Call Me Old Fashion!

RFID (radio frequency identification) is set to revolutionize the way we live our lives. According to the videos we just saw in class, its implementation should reduce errors and improve quality in supply chain management.
A “pro” of this new technology is that eventually there will be no need for checkout lines. By replacing barcodes on items with RFID chips that do not need to be manually scanned, and by incorporating the RFID in credit cards, people will be able to shop and pay for things self-sufficiently. I think this is not a “pro” but a “con” because for one thing it will eliminate many jobs (i.e. cashiers), which is not good for the economy, and second because it will remove the need for day to day social interaction when shopping. I used to be a cashier, and I found that I felt a rapport with many of my customers. Some of them were elderly people who I knew looked forward to coming to the store and talking with the cashiers about their day. I enjoyed talking with them too! As a psychology student I appreciate the importance of these kinds of interactions for mental and emotional health. Shopping is a not just a utilitarian activity but a social activity as well!
Now RFID also has implications not just for replacing bar codes, and improving credit cards, but also for carrying health, security and financial information – in people! The technology has been getting smaller and smaller and less and less expensive, so that eventually these massive information storing chips can be injected into human beings! They have already done this with cats and dogs. This is a very strange idea to me. I find this kind of technology implementation might be suitable for sexual and dangerous offenders and for serial killers, but I don’t see how we can justify messing with innocent, living creatures this way. I think the consequences of melding technology so closely with biology will result in dire consequences. People might get ill physically from this radio-frequency technology, or perhaps worse, they may become mentally ill from it. It is a proven fact that everything in and around our bodies has some sort of an effect on our health and development.
If mental and physical health risks aren’t enough of a “con”, then add to that privacy issues. Someone told me about 4 years ago that they would not get the flu shot because they thought that the government was going to inject us with something to track us and eventually control our minds. He was very adamant that it was true and that the technology had already been started, but I thought this person was just nuts. Now years later, I am hearing about how the government is getting ready to inject RFID chips into our shoulders! I thought this was something that could only be done in a sci-fi story. This is not cool. All people have the right to certain freedoms, including privacy. I think human beings can handle the responsibility of carrying health cards and bank cards and identification. There is no need to turn us into pseudo-robots, or machines, or “items”. We might as well tattoo barcodes on everyone and wrap us in bubble wrap.
I think the small “benefits” that RFID technology would bring to business must be weighed against the virtual destruction it will bring to mankind. Even if we could justify using RFID chips in everything including people, has anyone considered what would happen if something went wrong with the technology? Can you imagine what kind of havoc would be wrecked? Even barcodes can be read visually by people – the numbers match numbers in inventory charts, so if the computers go down, no problem. What about the RFID chips? All the information contained in them must be read with a special scanner. There is no way for lay people to know what information is in those chips.
I think businesses can do without this RFID technology. I think it’s creepy. It kind of reminds me of Nazi Germany. We as a people should be able to recognize this kind of stupidity before it is allowed to proliferate. Call me old fashion, but business is not just about cutting costs and making things more efficient. It’s also about being human and interacting in the real world.