The [U.S.] Defense Department's Smart Card Office is expected to recommend later this summer that all military identification cards be replaced with smart cards. Martha Neal, deputy director of the DOD Smart Card Office, said smart cards have the potential to replace not only military ID cards, but also government driver's licenses, weapons cards, library cards, meal cards and others, Neal said.

Young Johnny is a computer nerd. Most of the time he thinks he is an X-Wing pilot in Star Wars and the rest he spends playing Doom on the Internet with another fan in Iceland. You watch him grow on a regime of hamburgers, soft drinks and no exercise and worry that he'll be heart attack material before he is 20.

Having created the problem, technology is now being applied to measure it and help find solutions. A Melbourne company, regarded as a world leader in the field, is designing a system for a school in New South Wales that will allow teachers and health carers to measure the amount of exercise students are getting.

A triangle of antennas in the playground will read data from microprocessor units about the size of a 20-cent piece strapped on students' arms, like watches. Telemetry will transfer information to a nearby notebook computer to show how far Johnny walks, runs or crawls on sports day. If his cardiac condition is a worry, the same unit could keep track of it via a sensor stuck over his heart.

It's just one part of a growing technology that will soon, as we drive home, let us open the gate, adjust the central heating and check whether there is milk in the fridge.

At Reading University in Britain a researcher has had a microchip embedded in his arm that "talks" to his coffee pot and his computer and turns them on as he enters the room.

The school exercise monitor is an example of short-range telemetry. It uses a coin-sized chip powered by a small watch battery, that transmits rather like a mobile phone and has a range of about a kilometer. It can track up to 50 students simultaneously.

About three years ago I was discussing national ID cards on my radio program. Congress was fighting (and is still fighting) to get national ID cards linked to some kind of biometric tool. Biometric tools are unique individual identifiers like fingerprints, retinal scans, and DNA profiles.

I made a passing reference to the Sylvester Stallone/Wesley Snipes movie "Demolition Man." In it, everyone in the future is required to have a sub-dermal biochip implant. The device held an individual's entire personal history: medical, financial, health history, criminal record, etc. I noted that although it was science fiction, the technology exists NOW.

I immediately received a phone call from a listener in Berkley, Calif., Charles Ostman. Ostman informed my audience that he had worked on the government project to refine sub-dermal biochip implants. These implantable microchips are about the size of a grain of rice. No science fiction--just science fact. As it happens, I have sub-dermal biochip implants in both my dogs.

It has been "suggested" that sub-dermal biochip implants could/would assist the military in locating downed pilots. Parents could/should have them implanted in their children to aid in locating them if lost or kidnapped. If or when that estranged spouse kidnaps your child, GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) could track the child's exact whereabouts. Currently, microchip data can only be scanned from a little more than a foot away. However, as improvements happen, the scanning distance should be increased to several feet or even yards. Scanners are cheap and, once in production, will get cheaper.

Stephan Bevan of Britain's London Times has written an article entitled "Chips May Dip into Workplace Sanity" which began, "Big brother could soon be watching from the inside. Several British companies are consulting scientists on ways of developing microchip implants for their workers to measure their timekeeping and whereabouts. The technology, which has been proven on pets and human volunteers, would enable firms to track staff. The data could enable them to draw up estimates of workers' efficiency and productivity."

Closer to home, the president of "DecisionSmith," Eric Lazarus, recently queried Scan This News for an opinion on the use of biometrics technology in school cafeterias for identifying students. Reportedly, the question was "Is it better for kids to punch in an ID number, have a finger print scanned, or have their voice recognized by a computer in order to buy food off their 'account'? What are the things we should be concerned about as we deploy cafeteria systems?"

The response was chilling. Lazarus was told he would probably decide on microchips. The rationale was that people forget passwords, and other ID devices are time-consuming. Here's the quote: "For these and other reasons which I will get into, I'm certain you will ultimately conclude … that implanted microchips are your best choice. They are the only identification technology which will both eliminate the inherent potential for errors and at the same time relieve the recipient of the inconveniences of multiple cards, memorized numbers and arcane passwords."

"Let's face it," the letter continues, "ID numbers, ID cards, voice recognition, fingerscans, etc., all require considerable, time-consuming interaction with the 'accounting device'--whatever that turns out to be. Imagine each student, for instance, having to pause upon entering school to get their finger scanned, then again when they go outside for Physical Education, another time when they came back in, and once again when they leave school at the end of the day. Add to this all the other interactions where ID is necessary, such as the lunch program, testing, counseling, field trips, ball games, after-school activities, and--well, you get the idea. All this would add hours to the school day! The implanted microchip will eliminate all this time-consuming interaction."

Scott McDonald of Scan This News (one of the good guys, and writing satirically) noted, "A lifetime of information can be easily databased using a microchip system. All movement, transactions, and interactions can be recorded and monitored once everyone has their own unique identifier. Every detail of a person's life will be finally accessible to authorities through the widespread use of implanted chips … it must begin somewhere, and schoolchildren are the most likely candidate."

What about obvious opposition to this Brave New World sans privacy? Here's what Scott suggests: "OK, there'll be some opposition at first. There'll be those who'll put up a small amount of resistance. But only those social misfits, kooks, and rebels with something to hide will hold out strongly. Little will they know that the very act of objecting, in itself, will suffice to 'identify' them as troublemakers. They can then be arrested and force-chipped as part of the booking process. Besides, most Americans--after they've been reminded of all benefits and services they will sacrifice if they refuse--will soon acquiesce. This is how it worked when Congress enacted laws to coerce parents into numbering their children at birth. A few grumbled for a short while. But, once the threat of no longer being able to claim their children on tax returns set in, they got right in line down at the Social Security Administration and had their children numbered."

The bar coding of our lives has made information access instantaneous. When I run in a race, I get a chip to attach to my shoes. It records my start, and the world can see my times on the Web. Danny Hillis, who pioneered the concept of parallel computing, said: "I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about 20 years ago. When somebody predicted the market for microprocessors would eventually be in the millions, someone else said: 'Where are they all going to go? It's not like you need a computer on every doorknob."' Well, 20 years later Hillis went back to the same hotel. The room keys had been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors. So there was a computer in every doorknob. Computing technology surrounds us, yet we have not really begun to absorb the meaning of these changes. We assume that all this information makes us smarter. But I suppose if you believe that, you believe that having a library card makes you well-read.--Tita Colwell, director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, quoted by The

Big Brother could soon be watching from the inside. Several international companies are consulting scientists on ways of developing microchip implants for their workers to measure their timekeeping and whereabouts.

The technology, which has been proven on pets and human volunteers, would enable firms to track staff all around a building or complex. The data could enable them to draw up estimates of workers' efficiency and productivity.

The technology is likely to have a strong appeal to companies with high labor costs, for which small increases in staff productivity can have a big impact on profits. It is also relatively cheap--just a few pounds for each person, according to Professor Kevin Warwick of Reading University.

"For a business the potential is obvious," he said. "You can tell when people clock into work and when they leave the building. You would know at all times exactly where they were and who they were with."

NEW DELHI — A chip implanted in the body, making us man-machine, throws up immense possibilities for humankind. The "man" who did it first, Professor Kevin Warwick, was recently in New Delhi.

The 44-year-old professor of cybernetics (the science relating humans and technology) from the University of Reading, Britain, had a silicon chip transponder implanted in his left forearm on August 24 last year.

The 3mm-thin, inch-long transponder, which consisted of an electromagnetic coil and three silicon chips, was in Kevin’s body for nine days. Whenever a radio signal from sensors outside the body was transmitted to the chip, the coil generated an electric current activating the chip circuitry to produce a 64-bit signal.

This, in turn, switched on his computer, made his office welcome him in the morning, switched on the lights in the corridor, opened doors and helped his secretary trace him on the campus. "With the implant I always knew where he was," she says. "Wouldn’t any wife like that!"

The chip in your arm can contain a lot of information—your medical history, your neighborhood’s geography, and even your will and testament.

The technology can go a long way in tackling diseases. "There’s a person in Augusta in the U.S. who has multiple sclerosis and does not have any control below his diaphragm," says Kevin. "He has an implant connected up to see how he urinates. Remotely they can control when he urinates and when he doesn’t." Ross Davis, a neurosurgeon in Augusta, thinks it is possible to control an erection just as easily.

Kevin believes that in five years chips inside humans will carry diverse data, money transfers, medical records, passport details and criminal convictions. They could even act as internal alarm clocks; you could be programmed to sleep for the requisite eight hours. Moreover, since they are inside the body, it is almost impossible to steal them. The global market for implant technology in 20 years is said to touch $20,000 billion.

His critics howled that he was playing God by "technically" upgrading humans. They would howl louder if they knew that the researchers tried to give the chip the number 666, the Mark of the Beast. It somehow did not work and they settled for 161.

Kevin’s obsession with technology is rooted in his desire to enhance the capabilities of people and make them superhuman. "It is possible to link technology with humans physically and mentally to improve and enhance what we can do," he says.

Such thoughts must have been churning in him since childhood. His father suffered from agoraphobia, fear of open spaces, and was house-bound for two years when Kevin was about eight. "They drilled a couple of holes in his head and snipped a few connections in his brain," says Kevin. "He was cured, the transformation was superb. Altering somebody’s brain is quite an experience."