IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017 - 8

of microchipping people using RFID
was chaired at ISTAS '10 by Wil-
liam A. Herbert [45]. Months prior to
ISTAS '10, I interviewed both the IT
Manager responsible for creating the
e-payment application at Baja Beach
Club [35], and the consultant to
Citywatcher.com [36]. These prima-
ry interviews formed key foundations
into the larger inquiry. By 2009 [37]
and 2014 [38], Michael and Michael
had authored and co-edited large
reference volumes on the social
implications of chip implants and
dozens of peer reviewed research
papers with colleagues and students
at UOW (e.g., [39]). In between these
two studies, Dr. Mark Gasson had
also co-edited and excellent Spring-
er publication in 2012, on Human
ICT Implants: Technical, Legal and
Ethical Considerations [40]. He was
the General Chair of ISTAS '10 at
the University of Wollongong, and
presented a paper on the potential
for humans bearing implants to
become infected with a computer
virus [41]. At this time, it was clear
that IEEE SSIT was drawing in spe-
cialists not just in cross-disciplinary
fields, but also encouraging propo-
nents of the technology to consider
the sociotechnical implications.
*
In mid-August 2017, I returned
from the outstanding IEEE Sections
Congress 2017 that was hosted in
the International Convention Cen-
ter in Sydney. I cannot speak highly
enough of this event. I presented
as part of a panel chaired by SSIT
Past President Greg Adamson on
"Addressing Social Challenges to
Technology" and spoke on the atten-
tion that non-medical implanta-
bles have received in recent times
when compared with the previous
decade. Out of the 50+ people pres-
ent in the room only 4 people raised
their hands when I asked the ques-
tion "would anyone in this room get
chipped" [42]? It is important to

8

note that all of the people present
were tech-savvy, many of them were
entrepreneurs, working in industry
or in academia. I contrasted this
figure with the very unbelievable
figures cited in The Australian that
said a survey of 10 000 Pricewater-
houseCoopers employees across
major economies found 70 per cent
would consider using "treatments
to enhance their brain and body if
this improved their employment
prospects" [43]. I made the point
that we need to challenge such
"claims." I also made the point that
IEEE SSIT has been working in the
emerging technology domain asking
critical questions since its creation
and has had much to do with the
study of medical and non-medical
embedded devices. That for us as
SSIT members, speaking on emerg-
ing technologies is not new, and
researching them using a plethora
of approaches is something we are
entirely comfortable with - legal,
technical, societal, economic, etc.
[44]. I urged people in the room to
become members of SSIT, to bring
their expertise to such urgent sub-
ject areas, to discuss the pros and
cons, and add know-how where it
was needed - e.g. spectrum, regu-
latory, health, business, etc. In the
December 2017 issue of T&S Magazine, I will continue with a Part 2
to this editorial covering progress
in the implantables domain since
2013 urging members to construct
projects that will further interrogate
the complexities of our technologi-
cal trajectory.
We should remember and cel-
ebrate the contributions of our
members and non-members to our
Magazine, our annual conference
and workshops, specific projects,
and papers. Please search our cor-
pus of outcomes on our upgraded
web site which now contains a lot
of free material, cite them in the
future, and challenge people when
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

they tell you that "x" or "y" is "brand
new" or "has never been researched
before." It is a golden opportunity to
connect people to SSIT, and bring
in new expertise and volunteers to
focus on our Five Pillars. We must
know ourselves better, if we are to
expect others to know who we are
and what we stand for.

References
[1] K. Michael, "The future of government
identifiers," School of Computing and
Mathematical Sciences, University of Tech-
nology, Sydney, Australia, Nov. 26, 1996.
[2] R. Clarke, "Information technology and
dataveillance," Commun. ACM, vol. 31, no. 5,
pp. 498-512, 1988.
[3] S. Davies, Big Brother: Australia's
Growing Web of Surveillance. East Ros-
eville, NSW: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
[4] R. Tren, "Trends in the cards industry,"
Andersen Consulting, pp. 1-99, 1995.
[5] E. Kac, "Event in which a microchip
(identification transponder tag) was
implanted in the artist's left ankle," Time
Capsule, Casa das Rosas Cultural Center,
São Paulo, Brazil, 1997; http://www.ekac
.org/timec.html.
[6] K. Warwick, M. Gasson, B. Hutt et al.,
"The application of implant technology for
cybernetic systems," Arch Neurol., vol. 60,
no. 10, pp. 1369-1373, 2003.
[7] K. Michael, "The automatic identifica-
tion trajectory," in Internet Commerce:
Digital Models for Business, E. Lawrence,
J. Lawrence, S. Newton, S. Dann, B. Corbitt,
and T. Thanasankit, Eds. Australia: Wiley,
2002, pp. 131-134.
[8] P. Cochrane, Tips for Time Travelers.
McGraw-Hill, 1999, pp. 7, 57.
[9] "About the lab," Auto-ID Labs; https://
autoid.mit.edu/about-lab, accessed Aug. 16,
2017.
[10] "Project Cyborg 2.0: The next step
towards true Cyborgs?," Kevin Warwick;
http://www.kevinwarwick.com/project-
cyborg-2-0/, accessed Aug. 16, 2017.
[11] J. Lettice, "First people injected with
ID chips, sales drive kicks off," The Register, June 10, 2002; https://www.theregister
.co.uk/2002/06/10/first_people_injected_
with_id/, accessed Aug. 16, 2017.
[12] K. Albrecht, 2008, "Implantable RFID
chips: Human branding," CASPIAN; http://
www.antichips.com/what-is-verichip.htm,
accessed Aug. 16, 2017.
[13] "Positive ID," Wikipedia; https://en
.wikipedia.org/wiki/PositiveID, accessed
Aug. 16, 2017.
[14] FDA, "Medical devices; general hospi-
tal and personal use devices; Classification
of implantable radiofrequency transponder
system for patient identification and health
information," Department of Health and
Human Services: FDA; https://www.fda

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SEPTEMBER 2017
http://www.Citywatcher.com http://www.ekac http://https:// http://autoid.mit.edu/about-lab http://www.kevinwarwick.com/project https://www.theregister http://www.co.uk/2002/06/10/first_people_injected_ http://http:// http://www.antichips.com/what-is-verichip.htm https://en http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/PositiveID https://www.fda
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017
