Your Papers, Pleez...
Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor -- Semiconductor International, 4/1/2002
When, in 1998, Brian Warwick, a cyberneticist at Reading University in London, implanted a chip in his arm that enabled his computer to track him and turn on the lights when he entered his office, many reckoned 1984 had finally arrived, riding on semiconductor technology's coattails.
Recently, Applied Digital Solutions (Palm Beach, Calif.) applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to test its VeriChip in humans — a subdermally implanted rice-grain-sized passive microchip encoded with information. When scanned by a nearby portable reader it yields data that could be anything from blood type and a list of allergies, to an ID number for a database file with additional information.
This application is being touted as safety against terrorism. While it is true that since 9/11 many Americans have been considering a precarious rebalancing of individual rights against collective security, the idea of having a chip crammed with personal information rooted under your hide, scannable by any moron with a reader, grates against every right we have taken for granted — particularly the one to privacy. This technology's benefits for emergency and military personnel, or those who cannot care for themselves such as someone afflicted with advanced Alzheimer's, are undeniable; for the average citizen they are, let us just say, dubious.
As members of the industry whose technology enables this capability, we must pause to consider. We do not want to end like Harvard nuclear physicist Kenneth Bainbridge who, upon running into Robert Oppenheimer after the successful Trinity test, commented, "Now we're all sons of b.....s."
Clearly, a universal, counterfeit-proof form of identification is necessary in these uncertain times — especially when anyone can buy convincing facsimiles of a driver's license, Social Security card, green card, and even a passport. All a counterfeiter needs is a good printer and sophisticated graphics software. Added to the fact that our borders are more porous than ultralow-k films, the problem assumes great importance.
Smart card technology can create a 32 kB chip with a practically unbreakable encoded algorithm that guarantees its authenticity. It might have the appearance of a driver's license and carry coded information: the owner's name, ID number, address, a digital photo, and some other identifying feature, whether a retinal image or thumbprint. In a foreign visitor's case, his temporary card would also carry passport information and visa status. There are enough watchdogs around to ensure that your ID card only carries this basic information. Otherwise, every newscaster and newspaper in the nation (not to mention the ACLU) would ensure the responsible party is brought to task. Such a card could not only replace the driver's license and the Social Security card, but would make identity theft impossible.
It seems inevitable that some form of universal ID will come to pass, particularly if (or, according to the government, when) another major terrorist attack takes place. Together with other groups, the semiconductor industry should consider the pros and cons of this now, in a rational manner, and not in the anguish and anger of a new tragedy.
In the mind's eye, "universal ID" invokes the image of a swaggering Gestapo-like goon approaching us and sneering, "Your papers, pleez..." In fact, we would not have to identify ourselves any more than we must today, which, unfortunately, is far more than we had to when we could afford to be a far more trusting nation.
Robert A. Heinlein's science-fiction character, Lazarus Long, may have been correct in his assessment that when a place gets crowded enough to require IDs, it's time to move on to a new planet.
