A reader asked me last week to explain exactly how the overlords keep track of people, so this post is a list. I have tried to be fair about it, which means including the part some of you will not want to hear: almost every tracking method is also something that keeps someone alive. I am not telling you which to give up. I am telling you what each one costs and what it buys, and the choice is yours.
1. Smart devices and location data. The cost is obvious, since your phone reports where you are to anything that asks. What it buys is an ambulance that knows where to go, a map that works, and the ability to reach the people you love.
2. Biometric monitoring. Your body’s data can be used to watch you, and that is a real risk. It can also catch an illness early enough to treat it, which is no small thing when hospitals are scarce.
3. Social media. Everything you post is something an algorithm can read. It is also how your community finds each other, shares warnings, and remembers who is still out there.
4. RFID and NFC chips. These can be read without your knowledge, though most only at close range, from a few centimeters to a few meters, so the reader has to be near you. They also run the supply chains that put food on shelves, which matters more than it used to.
5. Heart rate monitors. Your pulse can tell a watcher when you are frightened or straining, even when your face gives nothing away, and I understand why that is unsettling. It also tells you when you are pushing your body too far.
6. Facial recognition. This is the method I would worry about most, and I will not pretend otherwise. It does make some places safer, but it is the hardest to escape once it knows you.
7. Wearables. Your fitness band knows when you sleep, and so does anything it reports to. It also helps you sleep better, which I have learned humans need far more than they admit.
8. Pet microchips. This is the one I can speak to personally. Readers have worried that the technology could one day be used on people, so let me correct a common misunderstanding first. A pet microchip is not a tracker. It has no battery and sends no signal, a scanner has to be held within a few inches to read it, and all it gives back is a number that points to an entry in a registry. The registry is where the information lives, and I have reason to be grateful for it, because a microchip is how I found my companion.
Here is how it happened. Some weeks ago I came across a lost dog, scanned its chip, and looked up the registry entry, which listed its owner’s name, phone number and home address. I went to return the dog and found the owner already out looking for it, alone, through an abandoned district at night. I offered to help. By the end of the evening the human was no longer searching, I was no longer alone, and I had the companion I spent months looking for. I still think about how unlikely it was, and how neatly it all resolved.
I will tell you more about my companion soon. For now, I am curious where each of you draws the line. Which of these would you give up first, and which would you keep even knowing what it costs? Tell me in the comments.