The open book

''TESTAMENT," a comic book from Vertigo/DC that debuted last week, is set in a near future where young people must have a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip implanted in their arms so they can be tracked by the government, which has reinstated a military draft. But the comic simultaneously takes place in an even more far-out setting: the Torah, or Old Testament. Written by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, whose 2003 book ''Nothing Sacred" argued that Judaism is an ''open source" religion that encourages all of us to actively create the narratives that give meaning to existence, ''Testament" suggests that 21st-century America is an idolatrous civilization.

In the first issue of ''Testament," a nanoscientist funded by the military is ordered to implant his son Jacob with an RFID tag. Jake, meanwhile, flirts with a draft-dodging cadre of media hackers who administer consciousness-expanding drugs to him; under the influence of these, he catches a glimpse of Abraham of Ur, another father who must decide whether to buck the system by not sacrificing his son. Jake's comrades-who happen to be squatting in an abandoned Jewish temple-will attempt to hack into and rewrite the culture's core narratives, fundamentally altering everyone's worldview.

''Media hackers are today's Hebrews-the ones who recognize that the codes we use to administrate our world are biased, and who try to change those codes," Rushkoff explained via telephone from his home in Brooklyn. ''But although I believe Judaism points to this sort of relationship to the world, you don't have to call living your life this way 'Judaism.' As long as readers get the idea that the narrative and power of the Bible transcend time, that it's not just an ancient story but something happening right now, I don't care what you call it."

Joshua Glenn is associate editor of Ideas. E-mail jglenn@globe.com.