Sunday 18 August 2013

Microchips: a blessing or a curse?

These days, a debate has been going on about whether or not the world would improve if we all ahd an implanted chip ID. From my viewpoint, this is such an ambivalent issue that it is hard to make a decision yet.

The most important argument for the chip implants would be that with them under our skin, it would be extremely difficult for terrorists to have a genuine ID,  meaning that the world would be more protected. In addition to this, committing fraud would be a lot harder. Another advantage of having inserted chips in our body is that the chips are much convinient than ID cards, which means that there would be no need to take your ID out of your wallet anymore. Last but not least, chips open up possibilities for new technology such as automatic security doors for the home therby, keys would no longer be necessary.

Moving on to the drawbacks, from my standpoint a tremendous one would be that of monitoring people with radio frequency identification devices which means, treating them like livestock or industrial goods, therefore breaching the right to dignity and privacy they have as human beings. Another serious disadvantage would be that the chip could be a health hazard, even in some occasions a fatal one. Furthermore, if democracy gives way to dictarorship, the dictator will be delighted that everyone has a chip and all the details are kept on a central computer.

All things considered, there is no doubt in my mind that the world would be a better place if chip IDs did not exist. The benefits may be strong, but the drawbacks totally outweigh them.



1 comment:

  1. How can you paraphrase 'it is hard to make a decision yet' to make it sound more impersonal?

    Can we say 'strong benefits'?

    Bravo for the effort, Andrew! :-)

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