ID cards: classic or deadly?

Well?

Are these above and beyond drivers licenses or what? Here in California, for instance, you either have a license or an ID card issued by the state itself.

Crap idea. The trade in false passports has never slowed. Having a false sense of security can be equally dangerous as having none.

if you look directly at the photo on my work id card you will Turn To Stone. therefore = dud.

however, it also gives me access to the entire student union, so one day i hope to live out my fantasy of dancing naked in the theater to merzbow records at 3 am.

Surely Kodanshi has beaten you to that. In the meantime, Larry Ellison has supposedly asked for ID cards over here and is making software available for it. And you thought Bill Gates would be the one ruling our lives! ;-)

So - where and how would these be used? I already thought we were tracked via our purchasing power?

dud if you have to carry them at all times. i guess can give all of the population one, as oppose to Driving Licences/Passports etc which not everyone will have. and my driving licence is still an old-style one, i.e. big sheet of paper with no photo, which is of no use for anything.

I still don't understand this phenomenon. What precisely is the point? It's not as if the U.S. doesn't have everyone in the country (aside from illegal immigrants) registered already -- I imagine at leat 90% of the adult population has state I.D.s or drivers' licenses, a greater number have Social Security numbers (and are therefore already codified and officially recognized); anyone not born in the U.S. is already required to have passport, visa, or green card in order, and surely 99% of those who were born in the U.S. have birth certificates on file. (If you don't, you obviously live in the middle of nowhere where this couldn't really be an issue - - and if you manage to make it from there to civilization without somewhere acquiring other identification, surely something else is wrong with you.) Add to this the fact that all males in this country are required to register for "selective service" (read: "We can bring back the draft if it ever comes down to it") and further identification seems like a moot point.

I mean, we all already have numbers! Nine-digit S.S. numbers that every one of us who plan to interact with society are required to have! What more do you want from us?

there already is a national id card in the us, as part of the transportation funding bill passed a few years back it was mandated that all state drivers licenses become uniform in order for states to qualify for federal funds. it is being phased in slowly.

Some bloke made a program about fake IDs. it showed him travelling from country to country with a fake ID. Only when he tried to get back into Belgium; did customs realize he was carrying a fake ID (because they recognized him). The funny thing was that he asked customs every time "But how can you tell if it is FAKE? Is this one fake?" The reply was "We can tell, we can tell. Now walk on please." So uh, dud, I guess.

No! Not ANOTHER card for me to lose. What about some kind of branding/tatoo barcode type deal...

I'd happily see a move away from the drivers license as the most acceptable form of ID. As a non-driver it's really fucking annoying having to produce five different cards, bills etc. when the next guy in the queue can just wave his bit of pink paper and gets waved through. Not everyone drives or wants to dammit.

more embarassing pictures.