RFID
From doktorsleepless
RFID stands for Radio Frequency IDentification. An RFID chip ("tag") is a small wireless device which can be attached to or inserted into an object, animal or human body, in order to allow that thing to be automatically identified or otherwise wirelessly queried.
Contents |
RFID in DOKTOR SLEEPLESS
In the world of DOKTOR SLEEPLESS, RFID use is commonplace. Tags are used for a wide variety of purposes. Some tags are legally mandatory, while others are left to the individual to adopt as they see fit. Some tags may be surgically embedded or injected, making removal and attempts to tamper with them difficult or dangerous. Others are not required at all times and may be external, applied to the skin like a sticker or embedded in jewelry.
Some examples of tag use, seen directly or implied:
- for basic lawful identification. According to some grinder kids (DS#07,p13), it is illegal to turn off certain ports on your tags. This heavily implies that ID tags have replaced traditional driver's licenses, passports, and other forms of printed ID cards.
- for medical records and health-care information (see Coverage Tag). Medical tags replace and enhance the concept of Medic-Alert bracelets.
- as a health-monitoring device (see Biometr and Bioreadr).
- as an access and authentication mechanism for banking, credit, and insurance accounts (see Coverage Tag, Credit Tag).
- as authentication for electronic voting mechanisms (see VOTAG).
- for signing for deliveries. In DS#01, the delivery guy offers to "ping" Sing Watson for the deliveries.
- as control mechanisms for electronic locks and other devices. In DS#06, Sing Watson unlocks a door by waving her hand near it.
Most of these uses boil down to identification/authentication, data storage/retrieval, and command/control.
Tagspeak
Tag-related terminology.
Tag (noun)
An RFID device.
Tag (verb)
Using a tag to activate something via a command/control interface.
Port
A term from the internet. An internet-connected computer provides various services via different numbered ports. For example, you'd contact a computer at port 23 for telnet service, or contact it at port 80 to browse its web pages (http service). Presumably, a single tag may use ports similarly, to provide different services depending on which port was contacted. Some of these ports will be publicly accessible and others will be secured, for official use only.
Poll
To contact a tag port. "Polling" suggests periodic contact, eg to monitor sensor readings and record changes over time. A medical tag with a blood-pressure sensor might be polled every few minutes for updates.
Ping
To contact a tag port. Unlike "poll", "ping" suggests a one-time contact. A medical tag full of a patient's medical history might be pinged whenever the data is needed, but would not need to be polled since the data is static.
Zombie
A tag that has been taken control of in some fashion. The usage is similar to describing slave or zombie nodes on a modern botnet.
Social Aspects
Not everyone embraces all the new RFID-based technologies. Sing demonstrates some resistance to them when she asks to sign for her delivery, instead of letting the delivery guy "ping" her (DS#01,p13). The reasons are unclear; obviously Sing has her own ID and other tags, as she's later shown operating the lock on her store's front door with them (DS#06). It may demonstrate how recently the technology was adopted, and in time Sing may come around because it's easier. However, it may indicate a belief that allowing a ping is granting too much access, like an older person in the US today refusing to show ID just to buy a pack of cigarettes (or something else age-restricted).
Tag Tech
or, Fun Things to Do with Tags When You're Science Fiction
Zombie Maker
At the end of DS#03, the Doktor is shown building a "zombie maker". As he points out to Nurse, tags can send, and more importantly, recieve information. Taking control of all the tags in Heavenside requires some kind of machine. The Doktor alludes that taking control of a a single tag while he is near it is easy, like he's done it before.
Anonymizer Mask
The masks produced by the fabber at Shank Valentine in DS#07 are anonymizers, affecting nearby tags by jamming all tag ports. The mask's range seems small, apparently not much more than arms' length.
Grey Mask
The grey masks delivered to Catastrophe Books have not yet been shown to affect nearby tags, but the timing of their introduction is suspicious.
Goli Mask
The goli masks are worn by Eastside headhunters. Physically, they are an eyepatch-sized device worn over (or perhaps replacing) an eye, and decorated in a traditional fashion. Internally, they are a "cray supercomputer with a two-way feed" into the wearer's optic nerve, allowing input and output. The masks are not necessarily RFID tech, but probably include some RFID components (eg, RFID reader) to augment the mask's other capabilities.
Comments
- RFID may be the next Big Thing in supply chain management, but there have been some reliability issues. Bar codes aren't going anywhere soon - and nobody ever got a RFID tattoo because it looked cool.
- Civil liberties groups have expressed concerns that RFID chipping may become a form of police control.
- RFID chips can be either "passive" or "active". Active chips are always broadcasting an ID, something that requires an onboard power supply. Passive chips only supply their ID when they are interrogated, with the reader supplying power to the chip via Electro-Magnetic induction. Essentially, the transmission carrying a reader's query is what powers a passive chip.
- There are many people who have implanted themselves with RFID chips (almost always passive) here, which they use to automatically turn on lights, unlock doors and authenticate themselves to computers.
- Modern day passive tags do not have ports. In theory, active tags with enough power and hardware to provide a basic networking stack as well as basic service programs could support the concept.
Eschatological Christianity
Some Christian theologians concerned with eschatology consider RFID or other microchip implants to be the Mark of the Beast. They believe this is supported by the Book of Revelations. [1]
Those Christians probably shouldn't ping port 666 on their tags.
There has been an obsession among some Christians regarding the events leading up to and constituting the "end of the world." Usually it is assumed that there is the present world and then there is the world to come. Eschatology, for these people, means the point at which the present world/age/eon/sphere ends and the new world/age/eon/sphere begins. Imagine a time line with only two segments, the present world and the world to come. Eschatology, on this scheme, relates only to the end of segment one - the end of the world as we know it.
I won't debate the legitimacy of using the term "eschatology" to refer to catastrophic end time events, however, there is another use of the term many are unaware of. Instead of asserting a rigid distinction between the present world and the world to come, there is a school of thought which views eschatology as an in-breaking of the future world into the present world. The world to come, the future world, is realized in the present. On this scheme, we live in the overlap of the ages where the old world is passing away and the new world, having already dawned, is intruding into the present. In this sense, eschatological takes on the meaning of final, eternal, or better yet ultimate. Ultimate realities are impressing themselves upon the structures of this present age.
This means our present world resonates with tension. Tension between opposing forces. Forces entrenched in the present order now encounter forces of the future world which, having been unleashed, cannot be withdrawn or undone. There is no present world - future world dichotomy. There is rather a semi-eschatological age in which the present and future battle for dominion, and the present is giving way inexorably to the future. The present semi-eschatological age is a war zone.
Is this the philosophy which informs the phrase "immanentising the eschaton"?
See also
Return to Science.
Categories: Science | Technology | RFID
