In George Lucas's first film
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 5:01 am
Doctor Who's EarPods can put their wearer into a trance so they can be controlled remotely, or turn them into superhuman Cybermen.
The science fiction community is still divided on whether microchips will be used in the future for ultra-efficient individual identification and tracking, behavioral control, or accelerated learning. If I had to choose one of these applications for myself, I would choose the second. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn how to water ski in ten seconds?
Reality
Some companies have already begun implanting microchips into employees to make identification more efficient. (The microchip is, of course, voluntary.)
Last summer, Wisconsin-based vending company the benefits of using our teacher database Three Square Market offered its employees the chance to implant microchips from Swedish electronics company Biohax International into the skin between their thumbs and index fingers.
The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, identifies employees wirelessly, grants access to buildings and computers, and makes payments at vending machines. It doesn't support GPS, so employees don't have to worry about being tracked when they call in sick.
Three Square Market said more than half of its employees have volunteered to receive the chip.
What does this mean for the future of project management?
Imagine you're sitting at your workstation managing a team of engineers. Not only does your project management software list each employee with a headshot, but icons on a map show you in real time where each employee is located, what task they're working on, and how long they've been working .
Privacy is certainly a concern, but managers can track employees' computer use and social media behavior for years.
Tracking employees is one way microchips could impact project management, but DARPA is working on a project that could have a global impact.
The Neural Engineering Systems Design Program , which builds a bridge between the brain and external electronics, could eventually allow humans to interact directly with machines. DARPA says:
Such an interface would convert the electrochemical signaling used by the brain's neurons into the ones and zeros that make up the language of information technology, and would do so on a much larger scale than is currently possible.
In practice, this could mean things like cochlear implants that translate any language, artificial eyes that display additional information about what you're looking at, and cybernetic limbs. In other words: we're one step closer to a real-life Robocop .
The science fiction community is still divided on whether microchips will be used in the future for ultra-efficient individual identification and tracking, behavioral control, or accelerated learning. If I had to choose one of these applications for myself, I would choose the second. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn how to water ski in ten seconds?
Reality
Some companies have already begun implanting microchips into employees to make identification more efficient. (The microchip is, of course, voluntary.)
Last summer, Wisconsin-based vending company the benefits of using our teacher database Three Square Market offered its employees the chance to implant microchips from Swedish electronics company Biohax International into the skin between their thumbs and index fingers.
The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, identifies employees wirelessly, grants access to buildings and computers, and makes payments at vending machines. It doesn't support GPS, so employees don't have to worry about being tracked when they call in sick.
Three Square Market said more than half of its employees have volunteered to receive the chip.
What does this mean for the future of project management?
Imagine you're sitting at your workstation managing a team of engineers. Not only does your project management software list each employee with a headshot, but icons on a map show you in real time where each employee is located, what task they're working on, and how long they've been working .
Privacy is certainly a concern, but managers can track employees' computer use and social media behavior for years.
Tracking employees is one way microchips could impact project management, but DARPA is working on a project that could have a global impact.
The Neural Engineering Systems Design Program , which builds a bridge between the brain and external electronics, could eventually allow humans to interact directly with machines. DARPA says:
Such an interface would convert the electrochemical signaling used by the brain's neurons into the ones and zeros that make up the language of information technology, and would do so on a much larger scale than is currently possible.
In practice, this could mean things like cochlear implants that translate any language, artificial eyes that display additional information about what you're looking at, and cybernetic limbs. In other words: we're one step closer to a real-life Robocop .