Tag, You're It

clipped from www.time.com You've probably never seen an RFID tag, but chances are there's one within 10 ft. of you. An RFID tag--it stands for radio-frequency identification--is a tiny device consisting of a very small chip attached to a very small antenna. They're getting so cheap that manufacturers basically need a reason not to put them in things. They're in library books and credit cards and lift tickets. The military uses them to track assets in Iraq. The Venetian Casino that just opened in Macau puts an RFID tag in each one of its chips. As of Jan. 1 of this year, every U.S. passport contains an RFID tag, to make them machine-scannable and more forgery-proof. That's the genius of RFID: it's a way to make the ordinary physical world of people and objects visible to the virtual world that computers inhabit. It maps real space onto virtual space, so the two worlds can talk to each other. Nightmare or utopia? You decide.