“In the late fourth century, when our story unfolds, chips were used solely for tracking. The chips don't work outside the city unless the dwarf is in a vehicle connected to the com-grid.
“This may seem odd, but the 'control' offered by the chips led to a number of abuses and unintentional tragedies caused by the software - reality interface. Certainly an abusive person can take advantage of someone with a remote control device in his forehead. What really led to undoing the control chips was the inability to make basic human decisions. A dwarf child might not escape from a fire or an adult dwarf may be unable to run into a fire to save his child or his owner's child.
“Although fire is almost unknown in Nodlon, it only took a few instances of such horrific errors to force Bio-Soft to delete the control software from their chips. Nonetheless, the chip alone is a sufficient sign of the dwarf's servile status to remind the bearer of his place in Nodlon society.”