The Runners: Chapter 8
Chapter 8
In the fall of the year 2115, the 21 nations of the UN Security Council or UNSC had convened to determine the fate of the UN Citizen Identification Enforcement Act, known as the UNCID-EA. After the end of the devastating wars lasting decades, the world was increasingly converging into a one political system under the UN’s authority. The council recognized that it was just a matter of time that a global unification would occur. In turn, this would force a need to implement a universal verification system for every future UN citizen.
In preparation for that imminent moment, the UNSC had commissioned technology assessment teams to examine available technologies that would be suitable to serve this purpose. Several study groups were formed and funded under the UNCID-EA. The three technology candidates among all the many study groups which had made to the final list were: DNA sequencing and mapping upon birth, passive nano-signature platform, and a combination of iris mapping and DNA engineered bio-electronic storage chip which can be implanted inside the human body.
This was the last UNSC session in which the technology groups were to present their cases and argue either for or against. Then, all three were to be put up to simultaneous voting process by the member nations in which each would cast a single vote. Voting would be followed with an elimination of the technology obtaining the least number of votes. Then, the remaining technologies would be put up to a subsequent or the final voting. They would go thru this elimination process and the last one standing would be declared the winning technology. The twenty-one nations were expected to finalize the decision at this meeting after which the UNCID-EA could, finally, be amended into the global UN law.
The DNA Team took the floor first:
Mr. Secretary, Chair, and the distinguished members of the council, my name is Dr. Kent Henderson. I would like to, first, thank you for commissioning my group to assess the current DNA technology as an option for the UNCID mechanism. Also, I would like to thank various research organizations at number of leading academia. Notably, University of Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins University, Oxford University, and Seoul National University (SNU) who played key roles in our study. These institutions are the pioneers in this field of study. They have earned the distinction of being the leaders among the scientific communities with their revolutionary works in cloning animal organisms. Further, they were tremendous contributors in the efforts to create a master database of comprehensive DNA mappings for all living organisms of the Earth.
They had advanced the cloning technologies and bio-regenerative therapy in medicine in leaps since the beginning of the early 21st century. They have also distinguished themselves as the leaders in bringing technologies and applications of DNA synthesis to science. Most of the report is a summary of their studies, assessments, and opinions based on over 200 years of combined experience in this field. With that, I will provide a summary.
The DNA mapping/sequencing is an important field of study which first attracted significant interests in the early 21st century. With the successful cloning of a canine at the SNU in 2000, the world has experienced a natural progression of its application towards cloning human life. After navigating thru many hurdles from legal and moral perspectives, in 2082, the first ever human cloning was attempted with surprisingly high level of success. Then the next series of cloning experiments were performed in the years 2088, 2095, and many more in the years between 2082 and 2095. By the end of 2100, the results showed 85% success rate with 80% completeness. 20% deficiencies in some form or another have been found to result from the studies. The shortcomings arose with respect to the unhealthy growths of optical nerve system thus producing an aggregate success rate of 68%.
This was an astounding progress in terms of where the humble beginning had been in this field. There were many successes in cloning plants and other less complicated forms of life on Earth. We expect the technology to overcome these deficiencies and develop a method to clone a human being at 99.5% overall success rate within the next 12 years. But, the scientific community believes that this success rate will have a detrimental effect in uniquely creating a DB for every citizen of the UN.
Needs could arise whether, legitimate or not, that some future UN citizen may develop certain desires to clone oneself, ones’ loved ones, or just someone significant in their lives. This could potentially eliminate the uniqueness of a citizen’s identification. In turn, this would render the centralized DB ineffective as there would be multiple copies of the same DNA codes or generations. As this technology proliferates around the globe and the cost of cloning decreases, this study group sees considerable challenges from that perspective.
Although, in combination with another technology, we could assign unique sequence codes to every new generation of clones, we would still be faced with the challenge of pinpointing as to which one was of which generation when faced with physically identifying a given individual.
The UNCID-EA is premised under the idea of uniqueness. That implies that cloning a human being must be declared illegal and banned in the new world that is to arrive. Unfortunately, however, this would destroy the tremendous advancements the world has achieved in the field of medicine, in terms of treating terminal diseases thru cloning and regenerative therapies. The medical science has come a long way to suddenly disengage from what has been achieved. This council must weigh in on which has greater value going forward from this perspective…
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Again, thank you, Mr. Secretary and distinguished members of the council. On behalf of my entire team, I’d like to express my appreciation for your patience and support in consideration of this study group.
Next to take the stage was the team that had introduced a radical method which has never been pursued in the history of mankind. The technology was referred to as ‘Passive Nano-Signature Platform’ where nanometer sized solid state devices are engineered and injected into the human’s blood stream. Each device would be capable of holding a number between 0 and 15 with 4 data bits. It would also contain the sequence number between 0 and 7 and an active or inactive indicator bit. These devices would remain in ‘passive mode’ in the blood stream until a low charged magnetic beam is projected to the individual. Once becoming excited or awaken by the beam, they would exhibit a predetermined number in groupings of eight devices. Hence, these devices are capable of uniquely identifying an individual within a population pool of over 4 billion. Given the current global population standing at 700 million, a set of eight devices would readily identify any individual.
However, there were some concerns with respect to how many of these devices were needed to be engineered and injected into a person. Given that they are to remain in the blood stream, there were risks of these devices escaping the blood stream due to loss of blood as a result of physical injury or other relevant bodily functions. These issues were not completely addressed and remained under advisement. According to Dr. Mast, who had headed the study group, they were investigating self replicating nano-devices to ensure, always having sufficient number of these passive devices. Unfortunately, that was a few decades away.
Finally, the representative from the iris and implantation of bio-electronic chip study group took the platform:
Mr. Secretary, Chair of the committee, and the distinguished members of the council, my name is Dr. Cameron Chandler and it is my pleasure and honor to represent my team in presenting the results of our study group. We feel very strongly that this group would present an option with which the committee can rely upon as the UN moves forward to implement the UNCID-EA. Also, I’d like to thank you for the continued funding and faith in our work as we are about to embark on one of the most important endeavors in human history. We believe that we have the right mechanism in which the council may utilize in order to implement the UNCID-EA in to the law. In addition, the study group believes that we have the flexibility of widely expanding its application in to other aspects of policies and enforcements that the UN would be interested in going forward. With that I will proceed to present the discovery and make our recommendations.
Uniquely recognizing an individual with iris scanning technology has been in the works for many decades. One private company by the name of Iris Tech in Paris and the California Institute of Technology have teamed up in developing an iris scanning device which was capable of producing results of 99.9% accuracy in less than 5 seconds. The accuracy is not the most impressive aspect of it. The most incredible and interesting aspect about the technology, with which they have been able to achieve such accuracy, is the fact that the range has been greatly extended. That is, their system is able to detect subjects as far as 50 meters away and still maintain high level of accuracy. We believe that in few years of time, the two organizations will be able to develop a system which would detect a person’s identity within a couple of seconds, at the distance that is well over twice the current range for point to point application.
In combination with the today’s imaging technology, virtually anyone at anywhere can eventually be identified using this method. The mapping that it generates can immediately be entered in to the central database, performing instantaneous search to pull up the matching identification.
Please let me also make a point that compromising one’s identification would be very rare. Once the eye is removed from one’s body, the biological degenerative nature would take place. Eventually, the removed iris will lose all of its unique signatures in a short period of time. In the unforeseen cases where, somehow, should there be a compromise of the target iris, by simply applying a unique bio-electronic device to cross check the owner’s identity would make it impossible to fabricate or imitate by another as being the owner of the compromised iris.
This chip can be designed and specifically engineered to the person’s own DNA characteristics. In this way, the data would be guaranteed to be uniquely persistent throughout the course of one’s life. Consequently, there would be two stages in the identification process that will guarantee 100% accuracy. This eliminates potential impostors, in any shape or form, at any level. Therefore, creating a central DB will become straight forward, yielding one unique match per search. The technology needs to advance to the point of 99.9% accuracy at any distance in order for it to be most valuable for the purpose of the UN Security Council beyond the UNCID-EA.
Our recommendations are that iris scanning and implantation of bio-electronic chip be adopted under the UNCID-EA. In addition, my group suggests that UNSC bans cloning of full humans with the exception of treating certain diseases under limited circumstances and strict oversight by the UN. We also recommend that the bio-electronic chip be implanted within three weeks of every birth of a child should the Act be amended into the law.
For those of us who are already on the books of the 21 nations, we encourage the UNSC to take necessary steps to allow everyone to obtain iris scan and bio-electronic chips implanted with the unique information of the individual’s iris, DNA and other pertinent referential data. I understand that I may be overstepping my boundaries by these recommendations as they may touch up on other technologies. However, it is my study group’s strong opinion that we present the best possible and error proof solution to achieve the council’s objective.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of this study group. I believe that the council will make the most prudent choice at this critical juncture. Again, thank you for your patience.
With that the Secretary thanked all the study groups for their reports and diligence in their research. Then, he addressed the committee and with no objections from the member nations, the three technologies were put through a simultaneous voting procedure. Then, the second or the final round of votes came to 17 to 4, heavily in favor of iris and bio-electronic chip implantation.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the UN Security Council, we have determined the combination of iris scan and implantation of bio-electronic chip as the method to implement the central identification system. This is the first step as the precursor to amending the UNCID-EA into a global law. I believe that we are at the most critical point in the world’s history. I also believe that the safety, security and prosperity of every citizen in the future UN government hinges on this act being adopted into the law.
Now, that we have determined on the technology that is capable of obtaining the desired results, we will recommend to the UN General Secretary’s Office with the UNSC’s recommendation. This is a significant milestone for the UNSC and the entire UN. I want to thank you for your patience, continued interest, and support as we close this phase of the UNCID-EA process.
We will complete the draft of the recommendation in the next three months. The draft document will be submitted to the UN General Secretary’s Office. I want to thank all the member nations of the council and the many study groups that have helped bring this to a conclusive end….”
With those final remarks, the UNSC Chair closed the meeting and declared closure of the technology study groups.
Two years later, the UNCID Enforcement Act was formally enacted in to the UN law at the UN general assembly meeting. Then in the spring of 2117, the UN had adopted and ordered the following key clauses into the various medical, criminal, civil, and financial UN laws for every member nation to adhere to:
- Iris of all newborns shall be scanned and recorded in UN Central Registrar.
- Bio-electronic chip shall be implanted inside a newborn within three weeks of birth. This chip will contain the iris scan code, biological parents’ information and the place of birth.
- DNA from the newborn’s tissues shall be used as part of the biological casing of the chip.
- Chip implantation shall be exclusively administered at the UN sanctioned medical facility.
- The chip shall not be duplicated nor removed under any circumstances without the exclusive written consent from the UN Citizens Services Office and the UN Security Office.
- Full cloning of human beings shall be permanently banned.
- In line with the clause 4, the manufacturer of the ID chip shall engineer the device adhering to the UNSC guidelines and no duplicate shall be produced for any citizen.
- All financial transactions shall be authorized only after the validity of the citizen’s identification has been established.
- Citizens who have been grandfathered from these policies shall have five years of grace period from this day, March 1st, 2117, to have the bio-electronic chip surgically implanted and iris scanned.
Some UN member nations opposed these adaptations as they feared that such laws and technologies would result in unchecked surveillance programs on their own citizens. But, their minority voices were dwarfed by the adulation in support of these measures by larger caucus. Many firmly believed that the new laws were the only way to build an effective one world government.
In the three years following this pronouncement at the UN General Assembly, variations of laws have been developed and adopted into many aspects of the UN government bodies. They impacted the criminal and civil laws and brought significant changes to the medical and financial industries in ways that were unimaginable. New technologies were developed in the financial sectors that applied improved identification processes while strict medical guidelines were implemented in order to satisfy new legal requirements.
The next twenty years proved to be incredibly challenging for the member nations as they scrambled to complete the mandated transitions. Failure to meet the transition period or violation of any part of the laws brought about severe penalties to both individuals and organizations around the world.
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Sitting in his office the same evening of the briefing by Dr. Kim, David decided to refresh his knowledge in the history of the UNCID-EA. He viewed series of pertinent transcripts and archived videos from the 2115 to 2120 UN sessions to revisit how the act became an official law. He also examined the changes the new laws have brought about. David had a hunch that starting from the very beginning could help him to connect the dots.