GE’s Global Research division has revealed that it has been
working on producing an RFID tag that will be able to detect bombs, or at least
bomb components. The tag is the size of a postage stamp as claimed by the
headline from the article on Wired that I read, although the exact size is not
mentioned in the article this is still a sensor roughly one square inch in
size. In addition to its small size the sensor will only cost roughly a nickel,
meaning that there could easily be many of these sensors included in large and
small form factor devices in the near future. The current research has been focused
on detecting explosives and oxidizers, but GE has said that they may be able to
develop similar tags that could detect biological matter.
The Wired article states that “the new RFID tag could
dramatically drive down the cost of scanning for dangerous materials in places
like cargo ports and airports,” in addition to that application I believe it
could also allow for a much wider coverage of dangerous material scanning. Why
not add bomb scanners to movie theaters, schools, restaurants, stores and any
other public place we can think of, we could create networks of bomb scanners.
If done correctly I believe these new RFID tags could cut down bombing
incidents drastically. Everyone’s mail could easily be scanned for explosives,
not just that of potential targets. Bomb scanners could eventually become as
prevalent as smoke detectors, we could literally always be watching for a bomb.
That’s the problem though, “always watching,” will
constantly scanning for bombs pose as an invasion of privacy? Even if everyone
is fine with the idea of constantly be scanned for bombs, what will happen if
we do detect one in a public place? How many more potential incidents will bomb
squads need to respond to? False readings from these sensors could possibly
result in many thousands of dollars in bomb squad responses and searches. The
costs in bomb squad searches for either real or false bomb detections could far
outweigh the minimal costs on installing these sensors in the first place. So
regardless of privacy, what it really comes down to is how much is safety worth
to public places like malls and schools, and how accurate is this new sensor
going to be? GE says that it has developed “sensing materials that are quite
sensitive for this type of detection,” but does that mean the slightest hint of
a possible bomb substance will trigger it? If the sensor is fairly accurate than
it can probably be said that the safety they will provide will outweigh the
costs of calling in the bomb squads, but where do we call the line, when is the
sensor not accurate enough to balance out the cost of a bomb squad?
Overall, this is a great technological advancement and it
will definitely reduce costs where bomb scanners are already in place, but the
low cost provides the option to add scanners to other public places that may
benefit from the technology. Once we start putting these small bomb sensors in
other public places the issue of when it becomes worth it becomes a very real
idea and we find ourselves morally torn between the costs of calling in bomb
squads and the safety of other human beings, and much of this ethical decision
depends on how accurate the RFID tags will be. We certainly will not be able to
put them in schools if they trigger too easily because the bomb squads might
end up being in the schools more than the students. It is going to be interesting
to see where this new technology will take us.
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