The Treasure Hunt

(Robin)

I think as society becomes more futuristic and more Orwellian I think there will be a lot of high-tech crimes in trying to hide personal identity. I believe there will be a day (somewhere in the not too distant future) where all governments will have made it their goal to track people from birth to death and because of that all pregnancies and live births will be monitored and tracked so they can keep tabs on everyone. (Girls giving birth away from hospitals or government centers will become illegal.)

As the government, all governments of the world... including our own tries to catalog and track every person on the planet there will come a time when there will be whole black market industries where underground groups will try to erase or completely mask a person's identity.

For many years VeriChip has marketed and applied implantable devices under a person's skin in order that personal information can be stored. One day, at birth all people will be required by law to have either this device or one like it implanted. Because many people will naturally rebel against such a forced order, there will be black markets that spring up to help defy all governments of the world.

I think it's going to be a fairly scary future as "big-brother" becomes a reality to everyone, and not just a tag-line for a movie. If I were alive during that time I would not be helping those on the side of law enforcement(?). If and when it becomes a crime to refuse such devices as a means of keeping track of everyone, I would work against the government and try to find ways to help people escape the intrusiveness of big government.

(Karlei)

So are you saying you believe that in the near future we will all just become a number or a barcode to the government? And that they will use this number/barcode to track us from birth to death including all sicknessess, accomplishments, and anything else? That is completly crazy! It reminds me of an old TV series I used to watch where this woman actually had a barcode and a computer program inside her. However, no matter how crazy it sounds-it is completely possible. I think that is the craziest part of the whole idea. Identity theft is already such a huge problem and I can see the government using this chip as a way of monitoring and preventing identity theft. But, at the same time I would think the chip would definately infringe on some of our constitutional rights. Don't you?

(Robin)

Yeah... as crazy as it sounds, implantable chips have been done in our own country, and with human beings since 2002: at least that's when the general public saw the first family who had it done, and that was broadcast live on the Today Show. The Jacob's family of South Florida (who had it done) along with their personal doctor did it in full view of the cameras. Since that time, in England, Spain, and even certain bars in Florida... people have been micro-chipped so that they can drink "wallet-free" ... as all of their expenses for the night are paid for by having their hands, or arms scanned. We have been, for some time now, in Orwell's very scary future!

If you have already read our Epilogue in Criminology Today you would have seen the picture on page 427? (Schmalleger) Of course, the reason there are people who have always made light of the subject and mocked is because it will not be that obvious of a "mark." It will be done the same way we have been micro-chipping pets for several decades... and the same way at least 200 hospitals in America has micro-chipped thousands of Alzheimer's patients, and others with varying forms of dementia.

The "mark" will be an implantable device, about the size of a grain of rice... and it will be placed under the skin of the hand or the arm... and for those who have lost limbs, it will be placed in their foreheads, so it will be easily read by scanners. The VeriChip company is the same one that Tommy Thompson, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under George Bush, had left his position in Washington to join their board. After that, Thompson traveled to public schools all over America and spoke in assembly halls and urged everyone to get micro-chipped.

Under the ruse of global terrorism... all governments of the world will make it law that people will have to be tracked, and this tracking must be done from birth! That is the reason I say that a future crime(?) will be having devices removed, once implanted, else, trying to avoid being implanted in the first place, and women will be trying to hide their pregnancies and having live births in places where the government can not record them.

As far as our Constitution being infringed upon... well, "yes and no"... when that terrible future time begins to take place here at home and abroad... we will no longer have a Constitution to be trampled upon: at that time there will be a "New World Order" that every president since Ronald Reagan has publicly spoken about. Remember, human laws are only what the people in power at any given time say that they are. So, without a Constitution... our "rights" which had been granted by the Constitution (and the people in power at that time) would no longer exist.