Replies

I think we have here another case of Luddite-ism and a paranoia of all things technological

Umm...no. I'm a computer programmer with quite a bit of experience in embedded programming and robotics, so RFID technology isn't far removed from what I do every day and I have personally put hundreds of people out of work through automation. I'm not afraid of technology, I just can't stand it when people misrepresent it.

Many people today seem insistent on pushing the idea that RFID will be the next "dotcom". It will solve our employment woes, spawn new industries, and give all these hard luck programmers something to do again. It's a nice idea, but it's a lie.

RFID will change the way we do many things. It will eliminate the "checker" from the supermarket and superstore, it will relegate "swipe" credit cards to the same technological dustbin as vinyl and 8-tracks, it will enhance security by tagging us with electronic ID's and allowing keyless electronic locks...it may even eliminate car theft one day. But RFID, when it comes right down to it, isn't any particularly great leap forward and doesn't offer anything NEW to our world. It's just a tiny radio transmitter transmitting a unique ID. That tiny transmitter will allow greater efficiencies in the way we do things now, but in order to realize those efficiencies it HAS to be implemented with as few people as possible.

I personally look forward to RFID and the advantages it will bring, but you're fooling yourself if you don't think that it's going to hurt a LOT of people. The checkout clerk is the buggywhip maker of today...the job is being replaced by advancing technology. That is a good thing, but we NEED to make sure that there is something for those buggywhip makers to do after their jobs go away. Why? Because they VOTE. This isn't the 1800's anymore, and if you put that many people out of work (RFID could eventually eliminate more than a million jobs nationwide) there WILL be political repercussions.

I think you missed the whole point of my last post; I don't expect any amount of additional time spent on you will change that either ...

'Luddite-ism' manifests itself in any number of ways, and I think that socialists *rarely* see themselves as such either. I think the core to your perspective likes more along these two lines more than you think ...

Simple 'job preservation' is dead end. Most people know that; you CAN'T mandate the pace at which technology develops ... I've been involved in more technology than most people can shake a stick at - and in more depth than I'll ever be able to convey *or* explain to someone who's only been down one particular narrow 'avenue' of today's technological world ...