IP: New chip to revolutionize our future

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2001 11:22:48 -0700
>From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@ultradevices.com>
>
>http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2782686,00.html
>
>I completely disagree with the level of importance that this reporter gets 
>carried away with. What is scary is how he wants to embrace this level of 
>intrusive survellance.
>
>             ....I'm looking at a publicity shot of Mew, a new chip from 
> Hitachi. It's a
>             tiny speck of silicon less than half a millimetre on each 
> side, and it
>             doesn't do much except squirt a serial number into the ether on
>             request. Yet combine it with the Internet and it has the 
> potential to
>             change society just as radically as Einstein's mass-energy
>             equivalence, because Mew can make information and objects one
>             and the same.
>
>                   ...
>
>             Is there any reason to think this will come about? Very much so.
>             We've been prepared to countenance security cameras that
>             recognise our faces when we walk down Newham High Street, and
>             cameras that report back to HQ when we drive our cars up the M1.
>             The advantages to the state, and to us, of having God-like powers
>             of omniscience are far too tempting to pass up. Little things 
> like
>             income tax could go away, when every transaction of money or
>             goods can be monitored and a rate of tax calculated--and the 
> money
>             taken--that's appropriate for who's selling, who's buying and 
> what's
>             being bought. Why go to the hassle of a yearly return, or having
>             separate sorts of taxation when you can just have a single
>             transaction tax that's automatic?
><snip>
>--
>Robert J. Berger
>UltraDevices, Inc.
>257 Castro Street, Suite 223 Mt. View CA. 94041
>Email: rberger@ultradevices.com http://www.ultradevices.com
>Voice: 408-882-4755 Fax: 408-490-2868<x-html>
><BASE HREF="http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news
>         /0,4586,2782686,00.html">



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