By MONROE ROARK
mroark@thecitizennews.com

It's time for another installment in my occasional series on advancing technology and personal responsibility (unfortunately, the former usually moves way too fast for the latter to keep up).

Applied Digital Solutions is ready to unleash the VeriChip onto the open market. If the federal government gives its approval, anyone can have the chip implanted and be exposed to a brave new world of technology (which can be very good or very bad, depending upon your point of view).

The benefits of this device, about the size of a grain of rice, are easy to spot. Just to name a few examples:

Your medical history can be kept on file. If you are in an accident and unconscious, an EMT with a scanner can find out what you are allergic to or what other special conditions you might have.

Anyone who goes missing, from a kidnapped child to a wandering family member with Alzheimer's, can be tracked by a global positioning satellite system, and weeks and months of waiting are reduced to hours.

Soldiers in harm's way can also be tracked. If a plane goes down behind enemy lines, who wouldn't want his or her superiors to know the exact position of their personnel at all times?

Those are just a few of the most obvious examples. The next list m ay go into a few gray areas where civil liberties are concerned, but the technological possibilities cannot be denied. Here goes:

Airline boarding could be expedited if the chip were used as an identifying feature. People who agree to have the relevant background information imbedded in their chips would save hours of waiting in line at the airport.

Convicted felons could be tracked once they are released from prison. This would be especially helpful for those on parole or probation, many of whom go right back to a life of crime, as we know all too well.

Immigration can be made much simpler. The chip can serve as a green card, and the movements of those who would enter our country to do us harm can be documented more efficiently.

These last three applications, which some would call extremely useful, would be loudly protested by those who scream of various "profiling" excesses by our government in the wake of Sept. 11. Many of their complaints are misguided, but they allude to a larger issue that is at the root of the most of our problems where technology is concerned: Where there is potential for great scientific advancement that can benefit mankind, there is always an even greater potential for its abuse.

Simply put, once this chip hits the open market, what's to stop the government from using it in any number of undesirable ways? What if someone decides that, in the interests of aviation security, you must have a chip to fly on a commercial airliner? What if you were required to have it to open a checking account?

If that sounds farfetched, remember that this is the government that conceived the FDIC's "Know Your Customer" plan, which would have required banks to report "unusual" customer activity to the government. Who knows where that would have gone except for privacy advocates who, with the help of conservative news outlets and talk radio, expressed their outrage loudly enough that Congress quashed the proposal.

The simple fact of the matter is that a host of wonderful potential uses for the VeriChip exist, but at the same time there are plenty of power-hungry people who would love nothing better than to have unprecedented control over the American people using just such a device.

This is not a new idea. It was foretold thousands of years ago.

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev. 13: 16-17)

An Associated Press story reported that Applied Digital appeared on "The 700 Club" and assured everyone the VeriChip does not fit the Biblical description of the "mark" because it is under the skin and hidden from view. But note the wording of the above verses: "...in their right hand, or in their foreheads..."

According to the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, there are 20 different definitions of the word "mark" when used as a noun. One of those is "a device or symbol serving to identify, indicate origin or ownership, etc." In other words, it does not have to be on the outer layer of skin in plain sight.

Is the VeriChip the forerunner of the "mark" described in the Bible? I don't know. Is it likely that the VeriChip's benefits will be overshadowed by its drawbacks? Given the government's track record, I think so. Only time will tell.

[Monroe Roark can be reached at mroark@TheCitizenNews.com.]

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