Computer/RFID implants

With the prospect of instrumenting people with electronic implants or tattoos, the usual suspects emerge to extol the prospect of unlocking your car by waving your hand (and dream of communicating with your computer by thinking), or alternatively to warn of the number of the beast.

Suppose you have such an RFID tattoo to identify you. You could unlock your car, walk through airport security, purchase without having to bring a wallet--all the things that make life worth living, right?

But if you slip on the stairs and slice through one of the wires, it may not work so well; similarly if you gain a lot of weight and change the shape of the antenna. And when somebody compromises the system you've got to get a new tattoo. And don't even dream of getting an MRI unless you are fond of burns.

Implants have mostly the same problems (barring the getting fat issue), plus the more invasive surgery, the chance of your body reacting to the implant, and the possibility that your body may migrate it out over time.

The implant security is only as good as the security the firms keep over the key codes they put in the devices. I predict that "master keys" would quickly appear in certain highly placed hands (Hi, NSA!), and after few years and a few bribed techs, devices to fake the implant signals would become fairly common. Time for new algorithms, new implants, new car locks...

The "communicating with computers by thinking" seems even more unlikely. Computers like nice crisp commands and most of us are fairly fuzzy thinkers who need the crutch of writing our thoughts down to be sure we know what we are saying. For simple stuff such as Google search, you can live with "fuzzy," but if you want the machine to do something you need to frame it precisely--save this file as draftlettertotheboss--and don't think about a hippopotamus.