Wearables are the first phase of a next-level plan to monitor human biological functions, with Ingestibles being another part of the picture. I don’t doubt these pills will become widespread. Heart pacemakers were enormous originally, bigger than air conditioners, until they rapidly shrunk to fit inside the chest. Monitoring pills will likewise move the machine inside us.

The initial objections to taking a pill that can communicate your vitals to smartphones and other hardware will likely merely be taking a pill. That concern is silly, especially when you consider the amount of medication we already consume, some of it necessary and much of it not. The more pressing issue is putting technology inside ourselves. Functions we now monitor–not always really well, admittedly–will be handled automatically. We won’t have to think much at all. Additionally, info even about our pulse beat will become a commodity–bought, sold and hacked. Invasions of privacy will have an extended meaning. We will be accessed, we will be accessible.

From “The Future Will Eat Itself,” Shivvy Jervis’ Guardian article:

A significant number of people will understandably be hesitant to swallow a digital pill or stick a sensor on their foreheads. And employees are unlikely instantly to see the value in a computer chip skin tattoo that acts as an all-systems pass for work security.

So what can we expect?

Ingestibles

These have understandably been subject to a gamut of robust approvals, and so haven’t hit the mainstream yet. That’s soon set to change.

Largely, they take the shape of a “digital pill” coated in digestible metals such as copper and magnesium embedded in a regular tablet. It dissolves in your stomach acid, releasing a signal to an adhesive patch on your body, which in turn communicates with an app on your smartphone, relaying the info via bluetooth.

Ingestibles are full of sensors that can not only track your vitals but tell you when you last took your medication, if you’re over-medicating or mixing two drugs that shouldn’t be taken together. Critically, it will aid doctors to work out how you’re responding to particular treatment. If you’re concerned about how your body “clears” the chip from your system, rest assured this happens the natural way.•