In your car, in your furniture, in your electronic appliances, your tools and kitchen utensils, in your paperwork, in packaging, in food, in your body … printable, biodegradable, implantable, edible … microchips of every kind are becoming – in some context they already are – pervasive.

More than for real computation – e.g. health-related ‘labs-on-a-chip’ technology – most microchips are/will probably be there to render the world more ‘addressable’.  They (e.g. RFID tags) will allow us to identify, count, localize and keep track of our ‘stuff’ (fyi: IPv6 allows for 6.5 x 10²³ IP addresses per square meter on the surface of our planet). As space seems a keyword in this equation, it is time which is even more central to this whole discussion. As Bruce Sterling already mentioned as he spoke of spimes, imagine a future in which you can trace items, components, etc. throughout their lifecycle, learn who or what they encountered where and at which moment. In other words, you will be able to know (and who knows, meet or speak to) the sheep that grew your sweater.

Obviously, who gets to know (and remember) what in which context remains up for debate. Enjoy this Washington Post article about some of the RFID developments in store for us and the possible dangers they pose.

Image from Businessweek features VeriChip
Via Washingtonpost.com

Related posts:

1. mind doping
2. personal DNA scan
3. a plastics future

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 18:13 and is filed under business, future, society, technology, trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.