pg 30

Before the turn of the century, this man was among the richest in the world, so rich that he had astranglehold on the world economy. Still the world welcomed him, since the computer chips he had designed somehow put the world on an even keel.Gradually he succumbed to his own power.

(snip)

Everyone in the world was mandated by law to have one of hiscomputer chips inserted underneath his or her skin. This chip contained all of an individual's personalinformation. If a government agency wanted to know something, all it had to do was scan your chipwith a special device. By doing so, it could discover everything about you, from where you workedand lived to your medical records and even what kind of illnesses you might get in the future.

(snip)

A person's lifetime could be limited byprogramming this chip to dissolve and kill him with the viral substance it was made from. Lifetimeswere controlled like this to avoid the cost that growing old places on the government. It was also usedas a means of eliminating people with chronic illnesses that put a drain on the medical system.

People who refused to have chips implanted in their bodies roamed as outcasts. They could not beemployed and were denied government services.