This is from a fairly old piece in the UK's splendid Guardian (June 30th, to be precise). I'm kind of surprised that it hasn't seen wider pickup elsewhere:

Real-life Robocops, robots armed with lethal weaponry and a programmed determination to eliminate foes, could become a key element in global counter-terrorist and military operations within 10 years, a US security expert said yesterday.

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org in Virginia, was commenting on plans announced this week by a US firm, iRobot Corp, to arm its track-wheeled PackBot robot with a Taser X26 stun gun.

Until now, the PackBot, which looks like a small first-world-war tank, has been used for remote-controlled bomb disposal, dangerous search and surveillance missions. Now it will have the ability to "remotely engage, incapacitate and control dangerous suspects", iRobot said.

Here's the original Guardian story. Tip of the Judge Dredd helmet to my brother Gerard for pointing out this one. As he says: "Hoorah! Killer Robo Police, just like we were promised!"

Azimov! Thou should'st be living at this hour.

[UPDATE: Is it just me, or is there something terribly wrong about the phrase "real-life Robocops"?]

[UPDATE II: Wow! Seems our Robcops are arriving just in time to combat the "impending wave of cyborg criminal gangs".

From this story on BoingBoing: "Technology such as cloned part-robot humans used by organised crime gangs pose the greatest future challenge to police, along with online scamming, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty says."

Your move, creep.]

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13, 2007.
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