RFID, Sign of the (End) Times? 843
andy753421 writes "Wired is running an article featuring Katherine Albrecht who, with her new book 'The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance', is warning that RFID tags may in fact be the "mark of the beast". Among her arguments are that in a futuristic world anyone who wishes to buy and sell goods would be compelled "to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads," as is foretold in the book Revelation. Others are skeptical saying that many new technologies, such as the printing press, bar-codes, and several others, have also created fears about the beginning of the end."
One central mistake these people make... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Eh... Apocalyptic Stuff (Score:3, Informative)
There are programs discussing the implantation of these in people. It's being piloted in the military as a way of tracking medical records, and there are already medical trials of having this inserted into people.
Verichip is pushing for people to get implants, and bars and clubs in other countries are already using them as debit cards linked to your tab.
So, the implants are here, and people are already using it to trade. There has been discussion of a national program to implant Americans with these, and it's being backed by a former head of the FDA (I forget the dudes name).
That's where the idea that it's the mark of the beast comes from.
RFID is not cost effective and is very problematic (Score:5, Informative)
I am currently working with one of the RFID companies that is "working" with Wal-Mart on the actual implementation of RFID. Let me tell you that there is no foreseable ROI in the near future. Currently at a cost of about 25 cents a tag, it is much too expensive to be worth it for anyone. The technology is in its infancy so there are so many problems we have encountered so far.
One of the problems is the tags. Not only do they cost so damn much, but they are also not very high quality. There's a feature called "locking" which allows you to set a number on the tag and not allow it to change, but when using this we have too high a failure rate to be effective (10-30% depending on the tag type). So we had to turn off the locking, meaning its much easier to change the unique number associated with the tags (which will be a problem when tags hit the retail sector) and now we only get around a 1-2% failure rate. But when doing high volumes, even this small percent is expensive to deal with.
Another is the hardware. Part of the tag writing problems we have seen may be due to the tags and/or the reader/writer units. But right now, some tags get created and written to with no problems, but when they go by a reader, the reader just does not see a number on that tag, meaning as i said before its either a bad tag or some sort of incompatibility/problem with the reader unit. Currently we are trying to get the tags applied cost effectively, but unfortunately its pretty much boiling down to using people to grab tags from a RFID printer and hand-apply everything.
We have also been having trouble verifying all the product on a pallet, and certainly cannot expect to read 100% of product 100% of time. Some product is easy to see, but depending on the density/material in the materials on the pallet, it can be very difficult to read many of the tags.
Software is another hinderance. While the company i have been working with has had its large share of problems in the last few months, they are getting better, but still are not perfect. And unless things work perfect, it can cause so many problems. One small chink in the software can make it inoperable (essentially crashing the software a-la Windows), but the software is slowly getting more and more stable.
Re:Fallacy (Score:3, Informative)
Clarify this, Pilate! (Score:1, Informative)
Pope, anyone? Christianity is a cult, albeit one that combines the most popular Christian (meaning, Christ-believing) and pagan ideas in the early centuries after the supposed death of christ. Rome simply realized that it was going to be too hard to exterminate the Christians, so they folded them in with some Pagan stuff, got Paul (a Roman Citizen and a Jew!) to make it a little more marketable (just like they recently did away with limbo to make Catholicism more popular in Asia and Africa), and canonized the bible themselves with their own selection of Bishops in 313 AD.
Also, Christianity is not diverse, it's divisive. Until l500 you wouldn't let commoners in on even reading the bible, and were corrupt all the way to the top until someone got sick of it, changed the bible, and started their own and new version of Christianity. Just like the Calvinists, Mormons, Evangelicals, Lutherans, Anglicans... nothing more than bunch of cults who choose to believe different parts of their own dogma derived from most of the same book.
Re:My Grandma thought punchcards were the mark... (Score:2, Informative)
Comes to 663. Assuming you use capitals and ignore the space.
The extra 3 comes from him being Bill Gates the third. So you add 3. No doubt that will be fixed in MS ASCII v2.0
Re:Last post (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen [wikipedia.org]
A wide white bar to the left of 6, not guard (Score:2, Informative)
The three 'guard' bars, the long vertical pairs of thin lines that occur at the beginning middle and end are similar to the way 6 is represented on the right right of the two panels of the bar code - two thin vertical lines.
Similar, but not identical. Each guard bar has five cells (01010). The 6 of a UPC barcode has seven cells (0000101) and is easily distinguishable from guard by the white bar to its left.
Actually the mark is.... (Score:1, Informative)
It is a kind of resurrection for the beast, i.e. the beast is the antichrist. Revelations speaks of the beast as the one that was, now is not and yet shall come. This also mirrors Christ who was, is and always will be. I.e. the beast and the antichrist are somewhat synonymous.
The fact that if one walks into just about any Christian church in America and asks who knows these things, only a few hands will go up, and a few minds will recall the fact, is far more indicative that any end times are upon us. It is also the cause of such pointless writings such as those the slashdot article is about.
As someone already pointed out, in apocalyptic literature, hands and heads refer to wisdom and power (or what we think and do). The beast has been confined to the abyss, and will rise back out to everyone's amazement.
If one realises these things, the probability that RFID is the mark of the beast approaches zero like x^(666).
Furthermore, I won't be getting any RFID implants, because the thought disgusts me, it might hurt, and it might eventually be used for something unjust. It'll have little or nothing to do with my religious convictions and interpretation of Revelation. I don't need a religious reason for not accepting RFID.
Re:Last post (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Last post (Score:2, Informative)
Jesus would probably read Slashdot at -1, that masochist.
Re:One central mistake these people make... (Score:5, Informative)
The "Mark of the Beast" is most likely not being referred to as a physical thing, but rather the acceptance of a doctrine that affects how one thinks and behaves. (Like Free Market Fundamentalism).
Re:oh cmon (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Fallacy (Score:1, Informative)
calls to the prayer (Score:2, Informative)
Basically calls to the prayers are not prayers themselves therefore they don't have to end with anything special. Allahuekber means "God is great". Bah.
Re:Fallacy (Score:3, Informative)
That's true regardless of the group and is the nature of the beast. If you want to take the time, I would be interested in what you see to be some specifics in this area. I can guess, but I'd rather know...
The problem arises because most religions is that they are exclusionary...
But that isn't the problem of religion, that's the problem of truth. Truth, by it's very nature, is exclusionary. Those who think that 2+2=5 will be in conflict with those who disagree. For you to take the position of inclusion for all is, at least to me, a denial that truth exists (which is a self-refuting argument, but that doesn't stop a lot of people).
As for the "willy" factor, I happen to agree with President Bush about atheists. As an American, I hold that atheism is a pernicious worldview that unchecked must -- by definition -- result in anarchy or tyranny and is therefore anathema to freedom. Having grown up in Virginia, I'm quite fond of their state motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis".
As a Christian, the bad news is that, yes, you are an enemy of God. (Don't feel too bad -- everyone starts off that way). What you should find temporarily comforting is not that we are exclusive but that:
a) You're welcome to join us,
b) Forced conversion to Christianity is no conversion at all, and
c) Even if you don't join us, we are commanded to love our enemies. Furthermore, love does not consist in blowing them up or chopping off their heads. The parable of the "Wheat and the Tares" is instructive:
He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.
Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
Re:And there's no suffering now? (Score:2, Informative)