Could microchip implants presage George Orwell's chilling novel '1984'?

 Americans should beware the radio-frequency identification microchip because the danger it could lead to Big Brother watching and controlling you is a possibility, if remote.

The technology available to implant RFIDs in citizens is here and now, but it is doubtful people would acquiesce if the government attempted to make it mandatory.

But the very idea has sent conspiracy theorists into fearful overdrive, with website after website warning that the government wants to take over your life. The current profusion of sites fed on an NBC News prediction in 2007 that RFIDs will be implanted in all Americans in 2017 (for the NBC video, click here).

“If you take the RFID microchip they can TRACK your every move, Control your MONEY, Control your FOOD and possible [sic] even kill you if you don’t obey,” blares the website Before It’s News.

A story dated April 28 about implanting the chip on the US Patriot website brought 6,314 comments.

“Over my dead body! I’ll put a lead implant in the skull of whoever tries to mark me or my family,” wrote Brad Hallowell, indicative of the tone of many of the comments.

Although the technology exists, the idea of implanting Americans with a microchip is more like the plot in a science fiction novel—George Orwell’s novel “1984” where Big Brother takes control comes to mind—except that some people in high places are taking the threat seriously.

In a story dated Feb. 10, 2010, Popular Science reported that Virginia legislators outlawed the involuntary implantation of microchips.

In discussing the reason for the law, the bill’s sponsor, state Del. Mark L. Cole (R), told the Washington Post that privacy issues are the chief concern, but there was also the fear that the microchips would be used as the “mark of the beast” described in the Bible’s Book of Revelation.

“My understanding—I’m not a theologian—but there’s a prophecy in the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times,” he said. “Some people think these computer chips might be that mark.”

Cole added that the RFID chips could allow employers or the government to track people against their will.

The myth that the government wants to implant the chips grew legs when the rumor started that Obamacare would require an RFID.

The truth is that the Affordable Care Act of 2009 included a section that allowed for data to be collected via devices like the microchip. But that was eliminated.

“The final law, the Patient and Protection and Affordable Care Act HR 3590 (Obamacare) removed this wording,” reported ObamaCare Facts.

Of course, implanting these chips in people even for the most beneficial of reasons, such as making medical records portable, cannot be allowed. There is simply too much room for abuse.

But on the other hand, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that at some point, these chips could be implanted in convicted pedophiles, for example, so that if the urge to abuse a child becomes too strong, the brain is shut down.

That could be true for murderers, rapists and other convicted criminals. It would be an interesting moral debate.

But for the general population?

Thanks, but no thanks. AllVoices