into a "cashless" society, and your money is tied to you and your chip, well, then they have FULL control on you.
Act in a manner that doesn't suit the govt....you are cut off from money and you possessions, and finally, your rights.
Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?
And you start voluntary, maybe with a carrot in front of you.....and as the saying goes:
"What one generation accepts.....the next generation embraces".
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How is this any different from normal black listing?
Blocking Credit Cards, telling business to reject your services? Heck if they want to make it easy they just arrest you and put you in Jail.
What I find more concerning, is the ability to scan an RFID chip get its number and make a new one with the same number and implant it in someone else.
You will still need a secondary form of authentication.
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How is this any different from normal black listing?
Blocking Credit Cards, telling business to reject your services? Heck if they want to make it easy they just arrest you and put you in Jail.
Valid points, but the lower you place the bar for ease of abuse, the more often that abuse will occur. Arresting and jailing is the hardest and most expensive approach, giving authorities easier options for control mean those will be used, and far more often.
mark of the beast when the government forces you t (Score:2)
mark of the beast when the government forces you to have one.
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read-only? for now. (Score:2)
A man has two chips, the gubbamint can never be sure.
They need a version of this with a hole in it and a way to coax your body to grow a nerve connecting to it. Then the games can begin!
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I can't tell if this is a joke or not. In case it's not, then no. I don't want the government doing this. I really don't want employers doing this either.