Re:Doesn't mean people are happy with it... (Score 2, Interesting)

"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666." - Revelations 13:16-18

It was not technologically possible to implement this until today. Clearly, so long as there is cash, it is not possible to implement. This prophesies a cashless society in addition to prophesying how the control of trade down to the consumer level is necessary to complete the control.

The most significant thing I've seen relating to this in recent years is Chex Systems, where banks blacklist people from obtaining a bank account. Ironically, in the short term, that increases dependence on cash for these people, but also shows just how difficult it is to completely depend on cash. That's where it becomes a demonstration of the power the instituions will have in a digital monetary (or cashless) society.

The scary thing is that no one has been able to challenge Chex Systems despite laws against blacklisting. Who can take on the banks? This looks really bad when you consider the impact systems such as Chex Systems will have when cash is eliminated.

Where this can overlap with DRM, copy protection and other things, is in the dependence on bits of information to implement. Posters have regularly noted that the broadcast flag only becomes a large scale issue when broadcast becomes entirely digital, which is inevitable given our current direction and mandates by our own government.

Contrary to other posts responding to you, this is something the Romans, in their wildest imaginations, could have only dreamed of. This type of control is clearly unprecedented, and we have yet to witness it. But, the digitization of economics is a necessary prelude to the control over people in order for our worst tyrant in human history to complete his mission.

It's also worth noting that the UPC symbol on most products you buy and sell today consists of 15 digits, although only 10 or 12 are numbered at the bottom. You can learn to read it, it is very simple. Out of those 15 digits, 12 are variable, and thus used to identify products. The other 3 are constant. They are 666. They are the first two lines, middle two lines, and last two lines. To see that they are 6s, look for a code with a 6 on the right side. You'll see the pair of lines for it are the same.

To learn to read UPC symbols, it consists of 20 symbols. 10 symbols are the left hand side digits 0 through 9. The other 10 symbols are the right hand digits 0 through 9. Each digit is respresented by two lines. Thus, there are 30 lines total for the 15 digits.

I wouldn't assume that the UPC symbol itself will be the mark. But, it's worth noting just how developed technology is with regards to Revelations 13.