Dozens Apply For Chip Implant

GOTCHA! CHIP IMPLANT OFFER TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY

          It was a deal that sounded too bad to be true.  But to some folks it sounded good enough to sign up.  The company would pay you $250, and all you had to do was have one of their computer chips installed in your hand so it could track how you used your computer mouse.

          Within a few days, not only did 100 people sign up for chip implant, but the site was scoured by unknown officials from America's leading corporations and military components. 

          Shocked at the response, "proprietor Bill Cross" decided September 21 to pull the plug on his web site, www.idchip.com, and announce it was all a hoax.  He described it as the Internet's version of "The War of The Worlds," the realistic Orson Wells radio show that convinced some listeners that the Martians were invading, even prompting a few to jump out windows.

          It appeared nobody jumped out of windows after visiting idchip.com, but some Christian fundamentalists certainly hit the roof.  "Are you people completely stupid, mindless, or just simply evil?" asked one angry e-mail. "Taking a chip, as an implant, is called "taking the Mark Of The Beast". Period. It is taking Satan's mark, of ownership. Which obviously you have already done. Enjoy your time in Hell, eternity."

          But some people were ready to jump in.  Cross estimated that among the 125 people who volunteered to have the chip implanted, between 40 and 75 were serious.  He said this caught him off guard, and persuaded him to remove the fields from the application form in which people volunteered sensitive data, like their credit card numbers.  (Cross said that he destroyed all personal data provided by these "applicants."

          Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the "experiment" was the attention paid to it by the "military industrial complex."  The most active visitors to the Web site included unknown persons from Microsoft, IBM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Air Force, Navy, NASA, Intellimark and American International Group (AIG).  Intellimark is a high-tech "applications" company that works with the military and also is involved in the electronic patient record.  AIG is a "world leader in insurance and financial services."

          Cross listed these organizations as the most active visitors because they spent the most time at the Web site, and visited every page.  For instance, 83 visitors came from the IBM Internet connection, resulting in 737 "page views," lasting almost 5 and1/2 hours.  There were 18 visitors from ibm.com, resulting in 283 "page views," lasting nearly 1 and 1/2 hours; 12 visitors from Microsoft.com, 319 "page views," lasting nearly 2 hours.  The Air Force: 17 visits, 247 "page views," 2 hours.  The Navy: 15 visits, 193 page views, one hour.  NASA: 24 visits, 193 page views, 1 and 1/2 hours.  Boeing: 14 visits, 192 page views, under 1 hour.

          The site received some 6,800 visitors in 48 hours.  Cross said he couldn't always distinguish between serious and humorous visitors.  He said hoax was merely part of a project to create a comedy Web site.

          "If this project had been done not as a spoof but rather as a genuine hoax by someone less benign than myself, I am thoroughly convinced that it would have led to a cataclysmic event," he wrote.