PROPHECY WATCH (TST) – The chip in my right hand is a near-field communication device that I scan with an app on my smartphone to access and rewrite the information I have stored on it. It can contain a minuscule 888 kilobytes of data storage and only communicates with devices less than four centimeters away.
In my left hand is a chip designed as a digital verification device that uses a proprietary app from the developer Vivokey. The implant procedure is neither difficult nor extremely painful. I can feel the bump of the chips under my skin and often invite others to feel it. The bump does not protrude from the back of my hand — if I didn’t tell someone it was there, they would not be able to tell by sight that I had an implant.
But they are not undetectable. An implanted chip can be a secure storage location for emergency contact information, used as an electronic business card, or as an electronic key to unlock your door. I give public presentations and interviews about my research and, as a result, do not store private data on my chip. There are thousands of people all over the world with chip implants; people I call “voluntary cyborgs.”
Voluntary cyborgs are people involved in the community and practice of implanting technology beneath their skin for enhancement or augmentation purposes and I’ve counted myself as a member of this subculture for several years. My research in the community has focused on the formation of a distinct subculture and its representations in popular media.
I coined the term voluntary cyborgs to make a distinction from medical cyborgs, who have had technology — like pacemakers, insulin pumps, IUDs, and more — implanted by medical professionals for rehabilitative or therapeutic purposes. READ MORE
