(Note: there are three Facebook videos here. I sincerely apologize if they auto-play. Hopefully they won’t, but if they do, let me know and I’ll replace the videos with links…)

So let me start out by reassuring everybody that I’m no conspiracy theorist.

I know that the Illuminati disappeared a couple centuries ago and that the New World Order was a heel wrestling outfit in the WCW in the 90’s led by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. I also am no fan of Alex Jones, who I think is possibly dangerous and certainly peddles basically nothing but bullshit.

So no, I’m not about to crow about some one-world shadow government planning to enslave of us all to some hivemind or whatever.

That said, though… I’m not very comfortable with this:

The video is of a Swedish company implanting RFID chips into their workers hands. Ostensibly, they can use this chip as a security card, granting them access to the building in which they work, and they can even use it to pay for food and stuff.

I should probably also note that I’m a huge fan of technology. I’m in a consistent state of excitement for fully-electric, completely driverless/autonomous/auto-pilot cars (I want my own, damnit!), I love the idea of a future internet that is, in fact, a virtual reality world, where you can, for example, walk into a virtual Amazon storefront, actually virtually buy your products, then a 3D printer in your home just prints it out for you right then and there.

And I’m not even against the chip itself per se.

The problem is how ridiculously easy this would be to use for bad. Maybe it’s because I’m a cynic, but I see this going horribly wrong because it will be the corrupt individuals who ultimately have control over it…

So I’m of the mind that it’s just not worth it; not unless each individual adult has 100% control over their individual chips…

On the other hand, however… here are a couple technological ideas I think are pretty cool. This first one is a grocery store that has no check-out lanes:

People use a phone app to get into the store and also to check out and purchase the items they need. I realize the economic problems this causes with jobs (the store has zero employees other than the owner), and that, of course, has to be dealt with. But I also find the idea pretty cool nonetheless.

This second one is about a machine called Watly that uses solar power to provide a place with electricity, wi-fi, and clean water:

So technology can be both cool and terrifying. It all depends on how it’s used.

And besides… about that chip… do we really need to give Alex Jones yet more ammo for his bullshit?