"The Matrix," the sci-fi box-office smash, envisions a future in which artificially intelligent computers take over. Instead of programming the computers, humans become the slave race, serving as living batteries that provide energy for their former desktop tools.

Hey, that's just Hollywood science fiction, right? Wrong, says Kevin Warwick, a professor at the department of cybernetics at the University of Reading in England--the British equivalent of the M.I.T. Media Lab--who has spent his career working on robotics, creating machine intelligence and, most controversially, building human-computer implants for use in his own body. Author of the recent book March of the Machines: Why the New Race of Robots Will Rule the World, Warwick is direly predicting that computers may conquer the world within our lifetime.

"Some computer scientists have their head in the sand in their thinking--believing that things are programmed, and that we [humans] can always determine what they are going to do. It's a complete load of rubbish!" Warwick exclaims.

In the future it is quite possible that robots won't even need humans to program them in the first place. Instead, they will reprogram and rebuild themselves. "Intelligent robots can come up with a large amount of independence and do creative and imaginative things that you never imagined they could do, and communicate with each other and create their own languages."

As he matter-of-factly puts it, machine "brains" are going to be far superior to human brains. We already know that a computer can surpass a human, he quickly details, in "number crunching, how quickly it can operate, the mathematical capabilities, the memory, the logic. We know that machine intelligence has a lot of advantages already over the way the human brain works. Looking to the future, in what ways is the human brain going to remain ahead?"

"Our senses are restricted, they suit us as humans, but machines have the capabilities of sensing the world in ultrasonics, ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray, gamma ray," Warwick explains. "Machines can sense the world in all sorts of ways that we can't hope to do, unless we start looking at implants."

Warwick predicts that a future in which computer brains have roughly the same power, if not more, than human brains is only 20-30 years away. The possibility of a computer takeover is one reason why Warwick has been pursuing his implant projects--he hopes that by tapping into machine intelligence he'll be able to enhance human brainpower.

In August 1998, Warwick played the part of guinea pig in what was then touted as the first nonmedical implant experiment. With a tiny glass capsule full of transponders under the skin of his arm, Warwick essentially became a human remote control: Every time he walked through the door of his building at the University of Reading, sensors in the doorways would immediately register the presence of the transponders in his implant. The lights would come on, his computer would boot up and connect to his Web site, doors would open, and his office would greet him with a "Hello, Professor Warwick!" In a very Big Brother touch, his computer could also track his comings and goings and his exact location within the building.

The experiment was simple, but it was evocative nonetheless. Warwick admits that he has been contacted by government officials interested in potential use of implants in prisons or for tracking pedophiles--but Warwick himself breezily glosses over the Orwellian implications of widespread computer-implant use.

"I didn't feel like Big Brother was watching, probably because I benefited from the implant: The doors opened and lights came on, rather than doors closing and lights turning off," he says. "It does make me feel that Orwell was probably right about the Big Brother issue--we'll just go headlong into it; it won't be something we'll see as a being negative because there will be lots of positives in it for us."

Warwick only wore the implant for nine days, but he believes that was long enough to get a sense of what effect a mind-machine interface might have on our relationships with computers. "After a few days I started to feel quite a closeness to the computer, which was very strange," he muses. "When you are linking your brain up like that, you change who you are. You do become a 'borg.' You are not just a human linked with technology; you are something different and your values and judgment will change."

His next implant experiment will engineer an even closer link between humans and computers. In 18 months, Warwick will again undergo surgery, this time receiving not just a transponder implant in his arm but a connection to his nervous core--a tiny collar that encircles the bundle of nerve fibers at the top of his arm, reading the signals from his nervous system and transmitting those to his computer.

Again, it's a simple experiment that has vast implications for the future of mind-machine interfaces. This implant will not merely send signals to his computer; it will also receive them. The computer should be able to record and store sets of Warwick's nervous signals and transmit them back at a later time; if all goes well, he'll be able to "play back" the motion of flexing his elbow or wiggling his fingers. He could even "re-experience" the nervous signals related to his emotions, "playing back" the signals his nervous core sent when he was feeling happy or stressed.

Warwick's implant systems--which could be used to "enhance" humans with sensory information--could also conceivably be employed to create races of superhumans or computer-controlled human slaves.

"Yes, I believe in the doom and gloom, unfortunately--but that's evolution. Something is going to come along and surpass us at some time, and my feeling is that more than likely at some point it's going to be machines, intelligent machines," he matter-of-factly postulates. "Can anything be done about it? This type of implant should take us a long way down the road; but realistically we've got to have machine intelligence connected in some way to the human brain. It's a race against time."

Applied Digital Solutions, Inc.  today announced that it has acquired the patent rights to a miniature digital transceiver -- which it has named "Digital Angel®." Inserted just under the skin, with maintenance-free regenerating power supply, miniature "Digital Angel®" has multi-billion dollar market potential. This new device can be used for a variety of purposes, such as providing a tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security, locating lost or missing individuals, tracking the location of valuable property and monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk patients.

The implantable transceiver sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology. The transceiver's power supply and actuation system are unlike anything ever created. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles, and it can be activated either by the "wearer" or by the monitoring facility. A novel sensation feedback feature will even allow the wearer to control the device to some degree. The "smart" device is also small enough to be hidden inconspicuously on or within valuable personal belongings and priceless works of art.

Commenting on Digital Angel's® many potential applications, Richard J. Sullivan, Chairman and CEO of Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. (ADS), said: "We believe its potential for improving individual and e-business security and enhancing the quality of life for millions of people is virtually limitless. Although we're in the early developmental phase, we expect to come forward with applications in many different areas, from medical monitoring to law enforcement.''

How'd you like to avoid waiting in lines for the rest of your life? Breeze through everywhere like you owned the place. Watch lights snap on, doors open automatically, money pop out of ATMs as you approach. Never have to show an ID, buy a ticket, carry keys, remember a password. You'd leave stores loaded with packages and waltz right past the cashiers. You wouldn't have to carry a wallet. Ever. Family and friends could find you instantly in any crowd.

There's only one catch--you'd need to have a tiny little chip implanted in your body. No big deal. Just ask Kevin Warwick, a British professor who had a silicon-based transponder surgically inserted into his forearm last year.

Animal shelters have implanted millions of these electronic IDs in cats, dogs, and birds. Metal tags can fall off, and tattooed numbers could be placed anywhere and are often hard to find--who wants to check out a snarling rottweiler?

A lot of us carry similar mechanisms inside ID cards, to open doors. But these can get lost, forgotten, or stolen and misused. And biometric devices like retinal scanners and fingerprint sensors are intrusive and imperfect.

Besides, people have been sticking all sorts of things in their bodies for years--pacemakers to fix broken hearts, silicone to perk up skinny chests, etc.

Consider the benefits. It would end password PIN sanity forever. Sensors would wave chipped consumers through checkout lines and tollbooths. Contractors would build implant-friendly homes and offices with gimmicks that could customize temperature, background music, and even images on wall-size flat-screen displays as you move from room to room.

It would help sort out newborn babies, Alzheimer's patients, amnesiacs, comatose (or worse) accident victims, and military casualties. Internal chips could measure irregular heartbeats and blood-sugar levels in diabetics.

Computers are rapidly evolving into Internet terminals. When your chip goes in, you'll be able to walk up to any terminal in any office and log on instantly. Incoming phone calls and faxes will automatically be routed to wherever you happen to be. Of course, employers could also log on your time in the john or at the water cooler.

If you don't think you're already being monitored, you're naïve. Your credit cards, telephone bills, supermarket club cards, Internet purchases, and public records like home purchases and car licenses already do a pretty good job.

How will they convince people to implant these chips? First, they'll hype the convenience of leaving your keys, credit cards, and money at home. Then they'll automate everything from cash registers to tollbooths so if you're chipped you can zoom through in a digital carpool lane. Me, I'll wait.

Start with a key chain, or maybe a signet ring. Implant a little credit card information, add a driver's license, a couple of frequent flyer cards, and maybe throw in a biometric sensing device.

Presto: The wallet of the future. Toss out your leather case and fulfill all your buying and personal identification needs with the swipe of a microchip.

At the Jupiter Financial Services Forum--a conference on emerging technologies--Williamson talked about how credit card companies are using advances in chip technology to store vast amounts of data in tiny, portable devices. Visa is looking into the possibility of expanding beyond cards and putting chip-enabled devices on anything from a cell phone to a piece of jewelry.

Others, however, worry about the potential for abuse if such a gold mine of data fell into the wrong hands. "It would be wonderful if we could use one card to carry in our pocket and be able to open our doors with it, start our car," said Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, a libertarian group that has followed Smart Card technology. "But that technology can also be extended to be used for something much more sinister."

Researchers say the technology is currently available to implant devices for biometric identification in human beings, which can be monitored by government satellites and utilized by private industry. In fact, some developers are currently attempting to bring the technology to the public and private sector.

Though not yet generally available to the public, trials of sub-skin implants have been underway for nearly a year. For instance, The London Times reported in October 1998, "Film stars and the children of millionaires are among 45 people, including several Britons, who have been approached and fitted with the chips (called the Sky Eye) in secret tests."

Critics, however, are worried about the increased support such devices are receiving because of the inherent risk to individual privacy. A recent study of microchip implantation technology, written by Elaine M. Ramish for the Franklin Pierce Law Center, examined at length the issue of privacy.

In her study, though, Ramish said she believes the implementation of such devices will eventually become a reality despite their controversial identification role.

"Although microchip implantation might be introduced as a voluntary procedure, in time, there will be pressure to make it mandatory," Ramish wrote in her research paper entitled, "Time Enough? Consequences of Human Microchip Implantation."

"A national identification system via microchip implants could be achieved in two stages," she said. "Upon introduction as a voluntary system, the microchip implantation will appear to be palatable. After there is a familiarity with the procedure and a knowledge of its benefits, implantation would be mandatory."

In her paper, Ramish said recent polls have found that if guaranteed certain privacy protections, the number of Americans who would be willing to accept a medical information implant "rose by 11 percent."

George Getz, the communications director for the Libertarian Party, said he believes the inevitability of such a device lies in "the government's ability to make living a normal life without one impossible." Though the chip implantation procedure might legally remain "voluntary," he said it's very likely that government at all levels would eventually force everyone to have one.

"After all, the government has never forced anyone to have a drivers license," he said. "But try getting along without one, when everyone from your local banker to the car rental man to the hotel operator to the grocery store requires one in order for you to take advantage of their services."

"That amounts to a de facto mandate," he said. "If the government can force you to surrender your fingerprints to get a drivers license, why can't it force you to get a computer chip implant?"

Amitai Etzioni, Director of a group known as the Communitarian Network and a professor of Sociology at George Washington University, believes there are definite benefits to society using biometric technology.

In an article published recently Etzioni said, "Opposition to these new technologies is particularly troubling given that the benefits are considerable. Once biometric devices are more fully developed, and as unit costs decline ... a person may forget his password, pin number and access code, and leave his ID card and keys at home," wrote Etzioni.

"Communities ... stand to reap considerable benefits," said Etzioni. "Once biometric devices are widely deployed, they will make it much more difficult for the estimated 330,000 criminals to remain on the lam. These fugitives not only avoid trial and incarceration but also often commit additional crimes while they roam the country with little concern."

US currency should include tracking devices that let the government tax private possession of dollar bills, a Federal Reserve official says. The longer you hold currency without depositing it in a bank account, the less that cash will be worth, according to a proposal from Marvin Goodfriend, a senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. In other words, greenbacks will get automatic expiration dates. ‘The magnetic strip could visibly record when a bill was last withdrawn from the banking system.

A carry tax could be deducted from each bill upon deposit according to how long the bill was in circulation,’ Goodfriend wrote in a recent presentation to a Federal Reserve System conference in Woodstock, Vermont. The 34-page paper argues a carry tax will discourage ‘hoarding’ currency, deter black market and criminal activities, and boost economic stability during deflationary periods when interest rates hover near zero. It says new technology finally makes such a scheme feasible. ‘Systems would have to be put in place at banks and automatic teller machines to read bills, assess the carry tax, and stamp the bills “current,"’ the report recommends.

Goodfriend said in an interview that banks might place a kind of visible ‘date issued’ stamp on each note they distributed. The thing could actually stamp the date when the bill comes out of the ATM,’ he said..."