The ease of sequencing

 

Gathering this information is, from a computational perspective, simply a matter of brute force. The reason the Human Genome Project took ten years to complete a sequencing that can be done in a few hours today was because the computational resources that could be brought to bear when it began were a tiny fraction as formidable as those currently available. What it took a supercomputer to do ten years ago your microwave can do today. Now that computers know what they’re looking for in a human DNA strand, it’s more or less a simple matter of counting to six billion. A single dedicated machine of sufficient power can sequence your DNA in less than a month; a network of similar machines can do it in only a few days or even hours.

Biometric identification systems rely on sophisticated pattern-recognition software to correctly identify specific traits and match them against a stored database. Whether it’s a voice pattern, a fingerprint, retinal scan, or facial recognition system, it is simply looking for specific points of comparison between the sample and the set of authorized faces or fingers it has stored in its system. These are not complicated systems, but they also suffer from serious flaws.