Call it the
coolness factor. Blame the millennial
mindset of convenience at all costs. Or shrug it off as a natural
technological progression – the inability of a society to close a Pandora’s Box
once it’s been opened. But what’s becoming increasingly clear is what used to
be regarded as creepy and science fiction-like has now gone mainstream.
Take RFID technology.
Formerly the stuff of animal
identification chip implants, the technology’s now moved into the human
hand. It’s not – as this headline from the mainstream CBS News shows – exactly
a topic of underground discussion any longer.
“Meet the humans
with microchips implanted in them,” the news
organization reported in June, in a piece about a Minnesota software
engineer who used his chip in his finger to control his smartphone and a Dallas
woman who used hers to open doors at her place of work, in place of a key card.
The once-queasy
technology seems destined now to grow popularity. Catholic
Online may have recently written how “a microchip implanted on human beings
has chilling implications, conjuring up images of the ‘Mark of the Beast’ as
mentioned in the Book of Revelations.” But in the same article, it was noted at
length: the boon for society from chip implant technology is being touted as
just too good to pass up.
The genie’s out
and he ain’t headed back to his lamp any time soon.
Fox
News reported this, way back in 2014: “[For] soldiers and journalists in
war zones, such an implant could be the difference between life and death. A
chip implant could also help law enforcement quickly locate a kidnapped child,
… help monitor the location of people with Alzheimer’s … track the activities
of felons who have been released from prison.”
All good – inarguably
so.
Meanwhile, on the
convenience side, there’s this: Chip implants in hands could make it really
fast to open a locked door, speed through a security checkpoint at the airport,
to provide crucial medical information to emergency response officials. And don’t
forget the quick-pay option. Rather than waste valuable seconds fishing into
pockets or pawing through purses to find debit or credit cards – or even more
archaic, personal checkbooks or cash – customers may one day be able to pay for
purchases simply by flashing a hand over a scanner.
But technology
doesn’t always mean convenience. Just ask somebody whose computer’s been hacked,
or car alarm’s been activated. Technology also doesn’t always mean progress.
Sometimes it brings loss of personal freedom, and opens the door for government
intrusion and control.
This, also from Fox
News: “Chips are being used today to manage farm animals. Farmers can track
sheep, pigs and horses as they move through a gate, weigh them instantly and
make sure they are eating properly.”
Never mind the
imagery from George Orwell’s “Animal
Farm” that passage brings to mind. The real question that emerges is this:
Is any technology that’s being used to manage farm animals really something
that human beings, created in the image of an omniscient, omnipresent God,
ought to be volunteering to implant? Common sense says no. The constitutionally
wise say heck no. And those of faith with fears of taking the “Mark of the
Beast” should stick with their instincts: The chip itself may not be satanic,
but the road it could lead to sure doesn’t pass the smell test of the
discerning.
First appeared in the Blaze: http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/human-chip-implants-move-mainstream-despite-mark-of-beast-fears/
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