Yes, Homeland was not the only TV show to recently use this as a basis for an assassination of someone by hacking a pacemaker. The really interesting thing about this is that as we move forward with computer chip technology and the understanding of the human brain it will become more common for chips to be used in the human brain as well, or at least that is the prediction. Uses will include bypassing or replacing damaged parts of the brain in those with brain injuries, improving our memory in a variety of ways for those with healthy brains, and many other possible ideas. So when you consider the possibility of this, combined with the prospect of hacking, it does make for an interesting and possibly very troubling future.
Everything I needed to know about the future, I learned from Firaxis' Alpha Centauri. Nerve stapling here we come!
Well, it's one of the options we may have to take if we want to remain top of the food chain, or at least the most intelligent form of life. Even if we do go down the route of brain augmentation with chipping it might not be a certainty we would remain so. We are I think within a century of the technological singularity event, which is the birth of an AI, after which we would rapidly become dumb by comparison due to an AI's ability to get smarter than we are. At least that is the theory proposed by sci-fi books firstly and now being seriously considered. Basically it’s' much like how we used to play computers at chess, but now they play computer vs. computer because we just aren't good enough to beat them anymore. I personally have a feeling I might be glad I won't be around to see it – but hey who knows, the future is not a set thing.
We can already create AIs. The singularity occurs when a form of intelligence (which may or may not be AI) can design and build a better intelligence than we can (which, in turn, designs and builds a better intelliigence than itself) etc.
Then it won't be too long before we can become much more and then some... Yes, there will be hacking, malicious and otherwise but it also makes for a very beautiful future as homo evolutis start to rise & conquer the hatred befalling unto them for their differences.
Getch'r tinfoil hats ready to jam them signals! Sadly, there is a need for security on medical devices, especially those which are designed to connect to an external connection periodically. Security will have to be retrofutted where possible through firmware updates, and some devices will need to be replaced, weighing the threat against the medical rick of the procedure, and taking into account the timing of pre-scheduled replacements or inspections of the device.
