RouseWorld | Wayward Packet -- For the Week of 2/18/02

For the Week of 2/18/02

I've got a vision of
The Future

(RouseWorld Labs) — They (and you know how they can be) are trying to make a microchip that would cost (hopefully) a nickle or less that could be put on every packaged good sold in America. The chips would start signaling when placed near a special transmitter and would contain a code that could, theoretically, uniquely identify every can of peas sold in America. How cool is that? First off, goodbye shoplifting. You could stuff crap all down you pants and in your coat and still be billed for every can of tuna you walk out of the store with. But there's lots more that could be done with those chips.

Imagine a smart guy making arrangements with a lot of cities and putting those transmitters in every recycling bin and trash roll-out. The city gets to know who's actually recycling what they should and the companies get to know stuff like how long do people hold on to Mac-and-Cheese before they actually use it. Well, those kinds of statistics and maybe a few other details.

Let's say that you live in Colorado and every year in late February or early March you buy a bunch of groceries. But these groceries aren't thrown away in Denver, they are thrown away in California — at, they find, your cousin's house. Checking with your cousin's records they find that you guys watch a lot of basketball during that time. And they know you own a crappy old Passat and you don't fly to California. Hmmm...

So next year in early February, not only do you get coupons for stuff that would be a bit of an upgrade over the crap you buy every year to go to your cousin's, but you get deals on car rentals, airline tickets and maybe even fear of flying counseling (since really you can afford to fly). Your cousin, meanwhile, gets talked into getting that new wide screen and maybe some patio furniture.

The question, of course, is this cool or just really creepy?