MINUSCULE mobile telephones, tiny electronic organizers and portable DVD players are nice. But they'd be so much less cumbersome if they were surgically implanted under your skin.
Paving the way is a company in Palm Beach, Fla. called Applied Digital Solutions, which recently started a program to implant subdermal microchips based on the same radio-frequency identification technology used in E-ZPass.
The chip, called the VeriChip, is about the size of a grain of rice, carries a number that identifies you and, the company says, may eventually provide a way to make sure that only the right people gain access to secure sites, corporate offices or even personal computers. The chip could also carry access to personal data, like medical information. Implantable microchips have already been used over the last several years to track pets.
The company is still developing the applications, yet there has been no shortage of critics, who assert that this is an example of technology run amok. They apparently aren't grasping how fashionable, and useful, an electronic bar code can be. Besides, think how much easier John Ashcroft's job would be with such an electronic database.
The critics are apparently overlooking another reason to act now.
"It's cool to have one," said Matthew Cossolotto, the spokesman for Applied Digital Solutions, and one of the few people to already have a chip implanted under his skin. Who wants to be the last person on the block to get the latest in piercing?
There is more good news. This nascent fusion of corpus and computer may pave the way for further integration of circuitry and self. After all, things can become only so convenient if we wear or carry tiny headsets, radios, televisions, phones and pagers.
If silicon, not silicone, becomes the favored implant of the future, we could bridge the final divide that keeps us from being truly wired. Think of the applications: e-mail transmitters lodged under your skin; remote controls that let you change the channel with a thumb click; global positioning systems that tell you, your spouse and your government where you are at every moment.
"You're taking me down a road I've never speculated about," Mr. Cossolotto said when asked to consider future possibilities.
Indeed, the answers may not yet be clear, but once we give away our bodies to silicon, the potential is endless:
THE VIRUS SCAN Few things are more frustrating than watching your computer screen lock up for no apparent reason. But what happens when your arms freeze up?Computer chips, of course, can mean viruses. Maxi Virus Scan will protect you against the common bugs, like the nasty "I love you" virus, which causes you to utter intimacies while in the express aisle at Safeway.
Version 2.0 will update your internal clock for daylight saving time.
CALL WALKING Carrying a mobile phone that weighs several ounces and takes up space in the corner of your pants pocket can be too cumbersome. Be burdened no more! The phone will be much less of an albatross once it fits inside your leg.Those who are seeking a more affordable option can just implant a buzzer that vibrates every time they receive e-mail messages or phone calls, reminding them to check in to their PC's (also available on "itch" setting).
The premier version of the in-leg phone will come with the "leg waiting" feature, allowing users to say: "Please hold; I'm getting a call on my other leg."
THE NASDAQ PACEMAKER Why wait 10 or 15 seconds for stock prices to download to a mobile device? This new internal stock ticker will send constant updates to your brain as your 401(k) plummets in value. It will also give you an electronic shock to keep your heart going.
TASTE CHIPS Personal video recorders, like TiVo, make recommendations about the television shows you should watch, based on your current viewing habits. Great, but can they recommend the specials at your favorite restaurant?The embedded version will offer counsel through an earpiece, telling you from your previously recorded activities what you might like for dinner, whom you should date, what sports teams to cheer for.
THE KNEE BOARD Laptop? Ha! It's a vestige of people who aren't nearly "one" with their gadgets. The knee board will be a surgically implanted keyboard that will allow you to type memorandums on tiny Qwerty letters jutting out of the skin. Connected by wireless frequency to your monitor, the knee board will save space and will be perfect for a multitasker: you'll be able to write a PowerPoint presentation while giving yourself a deep-tissue massage.
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