The U.S. government was plodding along with the job of upgrading passports. I suspect that if 9/11 hadn't happened, the next generation of passports would have been ready at about the same time that people started needing passports to Mars.
As it is, the new, high-tech passports, with embedded software and data chips, are ready now. "U.S. Allies Begin Issuing High-Tech Passports for Travelers" gives more detail on the smart passports.
The immediate plus here is that, since other countries which are not likely to support terrorism are using the new, more efficient, passports too, it will be possible to concentrate on higher-risk travelers.
A next step now, according to that article, is to deal with how personal information can leak out of the new system. Apparently, it wouldn't be too difficult to commit identity theft with the new system: providing that the thief was tech-savvy.
I don't see the identity-theft issue as a reason to abandon the new technology. If our ancestors had been that sensitive about using new tools, we'd probably still be discussing property rights with cave bears.
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