I'm not a huge fan of science fiction movies, but the fact is that we should probably start watching them, because all the crazy things screenwriters managed to come up with in the past are becoming reality. Even here, in the Czech Republic. Did you know that there are already people among us who have voluntarily had a special chip inserted into their body, thanks to which they no longer need to carry their apartment keys or money?
I don't get it. When I see a needle, my natural instinct is to run away as fast as I can. What's more, privacy is a very fragile thing these days. And if you have something that emits a signal which enables you to unlock the door or the computer and buy a cup of coffee inside your body, you are under the scrutiny of anyone who can hack into the system, like it or not. Needless to say that first graders are capable of that nowadays...
Jan Hubík from Parallel Polis, the Prague Institute of Cryptananarchy, where the only thing you can pay with is a cryptocurrency called bitcoin, is an example of this natural phenomenon and a promoter of microchip implants. Thanks to the microchip, this young student can also share business cards and save links. The chip is relatively small, you can't save a large amount of data on it, so it will need to be replaced sooner or later. Which means another prick in his arm... eww.
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Takhle maličký čip má Hubík v ruce. Source: Jan Sedlák
A madman from Britain moves objects with his mind
The experiment is still in the development phase and, of course, it raises many questions. However, I immediately recalled Kevin Warwick, who's doing even crazier stuff with body. Basically, he's the first cyborg in the world. Captain Cyborg, as the whole world calls him, became famous for voluntarily having modified chips implanted in his arm, which allow him to communicate and manipulate with various devices. That literally means he can move objects with his mind!
Are you also already thinking of movies like The Matrix or Saxana? For ordinary people like me, it's nothing but pure magic wrapped in the latest technological gadgets. I will never understand how it all works, I still solve computer issues by turning it off and on. Or by a hysterical call to an IT guy who fixes my PC in roughly as much time as I need to drink a cup of coffee...
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Dneska je moderní být kyborgem. Source: Pixabay
Stalking unaware people
I once talked with the man who invented the facial recognition system. The purpose of this clever little thing is to scan the crowd and determine whether an individual is a man or a woman, their age and even mood. If you pair it with a database of wanted people... jackpot!
Security agencies are buying it in bulk, because it helps them, for instance, identify a terrorist at the airport. Yes, for the sake of security, it seems okay to me, but it does make one think about the ethical form. It's simply not cool to stalk people who aren't aware of it. Because if pretty much anyone can buy it... Well, it's not hard to figure out that not everyone has looking for terrorists in their job description, right?
Right now, our government is doing more or less the same thing in the form of smart quarantine, but thank God, you have to consent to the monitoring... Although, you never know...
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Kolik mezi námi chodí robotů?Source: Pixabay
If Karel Čapek was still around, he'd probably be shocked how right he was back in 1920, when the science fiction drama R.U.R. was published, where the hitherto unknown word robot first appeared. Whoever had coined the word, it was a long time before a bunch of individuals had foreign objects implanted in their bodies.
And what's your opinion, I wonder? Would you like to have a microchip under your skin, so that you wouldn't have to carry a credit card or keys?
