by: F.R. Duplantier

"Imagine that you have been fitted with a tiny electronic device," suggests David Oderberg, professor of philosophy at England's University of Reading. Building monitors could "recognize the unique signal emanating from the tiny 'smart' chip in your body. This chip, implanted just under the skin of your arm, has immense advantages," Oderberg concedes. "With it you can open and close doors, pass through security channels set up to recognize your identity, operate machines such as computers and faxes, and generally negotiate your technological world with greater convenience than at present."

In a recent commentary in the Washington Times, Oderberg points out that such a device could even facilitate "daily commerce. Swipe your arm over a scanner and you can make payments, have your account debited automatically, check your bank balance. In short," he concludes, "you can do everything that currently requires you to lug around a walletful of credit cards. One small catch, though," Oderberg observes. "Because of this chip, your whereabouts are known to others at every minute of every day."

Is this the nightmare fantasy of some science fiction writer? Unfortunately not. Oderberg cites a colleague at his own university, the aptly named Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics and author of a bestselling book called March of the Machines, who has "decided to try out such a scenario on himself." By having "a silicon chip injected under the skin near his elbow," this postmodern Frankenstein has combined the roles of madman and monster. "The professor looks forward to the day when machines rule our lives," Oderberg observes. "The fact that his microchip enables him to be traced is no great worry."

Not to him, maybe, but it does worry Oderberg. "The potential for the chips to replace credit cards and cash is huge," he contends, predicting that financial institutions will "tempt their customers to 'try out' the chip with no obligation . . . and monetary rewards for those who persevere." Oderberg warns that, unless "a sufficient number of citizens make known their implacable opposition to the totalitarian trend of a technology that threatens to reduce most humans to the status of cattle, the likes of Professor Warwick will go about their evil work unperturbed."

There is a liberating trend to technology, as well, forever expanding our capacity for self-determination and self-expression, beckoning all men to become philosopher-kings. There are good and evil applications for every substance on earth, natural or manmade; our never-ending obligation is to cultivate the wholesome uses and stifle the wicked ones. Electronic brain implants even now are enabling paralytics to communicate freely with their families and friends and to operate household appliances without assistance. What jubilation one must feel to be suddenly reconnected to the world of words and motion! How grateful for the blessings of technology! Innovations that heighten our humanity are to be celebrated; those that barbarize us are to be deplored. The trick is telling which is which.