11% of the Americans (17% men, 7% women) would be willing to have a device safely implanted in their brain, which would enable them to use their mind to access the Internet. Even more troubling, the idea was thought to be OK even when involving kids.
According to the results of the Zogby/463 Internet Attitudes poll, nearly one in five Americans would agree to insert a chip into a child 13 or younger to help track them. But rest assured, there is an explanation: 10% of the respondents claimed that having the Internet in their brain made them closer to God. Another while 6% said it made them more distant.
We guess that an idea of a virus messing with their heads never crossed their minds. Nowadays malware only turns your computer to trash, but future malicious code is most likely to turn actual people into zombies. And “format brain:” is unlikely to solve the problem.
Also in the troubling department, more than half of Americans believe that Internet content such as video should be controlled in some way by the government. 29% think regulations should follow the TV model, while 24% said government should institute an online rating system similar to the one used by the movie industry. The good news is that 36% did say that blocking of Internet video would be unconstitutional.
Every man has its price, and for for more than one in five Americans the price is $100.000. The poll also brought up the issue of identity theft and found out that the afore-mentioned sum would persuade respondents to give their name and change it for something different.
Last but not least, 24% of Americans said the Internet could serve as a replacement for a significant other.
The Zogby/463 Internet Attitudes poll included 9,743 adult respondents nationwide, and carries a margin of error of +/– 1.0 percentage point.