Security terror

However,technological progress will force change in airport security protocols. In 2002,Steve Mann of the University of Toronto,an innovator in wearable computing,was apprehended at a Newfoundland airport. Mann is a living experiment in cognitive and communications engineering who wears 500,000 worth of hardware on his person and implanted in his body. To security personnel,he probably looked like Terminator hopped up on lithium ion joy juice. They ripped his hardware out,injuring him. Since the computer he had worn was part of his sensorium,he became disoriented,fell and boarded his flight in a wheelchair.

That was 2002. By 2020,wearable computers will be as common as cell phones. They will monitor vital signs,enhance memory and correct cognitive errors. They will be so tightly integrated with the wearers person that it will be impossible to take them off,reboot them or remove batteries for the satisfaction of security staff. Well soon have to abandon the security check opera that 9/11 popularised and address real airport safety issues.