IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 7

were the odds we thought of all of
these "touchpoints." I too, spoke
to an employee from Ericsson over
breakfast about implantables at
IEEE ISTAS'15 in Dublin and again,
as karma struck once more, he was
the very same man who wrote the
article I was pointing to in our discussion [13]. So what to make of all
these primary, face-to-face links,
save to say that our research trajectory had been on target and this
was an area of research now preoccupying the time of big business?
Informal validations from very formal players - and these persons
weren't just your "think outside the
box" hackers, they were executives
of large multinationals who still
hold major influence today.

venting the need for banks
or credit card companies
to play any part in custoOn the one hand, big corporations
mer transactions.
On the occasions I've
say "we'd never do it," and on the
spoken on financial payother hand, "it's inevitable."
ments or financial crime
in Australia, again the emphasis has been on what
the future of e-payments
might look like [17]. Almost always,
The same thing happened to me at
the focus has been on how to capIEEE Sections Congress 2017, when
ture the consumer's loyalty. In some
I delivered my talk more recently.
of my talks here, I have described
Many people were stunned at the use
the steady technological trajeccases I was showing. Yet, increasingtory from luggables to wearables to
ly, now, due to the reach of content
implantables. Of course, big playplatforms like YouTube, awareness
ers are well aware of the trends and
of what is possible is growing, as is
have sometimes denied the possivalidation of what people are claimbilities on the one hand [18], only
ing is happening or indeed, wanting
to subsequent ly engage in the
to normalize.
very same research they have said
For those of us keeping abreast
to sideline [19]. Scenarios are cruof the latest developments day in
cial for these companies. I don't
day out, we also seem somewhat
fault them for thinking about what
desensitized as a result of havmight come next [20]. We should all
ing watched endless piercings,
be thinking with such foresight. But
"live" in action, streamed over the
all of this leads to what Foster and
Internet. The format goes a little bit
Jaegar called "murky ethics" in one
like this:
IEEE Spectrum paper I reviewed
1) some nervous jokes to begin with,
in 2007 [21]. On the one hand, big
2) surgical gloves come out in full
corporations saying "we'd never do
view,
it," and on the other hand, "it's inevi3) a discussion ensues about the
table." This reminds me of the forthimportance of sterilization to
coming volume by transhumanist
keep infection at bay,
commentator Lazar Puhalo on the
4) a sharp needle,
Ethics of the Inevitable [22].
5) a tiny transponder,
6) breaking the skin,
Getting Real
7) a bit of blood,
Yet, I am often surprised by the fact
8) some ad lib from the body piercer
that so many people that should be
who is wearing tattoos and earin the know about the latest technolimplants,
ogies consider most of this implant
9) a hefty grin by the implantee
talk within the realm of "mark of the
who comments in passing "it
beast" or "conspiracy theory" talk.
doesn't hurt,"
MG Michael presented a paper on
10) and then a band-aid and "that's
anti-chipping laws in the U.S. [23]
it" [24].
in 2009, and was bewildered by
But that's not it, and transformathe lack of awareness of the confertion takes more than just sporting
ence audience when they are forean implant, although the out ward
most ahead in social implications of
bodily transfigurations cannot
technology generalist discussions.
help but to have an inward-facing

Industry Deregulation
Initially, I had studied the historical
emphasis on back-end interoperability for fundamental financial transactions in Europay, MasterCard and
VISA, or what was known as the EMV
alliance [14]. But dramatic things
were to follow beyond "standards"
and "specifications" - a wave of fullblown deregulation of the telecommunications and banking sectors
across the globe then occurred bit
by bit. It had become evident that
traditional providers were being pre ssured by non-traditional players
[15]. Credit card companies now
had competitors who were information and communication technology
(ICT) giants. It did not take long after
the MONDEX card and other failed
smart card initiatives for the mobile
telephony revolution to gather steam
and come head to head with companies like VISA. I recall the attempt in
Australia to launch the "mini" VISA
that one could wear as a necklace or
bracelet which was literally the size
of a semiconductor chip. But the
horse had bolted, and soon Apple
and Samsung were offering their
own payment gateways [16], circumDECEMBER 2017

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