Robocops

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Image: IMDB.com

Robocops

By Ray Tabler

It is interesting to note that Robocop, from the movie of the same name, is not a robot. Technically, he’s a cyborg, part man, part machine. Robocop is a mechanically-enhanced Frankenstein’s monster. Victor Frankenstein creates his monster in pursuit of science. Knowledge? Because he can? The corporation which builds Robocop is chasing the almighty dollar. Which obsession is more justifiable? If either is.

That got me thinking about robots and the police. With AI technology suddenly popping up, like a cybernetic jack-in-the-box, we can expect law enforcement to dragoon thinking machines into their arsenal, sooner rather than later. Arguably, we’re already there in some small, easily-overlooked ways. Some cities even now employ computer-controlled traffic cameras to record stoplight runners and/or catch speeders, and automatically send them a citation via email. No talking your way out of that ticket. A humorous logical endpoint to this trend can be seen in the movie Ideocracy. The hero, awakened in a future when idiots run the world, is sentenced to prison for not having the proper documentation. During his escape from jail, two auto-machine guns shoot each other instead of him, all the while wailing “Excape!” over loudspeakers. Apparently, the AIs in this future are idiots as well.

Typically, robocops in science fiction are problematic, to put it mildly. For this essay, we’ll stretch the robocop label to include robots, AIs, cyborgs, and androids. Let’s throw in clones too, since clones evoke many of the same visceral reactions from people as robots do. I’m intentionally excluding alien cops. That’s a whole different topic. I’d recommend the movie and TV show Alien Nation as an excellent example of that sub-sub-genre of science fiction.

Robocops stir up the fear we have of handing over law enforcement to non-humans. Human police are not perfect, but at least they’re human. We can understand them, even if they sometimes overstep the bounds. In fact, those very flaws reassure us. That’s often a bad bargain, but one we’re used to. Robocops bring the threat, real or not, of rigid, impartial enforcement of the letter of the law. People are just not comfortable with strictly coloring inside the lines like that. And, there are always situations which require a judgement call. Robocops probably won’t cut anyone that much slack.

Then there is the question of competence. The concern around robocops is how they will either do the job, poorly or too well. The goofy robocop is always good for comedy. Inspector Gadget, Holmes and Yoyo, Future Cop, and Code 404 are all comedy TV shows which plow that ground. Even with some shenanigans along the way, the robocops prove their worth.

An obvious area for a robocop story to explore is the relationship the robot has with humans, specifically with their partner. Mis-matched partners are a staple in cop shows and movies. Riggs and Murtaugh are thrown together in Lethal Weapon, and eventually bond. Dirty Harry Callahan keeps getting his partners killed. Imagine that. What could be more fitting for that story arc than a robot and a human assigned to work with each other? It’s a mis-match made in (screenplay) heaven.

The previously mentioned robocop comedy shows employ this element, to be sure. But robocop dramas are best able to exploit it. The Robocop movie takes advantage of the cyborg’s relationship with his partner to bring back some of his humanity. In the TV show Almost Human, a future human police detective hates his android partner because his previous (human) partner was abandoned during a gun fight by an android. The man was too badly wounded to survive, and the android reached the logical conclusion to move on to more pressing tasks. Logical, but unforgivable, in the main character’s opinion. There’s that doing the job inhumanly well thing rearing its ugly head.

The 2004 movie I Robot pairs a human police detective, who profoundly distrusts robots, with a robot to solve a murder. Of course, the human and the robot reconcile by the end. Ironically, the movie is supposedly based on Issac Asimov’s robot short stories. However, little but the title, and the “three laws of robotics” survived the adaptation. Still a good movie, but Asimov did write a series of novels featuring a human/robot detective team; Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn. Worth a read.

The movie Blade Runner is based on a Phillip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The protagonist of Blade Runner, Decker, is a detective who tracks down errant replicants, who are biologically-engineered artificial people. Since the replicants themselves don’t realize they’re not actually human, there’s some debate as to whether Decker is human or a replicant. Philosophical conundrums ensue.

I confess to being largely ignorant of the Judge Dredd graphic novel series, having only watched the 1995 movie, with Sylvester Stallone. How closely that follows the previous works I don’t really know. That caveat out of the way, the movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic future when “Judges” play the role of police, juries, and executioners, in order to keep the lid on a violent society. Justice is swift and, in the case of Judge Dredd (Stallone), ruthlessly enforced to the precise letter of the law. Suffice it to say, best not attract Dredd’s gaze. Spoiler alert! Dredd himself is a clone, designed, engineered, and lab-grown for law enforcement. A villain plans to employ robots and emotionless clones to take over the city. Dredd must fight the bad guy, and his own merciless, robotic nature.

This is not the first examination of robocops. I am indebted to others who gathered the information before me. They are listed in the reference links, below. Robot police TV shows do not appear to have a very long life expectancy. Frankly, I was surprised that there have been so many of them, after looking into the subject. It is a much-dipped well, but a deep one. The trope plays upon our fears of the unknown and the new. That dread is topical these days, with AI finally becoming a reality after decades of anticipation. The robots will take our jobs, and our justice system! Or so goes the hype. Typically, robocops in literature and dramas turn out to not be so bad after all, simply another technology to fold into our world. Let us pray that will be the case. Because, ready or not, it looks like the robocops; they are a-comin’.

END.

Reference links below or in the comments. (If I remember to put them there. Please remind me if I forget.)

Reference Links:

· Robocop movie – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop

· Traffic Light Cameras – https://www.findlaw.com/traffic/traffic-tickets/speeding-and-red-light-camera-tickets.html

· Ideocracy Excape! Scene –

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/P9xuTYrfrWM?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

, Relevant part starts at 2:45.

· Inspector Gadget – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Gadget

· Holmes and Yoyo – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_%26_Yoyo

· Future Cop – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Cop_(TV_series)

· Code 404 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_404

· Almost Human – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_Human_(TV_series)

· I Robot

o Asimov short stories – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot

o Movie – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_(film)

· R. Daneel Olivaw (robot detective), Asimov – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Daneel_Olivaw

o Caves of Steel – Asimov Novel – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caves_of_Steel

o The Naked Sun – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun

o The Robots of Dawn – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robots_of_Dawn

· Blade Runner – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

· Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F

· Judge Dredd – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dredd_(film)

· Robocops Overviews

o Androids and Detectives – https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndroidsAndDetectives

o Robot police – https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RobotPolice

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