Digital Culture in the Twenty-first Century - Digital Culture - page 204

precincts, public transport systems that enable travellers to have
travel passes that are scanned automatically, passports, traffic toll
systems, stock inventory, prisoner control and many other uses.
Unsurprisingly the use of RFID chips is controversial, especially in
terms of the implications of their potential future applications.
Recently I received an email asking me to sign a petition against the
proposed tracking of road vehicles, presumably using exactly such
technologies. More sinister or perhaps more comical, according to
Wikipedia, at a 2003 Senate hearing, Senator Debra Bowen report-
edly asked 'how would you like it if, for instance, one day you real-
ized your underwear was reporting on your whereabouts?' They
have also been described as 'spychips' by consumer privacy advo-
cates. Among certain Christian groups RFID chips are considered
another candidate, after credit cards and bar codes, for the 'Mark of
the Beast' that will presage the Great Tribulation. 12
This may seem a little far-fetched, but such eschatological anxiety
does suggest something of the momentous changes taking place in
our current digital culture, changes that effect every aspect of our
lives, and which are increasingly hard to discern as they become
increasingly easy to take for granted. In particular we are arriving at
a point where digital technologies are no longer merely tools, but
increasingly participants in our increasingly participatory culture,
for better or worse. The need to keep questioning our situation (with
which I ended the Conclusion to the first edition of this topic)
remains more pressing than ever, especially as the technology itself
is more and more invisible as it becomes an integral part of the very
fabric of our existence.