RoboCop at 30: how its cyberpunk vision of the future became a reality – iNews

Thirty years on from the release ofRobocop, applied futurist Tom Cheesewright notes thatthe films vision of cyborgsecurity and the privatisation of public life has become a startling reality

Talk to people about cyborgs, and even 30 years on from its arrival in cinemas, RoboCop remains a common point of reference.

Strutting the streets of Detroit in his shiny metal hide, Officer Murphys robotic reincarnation really stuck in peoples minds, as did the rest of Paul Verhoevens vision: rampant consumerism and the privatisation of public life.

But how does this vision stack up against todays reality? Is it already here, yet to come, or perhaps totally unfeasible?

If you want to know about the privatisation of public life, and particularly public spaces, ask any skateboarder.Large swathes of our cities have been turned over to private property developers, and are now policed as such.

Try to skate in the wrong place, and you might not get a warning shot from an over-zealous cyborg. But you could beshut down by a security guard on a Segway.

Theres no physical fusion of biology and technology here, but Id argue its still a cyborg.

The sci-fi vision of cyborgs as machine and human in the same body were driven by the technology of the Cold War era, when the term was coined.

Scientists knew that the human bodys frailty was a weakness in environments like outer space or a nuclear fallout zone, but our minds outstripped the power of any computer.

If we could find a way to closely connect the human mind to physical might, the result might be unstoppable.

The physical might of machines hasnt moved on that far, but computers are now much closer to human capabilities.

Weve also developed much better interfaces between the two.

The result is computers we can control with a single spoken command, phones that respond to the slightest touch or swipe, and self-balancing scooters that only require us to lean in the direction we want to go.

We are all cyborgs now. We just dont recognise it. In our minds, all cyborgs look like RoboCop.

This more subtle blending of human and machine represents the future of security today.

Researchers around the world continue to develop exoskeletons for the human body to enhance our physical strength.

Imagine citiessurveilled by roaming drones its already happening in Dubai.

But why put a human in harms way when they could be sat in the safety of a control room, remotely piloting a drone?

This is increasingly the reality of modern warfare, and witha long tradition of military technology making its way into law enforcement, it wont be long until these techniques are implemented on our streets.

Imagine citiessurveilled by roaming drones its already happening in Dubai. There wont be one operator for each drone; maybe one for everyfive or every10.

Most of the time they will be entirely autonomous, roaming the streets, taking pictures, and answering questions. Only when there are criminals to be caught will the humans take over.

This fits with the changing picture of work in a broader sense.

Replacing humans takes real artificial intelligence, something that is a little way off.

RoboCops world showed us what might happen if automation and globalisation arent countered

But with some intelligent automation as software companies are now calling it a much smaller amountof humans can achieve a lot more.

Science fiction is an important part of imagining the world we might one day live-in, and considering the risks and opportunities.

RoboCops world showed us what might happen if the effects of automation and globalisation arent countered.

Rising violent crime follows a growing gap between rich and poor as robots take more and more work something the Sutton Trust warned about just last week.

The technology may be more subtle and sophisticated than the clunking armour of 1980s imagination. But the issues driving tomorrows security challenges remain very real.

Tom Cheesewright runs Book of the Future.com, where he uses his knowledge to give a view of the future

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RoboCop at 30: how its cyberpunk vision of the future became a reality - iNews