We're watching you...

I was watching a programme on Animal Planet the other about the benefits of micro chipping your pets. It has lots of advantages - especially if they get sick or lost as your information is on the chip and the relevant organisation is able to contact you. It certainly helps especially if you are frantically looking for your pet wondering if they are dead or alive. It is also an invaluable tool for researchers and environmentalists keeping track of endangered and wild animals, and has enabled us to prevent many senseless deaths through human ignorance.

It got me thinking though, that I wonder if the day will ever come that us humans will be micro chipped for easier identification. A trip to the doctor could be a lot quicker as all they will have to do is scan you and your relevant medical history will pop up. If you go to the shops, you wont have the bother of queue's any longer, all you'll have to do is walk past a scanner and all your financial information will appear and the relevant amount debited off your account.

Sound like something out of the future? well maybe, but at the rate technology is evolving, it is really frightening to think that this could conceivably be our future. My question is who will have access to this information, who will control what is used and when. It places an incredible amount of power into the hands of too few people. What's worse the potential to control people and events could be catastrophic.

As they say absolute power corrupts absolutely!