I Really Hate It When ...

Bad speculative fiction comes out too close to the truth.

In this case, I'm referring to Robocop, and in particular the ED-209.

I'm not saying that the research being done is invalid, but it certainly conjures up visions that I can only characterize as creepy. Dealing with the police on a day to day basis is unsettling enough; dealing with a bunch of robots that are (in theory) controlled by the police - or any other law agency is just going to make the prospect all the more uncomfortable.

As with money, technology itself is inanimate, and has neither ethics nor morals per se. Those only exist in the hands of the humans that are using those tools. Are we ready for autonomous, or even semi-autonomous robots to play a role in our worlds?