The Economist

26 Europe The EconomistAugust 4th 2018

Biochips

Bjorn Cyborg

O

N SOME Swedish trains passengers

carry their e-tickets in their hands—

literally. About 3000 Swedes have opted

to insert grain-of-rice-sized microchips

beneath the skin between their thumbs

and index fingers. The chips which cost

around $150 can hold personal details

credit-card numbers and medical records.

They rely on Radio FrequencyID(RFID)

a technology already used in payment

cards tickets and passports.

By one estimate there are 10000

cyborgs with chip implants around the

world. Sweden home to several micro-

chip companies has the largest share.

Fifty employees of Three Square Market

a Wisconsin-based firm volunteered to

receive chip implants that can be used to

pay at vending machines and log in to

computers. Individuals can order do-it-

yourself kits which come with steril-

isation tools and a needle to inject the

device or attend “implant parties”

where a professional gives chips to a

group. Sometimes they getT-shirts that

say “I got chipped”.

Jowan Österlund the founder of

BioHax a Swedish firm claims chips are

more secure than mobile phones be-

cause they are hard to hack. But sceptics

still have concerns.RFIDchips do not

haveGPS but they leave a digital trail

when they interact with doors printers

or turnstiles. In 2004 the Mexican at-

torney-general and his staff had chips

inserted in their arms that tracked who

had accessed sensitive information.

So why take the risk? Convenience is

one draw. The infrastructure for micro-

chip use exists wherever contactlessIDs

or payments are accepted. Sweden is well

suited as the world’s second most cash-

less country (after Canada).

But the chips have little use unless

companies play along. Few shops recog-

nise chip implants yet. Even those organi-

sations that do have had teething trou-

bles. When Swedish rail officials began

scanning passengers’ microchips they

saw LinkedIn profiles rather than evi-

dence of ticket purchases. For now the

chips are used largely as digital business

cards substitutes for keys or to store

emergency documents such as wills.

So exhibitionism is another explana-

tion. Chip enthusiasts include followers

of a “transhumanist” ideology that seeks

to optimise human bodies with tech-

nology. Elon Muskan American en-

trepreneur has invested in tech that

merges machines with human brains.

Some Christians meanwhile fear that

microchips are “marks of the beast”

foretold in the Bible. Hardly says Mr

Österlund. After all “people once

thought the Beatles were the Antichrist.”

Why Swedes are inserting microchips into their bodies

O

NE morning a history teacher wakes

up in Kiev to find himself elected pres-

ident of Ukraine—thanks to a video secret-

ly recorded by a pupil and uploaded to

YouTube. It shows the teacher cursing Uk-

raine’s political class fortheir lies and its

people for their indifference. “Our politi-

cians don’t know history but they are bril-

liant mathematicians: they all know how

to add divide and multiply their wealth”

he tells a colleague. The video goes viral

and a local oligarch-prime minister backs

him in the hope of gaining a puppet. In-

stead the new president imprisons the oli-

garch and goes after his cronies.

This is the plot of “Servant of the Peo-

ple” a satirical television show that first

aired in 2015. Since then 20m people—half

of Ukraine’s population—have tuned in.

Ironically it plays on a channel owned by

Igor Kolomoisky an oligarch. Less amusing

is that Vladimir Zelensky the comedian

who plays the teacher is in some polls Uk-

raine’s second most popular presidential

candidate beaten only by Yulia Tymosh-

enko a veteran populist. Petro Poroshenko

the incumbent scores just 5%. The election

may not be until next March but the jos-

tling for power is in full swing.

Ukrainian politics have long resembled

an “operetta” as Mikhail Bulgakov a Kiev-

born Russian novelist scornfully de-

scribed it in “The White Guard” set in 1918

during a brief period of Ukrainian inde-

pendence. A century later Ukraine is still

struggling to assert its sovereignty in the

face of Russian aggression and crippling

corruption. “The state is not performing its

basic functions of providing security and

justice” says Anatoly Grytsenko a former

defence minister and a presidential candi-

date running unusually without the sup-

port of oligarchs.

The job of regaining sovereignty is es-

pecially important for Ukraine since Do-

nald Trump feels no urge to defend it. If

anything he appears to resent the country

as a source of trouble for Paul Manafort his

former campaign manager who went on

trial this week in the United States for fraud

charges stemming from his activities in Uk-

raine several yearsago.

Yet Mr Grytsenko points out to be

treated like a sovereign country Ukraine

needs to behave like one. “We can’t blame

Putin for internal corruption deceit and

lack of reforms” he says. Over the past

three years America and the European Un-

ion along with Ukraine’s civil activists

have created the anti-corruption infra-

structure needed to break up an en-

trenched system designed to siphon off

public money into offshore accounts. This

includes an investigative bureau (NABU) a

special prosecution service and an anti-

corruption court finally set up in June un-

der pressure from the IMF and activists.

Yet Ukraine’s rulers have done every-

thing in their power to undermine these in-

stitutions from within. NABU has accused

Nazar Kholodnitsky the chief anti-corrup-

tion prosecutor of subverting its investiga-

tions by leaning on his own prosecutors to

drop cases and tipping off suspects. (He

denies these charges.) Last month prosecu-

tors closed an embezzlement case against

the son of Arsen Avakov the powerful in-

terior minister which NABUhad opened.

Vitaly Shabunin head of the Anti-Cor-

ruption Action Centre a civic organisation

says that the old system has been rocked

but that it is now fighting back. He has been

harassed by the authorities himself. On

July 17th as he campaigned for Mr Kholod-

nitsky to be fired thugsattacked him with

antiseptic dye in full view of the police.

“We are fighting for our life and we

have not got much time” says Mr Gryt-

senko. His supporthas been rising despite

his lack of money or access to the oligarch-

controlled media. Some voters still crave

honesty in their politicians. The risk is that

the bloody operetta will prevail. 7

Ukrainian politics

The dark operetta

KIEV

Where corruption violence and

political chaos still prevail