Every molecule in your body and on your person now detectable instantly from 50 feet away by a bread-box-sized device. Smaller-than-a-breadbox version inevitable soon.
This fascinating news tells volumes about the triumph of surveillance culture in our society. Most telling to me is that it is announced and rolled out for government security snooping on citizens before it's obvious, fantasy-defying, inconceivably powerful uses in the alleviation of illness and suffering are even contemplated.
Blessing or curse? Curse is out of the gate and running.
Remember Bones running a scanner over his patient and immediately announcing lab results that take weeks to return with present, invasive methods? Well, that wasn't realistic, because Bones doesn't need to tote around anything or wave it over you. The thing can scope you, instantly and automatically, through your clothes, from 50 feet away. No carpal tunnel risk to Bones from waving hand devices around. Also, no more privacy for internal bodily states of which even you may not be aware.
Gizmodo announces "the end of privacy". New laser scanner technology reliably reveals microscopic interior and exterior physical details.
Did you fall off the Ben and Jerry's or Kools wagon last night in the privacy of your own home? Somebody will soon be selling your boss the ability to automatically bust non-compliance with the company health promotion program next time you walk in the office door. Wait that. I should say, "...next time you get out of your car in the company parking lot".
Privately peeing in the cup and then waiting for a result? Over like the buggy whip industry! The company will know, down to the molecule, every substance from the pharmacological dictionary to be found in your body, from within seconds of your walking in the door to the HR office.
Buzzed long haul truckers? Only in pirate rigs. Every big freight company will have a device locking out the ignition to drivers with any of 20,000 intoxicating substances in their systems.
Hung over airline pilots? Not in the cockpit. The lockout on a 747 will cover whiskey and every other known intoxicant, plus their metabolites, and too high or too low blood sugar, as well.
Let the grieving for a time when our internal states were our own business begin. Will the words, "expectation of privacy," apply anywhere?