UK robotics professor sees RoboCops pounding the beat in the UK by 2084. Image: atp_tyreseus/Flickr.
One has 20 seconds to comply… if one would be so kind.
A new technology study conducted by the University of Sheffield has predicted that RoboCop-style automated police units will be patrolling the streets and bringing their own brand of well-oiled and emotionless robotic justice to naughty criminals in the UK in approximately 75 years.
The two-month study, which was conducted by leading robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey, claims that the UK’s crime-addled streets will be watched over by advanced humanoid robots with crime-busting abilities by the year 2084, reports the Sheffield Telegraph.
According to the study, which was commissioned by Warner Home Video to help promote the release of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the futuristic cops will be linked through a national information database and used to stamp out criminal activities, detect hidden weaponry and explosives, and enable flesh and blood police officers to focus their efforts elsewhere.
Helping further bolster the consumer appeal associated with the popular TV spin-off, Professor Sharkey also offers that although the patrolling automatons will be made from inorganic materials, they will likely have human features and facial expressions.
Their abilities as law enforcement units will also be greatly enhanced due to immense physical strength, the inability to register pain, and inter-linked access to a citizen database that will enable the instant identification of criminals.
In formulating his technological predictions for the United Kingdom’s future police force, Prof. Sharkey drew his robotic reference, information and projected conclusions from advances being made in countries such as Japan, China, South Korea and the United States. He also hypothesised based upon progressive ideas attributed to various international experts in the field.
When it comes to the evolving influence of real-world robotics, Professor Sharkey claims that modern sci-fi offerings such as the Terminator movies and the resulting television show should not be so quickly dismissed as little more than fantastical fiction.
He also warns that, while database-linked robotic police units could be “extremely beneficial” for the protection of a benevolent government’s citizens, the power of the technology could also be “a major blow to individual privacy and basic human rights” if abused.
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