In Shaun Saunders MallCity 14 we were introduced to "infopanels" which for all intents were bulletin boards that could track where you were looking and feed you specfic adverts. I know when I read the book, I though that the tech was still a ways off and in any event, way too intrusive. So what does Shaun send me? Well, here is an excerpt, click on the article title for the complete story.A camera that monitors eye movements from up to 10 metres away makes it possible for smart billboards that track the attention of passers-by. The developers behind the technology – dubbed Eyebox2 – believe it could have a range of possible applications, but should particularly interest advertisers. This is because it allows billboards to track people's attention. The system uses an array of infrared LEDs and a 1.3 megapixel digital camera to monitor eye movements. It can track several people at once and can determine their gaze from four metres away to within 15 degrees.
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Verichip’s plans to inject RFIDs into 200 Florida Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers represents another insidious erosion of personal freedom that was predicted in the 2004 dystopia Mallcity 14.
In Mallcity 14, the reader is introduced to a modern consumer world, where “private thoughts are dangerous”, and unbridled consumerism and perpetual debt are the only way of life. In Mallcity, where everyone is chipped from birth with a subcutaneous ID (or SID), nothing can escape the eyes and ears of the BCC – the Bureau of Consumer Confidence – and its affiliate, Eternitybank.
See an extract from the book below:
“…the government of twenty-five years ago exploited something else, an emotion just as strong if not more powerful. As Mary said, that emotion was fear. To recap, banks wanted to know where you spent all of your money, and the governments they controlled wanted to know where you were, always. To achieve these aims all they had to do was to replace the ID cards with the subcutaneous chips. After all, even if we were to transfer over to a cashless society, you wouldn’t need to have an id card on you twenty-four hours a day. And even if governments made it illegal to leave your home without such a card, people would still be able to choose not to carry one.
“So the next step was to work on people’s fear and insecurities. First of all, they made it mandatory that pets be chipped. That way, people were told, it would be much easier to keep track of lost animals and cheaper to get them registered each year. The next step was to use the media to show how young Johnny or Jane who somehow walked out of their family homes and went missing the week before could have been saved if only the rescuers had found them sooner. Of course, a SID, responding to an outside signal sent by the searchers would have fixed that.
“The next unwitting candidates were people with mental problems, and they were an easy target. People have always been afraid of what they don’t understand, and the notion that mental illness could strike almost anyone was too much for the average person to bear. ‘Will I be next?’ they wondered. It made absolute sense then to chip those people, for their good and that of society. Besides, their numbers were always increasing, although people didn’t seem to understand why. Following them came prisoners on day release and home detention. Then came people who needed help from social security such as pensioners and those on unemployment benefits.
“Soon, legislation was passed requiring that all convicted felons be chipped, and after that, given that so many people were now under the scrutiny of the government and banks, the cry went out that everyone be chipped.
“Not long after that, the bulletin boards on the internet – that was the precursor to the current multimedia system – were filled with bogus cries of ‘It’s every citizen’s right to live in a secure and free society. Demand your chip today.’”
Mallcity 14 is available from Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412031826/102-8919220-1373718?ie=UTF8&coliid=&colid
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