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IP: New chip to revolutionize our future
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2001 14:36:00 -0400
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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- IP: New chip to revolutionize our future David Farber (Jul 07)