Lets talk about technology

Our lives are ruled more and more by technology what with various gadgets and gizmos making our lives continuously "easier". Computers are becoming more and more prevalent everywhere and of course the all-encompassing Internet is never absent in anybody's life anymore. Few people seem to be objecting and on most accounts I welcome more technology into my life (I know, I'm a nerd. Sue me). However, there's one little device that scares me to almost no end.

I'm talking about personal tracking systems. It's very, very possible that in the not-so-distant future something like this could become mainstream along with the other technology we embrace oh so readily. Think about it, parents would have to worry less about losing a child. If somebody went missing, we could find them! In fact you could know where all your friends were at any time if they shared their information with you. If you took it a step further, we'd be able to eliminate the need to carry ID around and make background checks on any Joe off the street a breeze! Sounds amazing, right?

Well, I lied about the near future part, really. The technology is with us now; at least simple versions of it. You can now have pets chipped so you can locate them if they get lost. Cellular phone services are offering tracking devices on their products so you can know where your friends (or children) are at any time. Finally, in many states sex-offenders (and in one state former gang members) are forced to wear identifying, tracking ankle bracelets.

So what about it scares me? Let's assume that in the future, it's made almost completely necessary by society (even if not by law) to be chipped. Employers wouldn't hire non-chips, you couldn't get on a plane or into certain buildings without a chip, etc. This might make it so that anybody or anybody with the right connections could possibly look you up at any time. There goes any right to privacy we may have ever had. Now stay with me for this next part, I feel like it's going to need some explaining.

Does a person have the right to pretend they're something they're not? I'm not talking about stuff on the scale of identity theft, more along the lines of starting a new life in a new place with a new name. I'm also not saying that it's necessarily a moral decision to run away from one's problems, but is it criminal if nobody is hurt in the process? The scenario of running away and starting anew might be associated with criminals, but what about the office man who desperately wants a new life, or the family with the constant threat of abuse, really anybody on the run from anything. Our authority's are not infallible, can we really trust them with our names, all we might have left? Is it a right to be able to reject the labels others put on you?

Finally, on the note of the sex offenders and former gang members, something still rubs me the wrong way. Again, don't get me wrong, if anybody needs to be chipped, it'd be people like these. I'm sure it's reduced both gang violence and sexual abuse. If you break the law, you lose your freedoms. It's completely justified!... and yet, I can't get rid of the feeling that something's wrong with it. Perhaps it's an inner fear of being pinned into a situation, or something I've mentioned above, or something I can't even identify yet...whatever it is, I can't shake that feeling. There's no reason that I should sympathise with people in these situations, and yet I do. Not for their criminal aspects, but for that undeniable human one in all of us. People can reform, it's something I wish we supported programs for in prison or jail, but we can't take these trackers off now that we've put them on. It wouldn't be allowed... and so we become locked in and take one more step towards a chipped society.