IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019 - 19

e d i t e d fo r r e a d a b i l i t y by Re becca Monteleone.

into this conversation and similar
And acting, you know, like this is a
conversations, it is important to
positive question.
note that most countries
have already signed treaties like the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and there's this
I was open to continue until
proh ibit ion on med ic a l
and scientific experimenI quickly concluded that
tation without consent [6].
it doesn't work very well.
The short answer, I want
to be part of the positive
side of the tech community
addressing the potential opporAnd then we have the other type of
tunity to improve people's lives.
comments, which I think is like 90%
of the reactions online from Facebook
This was the key driving force for
and YouTube accounts, have been
me in this experiment.
negative and concerned, and primarily involve integrity and security. And
KM: Were you always going to
kind of linking this into all sorts of
limit your experiment to a few
theories that you can dismiss like the
months?
"Illuminati," or technologically nonAS: No, I was open to continue
relevant theories like "now you will
until I quickly concluded that it doesn't
be monitored or controlled by the
work very well.
government." Clear misunderstandings of radiofrequency identification
KM: Why is an implanted chip just
(RFID) or NFC technology per se.
not worth it?
But I think in general, the security or
AS: It doesn't work very well. It's
integrity concerns are the type of conimpractical. Backend systems are
cerns that whatever solutions from a
not standardized. There are easitech perspective we build, we need
er ways to authenticate than with
to take into serious considerimplants. This is just a novel idea.
ation from all sorts of dimensions:
so that we have full control, we have
KM: Could this become a mainmarkup, and that data is managed by
stream practice?
the user herself. We already do it with
AS: No, I don't think so. Simply
our mobile phones.
because an implant doesn't add any
The third type of category of
value. We're just seeing tech enthuresponse, which I would say made
siasts jump on this currently, and
up about 10%-15% of the reactions,
since there's no rational reason to
have been of a pseudo-Christian
do it, it won't take off.
or religious nature, linking this experiment to the last book of the
KM: What have reactions to the
Bible, the Book of Revelation, Chapexperiment been?
ter 13, where you have this prophecy
AS: The types of reactions I have
which - if you believe it - is about
received online I would say I can
Satan and the Beast, and the Beast
capture into three categories. One
and Satan forcing humanity to take
is typically from the IT industry and
on the Mark of the Beast on your
from the tech community [7]. The
right hand or on your forehead,
LinkedIn geeks, the LinkedIn nerds
and if you don't do that and worship
that are cheering on that the findSatan, you won't be able to buy and
ings are exciting and innovative.

The Interview
KM: What was the motivation or
inspiration for you to actually conduct this experiment?
AS: I think that there are couple
of driving forces generally at play
today in society and in the tech
world. The digitization rate at which
we as individuals engage with each
other digitally can include the new
tech - the wearable tech that we
wear and [through which we] accept
data about how we move and live.
When you extend it into algorithms
and digital ecosystems, these tech
can help you lead a better life, a
healthier life, connecting seamlessly
with your friends and family.
And next to that you have technology impacting and improving
people's lives from a medical perspective. Now, there are different
tech streams at play, and I think
about augmentation and the area
in between physical and digital also
in terms of our bodies; it is an interesting area to experiment and learn
about. If it improves your life, would
you embed technology? And you
Katina have already made that argument with the heart pacemaker. The
pacemaker argument - of course,
if this tech would help you live on,
would you embed it? Yes, you would.
If tech would improve your ability to
connect faster or add any relevant
value, would you embed it? Yes, I
think you would. Would you be concerned about integrity and security? Yes, you should be; just as you
should with your phone as well.
So, I think the reason why I
got a microchip implant is that I
wanted to explore what are the relevant scenarios and what are the
irrelevant scenarios? What works
today and what doesn't work today,
while maintaining a focus on the
bigger picture. Of course, going
JUNE 2019

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019

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