North Star Writers Group

These tiny transmitters, known as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, pop into the news from time to time, always accompanied by much hand-wringing over the potential for loss of privacy and endless possibilities for abuse.

These concerns are valid. Too many of us do not realize how widespread RFID tags have become. They are everywhere in product packaging. They are implanted into millions of livestock and pets. One recent news story details how two employees at a surveillance equipment manufacturer have had glass-encased RFID tags implanted in their forearms to secure access to company vaults.

Shades of George Orwell’s “1984”.

The Bush administration argues for RFID tags in passports and other proponents have suggested implanting those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and convicted sex offenders with microchips so they can be traced at all times.

It’s a matter of safety and security, goes the argument. Why not use technology to help?

Apart from possibly violating the Fourth Amendment’s right of the people to be “secure in their persons,” the information in an RFID tag is relatively easy to snag. That’s why microchips are used in cars to track when and where the vehicles pass through a tollbooth to assess fees. Sensitive personal information in a passport microchip, for example, could be swiped using a handheld reader just a few feet away. Ditto for medical data in a human implant.

Technology – especially so-called safety technology – has demonstrated unforeseen consequences. “We have never gotten the full benefits of any safety technology ever invented because people have adjusted their behaviors due to these technologies,” explains George E. Hoffer, professor of economics at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Hoffer has spent four decades studying and writing about what’s called “offsetting behavior” resulting from automobile safety features such as seat belts and air bags. His research has found that when drivers know their cars have safety devices like seatbelts and/or airbags, they tend to behave less responsibly behind the wheel. Put another way, the safety technology encourages them to be less cautious.

Another term for offsetting behavior is free will. As souls created and endowed with unconditional freedom, we will always find ways around anyone or anything presuming or purporting to save us from ourselves.

Even so, given our current propensity to shred the Constitution in exchange for security that is ephemeral at best, it may not be long before we start demanding ID/data microchips in everything – and everyone. Before we go on a human tagging spree, however, we might want to ponder a few unsettling possibilities.

Will chipping encourage more people to go unprepared into rugged wilderness? Will we forget how to use a compass because we think we can always be found? Will onboard car navigation systems turn us into a nation of dependents who, unable to read a map, cannot find our way without Big Brother’s voice from the dashboard? What happens when, as it invariably does, this wondrous safety/security technology fails?

This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Consider the pocket electronic calculator, which became available commercially back in the early 1970s. How many of us today could use a slide rule if we needed to? How many of us even know what a slide rule is?

This is not an argument for returning to the days of the abacus or transport by horseback. It is a much-needed acknowledgement that technology has its limitations and is no substitute for common sense, mindfulness and prudence.

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