Intelligent Enterprise

Here in New York, there's a group that just held its monthly "Dorkbot" meeting. And it seems a gaggle of folks there were showing off their fancy new RFID implants. I've read a little about the case they make for the procedure. And I'm not buying in.

Take the curious case of Mikey Sklar. The Unix engineer says he got injected with his radio frequency identification chip partly for fun, because he's not the type who wants to just "go home and watch TV." Fair enough, I guess. I'm not much of a TV guy myself. Now the self-described tinkerer says he can wave his hand and be identified by his home computer, which will then automatically pull up his favorite online content. That's great, but I'm thinking he could probably achieve a similarly dazzling effect with The Clapper.

In particular, though, its the details of Sklar's fun RFID adventure that I suppose you could say, well, gross me out. Sklar had a doctor pal swab him with antiseptic, anesthetize the flesh between his thumb and forefinger, slice him, and insert the chip with an "injector gun." The chip in question was designed for livestock, and its manufacturer doesn't store them in a sterile environment. Sklar says he took care of that part himself.

Wonderful.

For the record, I respect Sklar's warnings about RFID privacy concerns -- he says his implant will help him spread that message. Sklar once gave a workshop in Brooklyn on how to block RFID signals. That's cool with me. As a technology itself, RFID seems glorious for gathering operational data from supply chains. And I agree that's tip-top news for supply chain managers.

But I'm thinking I'd rather not have a bovine tracking device shot into my person. For one thing, it's sheathed in reinforced glass, and having such a delicate item inside my hand might hamper my softball game. I happen to live in Brooklyn myself. In summers, I'm a city league outfielder.

You see, that's the sort of thing that I do for fun.