From:	Frank Pelletier (Trinity) fpelletier@******.usherb.ca
Subject:	Human barcodes
Date:	Fri, 17 Sep 1999 17:04:15 -0400

Dvixen <dvixen@****.com> once wrote,

> <GridSec> Everyone's posts best be Shadowrun related in response to
this...
> </GridSec>

Ma'am, yes, Ma'am!

> At 11:44 AM 17/09/99 , Richard Tomasso annoyed me by writing:
> >Check out this patent:
>
>
>http://patents.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+PATBIB-ALL+0+946309+0+7+25907+
O
> >F+1+1+1+PN%2f5%2c878%2c155
>
> Yick.
>
> In SR terms, that would be hard as hell to legislate, way too many
sinless.
>
> Not to mention the modern day groups who frown on ANY sort of body
> tattooing, as a result of WW2. While the SR timeline may be 62 years
ahead,
> that is one thing I doubt would lessen by then.
>
> Barcoded metahumans... With the tech available to the populace, I can
> easily see 'forged' barcodes.
>
> Removing barcodes to be a Shadowrunner?
>
> *shrug*

Actually, I think actual barcodes, tattooed on your skin, wouldn't be real
precise, or real safe. A small scar, normal aging, skin disease,
discoloration, anything could mess with it, and you could forge it way too
easily.

On the other hand, some form of subcutaneous identification would be much
safer, and be protected from body changes and external events. Some sort
of micro-transmitter under the skin, with a unique signature assigned to
every citizen.

Then again, in SR, we have credsticks, we have SINs... Here, in North
America anyways, everyone has a SSN, but officially, they're only used for
govermental purposes, no store ever asks you for your SSN, and it's illegal
for them to ask for it, even for reference purposes (Canada, anyways). SR's
world seems to think that the Government would have won, and won't let you
buy anything with a valid SIN. I tend to disagree. As much as we would
like to see much of the world's population as mindless cattle, I think
there's a line somewhere where the people would say to the governement
"Hey..what the hell is that?". Obviously it did in SR's world, because,
IMHO, SINs on credsticks are more benign than implanted ID tags.

Hmm...come to think of it. An implanted mode of ID, or an external one.
Does that make it less terrible?

Trinity
---------------------------------------------
Frank Pelletier
fpelletier@******.usherb.ca
"Let them hate me, provided they fear me" - Atreus

Trinity- on the Undernet and EFNet