Reportedly noone else, but Bill Gates of Microsoft gave his approval to back a remote-controlled contraceptive implant. According to the news, “during a visit to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) lab, Gates and his colleagues asked Robert Langer, professor at MIT, whether it was possible to create birth control that a woman could turn off and on. MIT said the implant would have to be encrypted to protect wireless data flow and keep it secure”.

These are from 2014, though it seems that the technology that has been promised to be commercially available this year… well, hasn’t completed yet. Also, a brief look at the mammoth Bayer and Monsanto’s lawsuits concerning a much simpler device’s shortcomings and the societal shock over the question of remotely accessible implants shows that a widespread Internet-of-Implants future is a bit away.

Yet, it made headlines and there is the reasonable assumption that it could be used on patients, voluntarily or non-voluntarily. And there are technologies other than this, that are “self-contained hermetically-sealed drug delivery devices that are easy to implant and remove in a physician’s office setting that can store 100’s of therapeutic doses over months and years, and release each dose at precise times”.

Of course it is all peaches and cream, except for those moments when some hackers take over – and quite possibly ransom the last cents out of the company or of the patients… because this is what we will see, analogous to today’s ransomware campaigns.

Also, there is yet another technology around to help or to capitalize on a human weakness, that is the fragility of the body.

Sources:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10953696/Remote-control-contraceptive-implant-developed-backed-by-Bill-Gates.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28193720

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-25/bayer-essure-suits-skyrocketed-as-fda-pushed-stronger-warnings

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2017/07/24/a-u-s-company-offers-to-implant-chips-in-its-employees/?utm_term=.0d2c449debd2

http://www.microchipsbiotech.com/technology.php