For TWENTY years I waited for this press release.

Witnessing (NOT watching) the sequence below in 1987 during opening scenes of a sensational cult classic RoboCop, I knew this was no simple sci-fi throwaway and no mere cliche of a scene.

Depicted was an inevitable pivot in social history that any technological society will encounter - and any screenwriter or director would intuitively foresee and simulate.

The occasion? A specific human-machine interaction scenario.

Images, right:
Military robot prototype ED-209 is pressed into service to overcome public chaos (generated, of course, by the company making the cure) and the inevitable occurs - the machine malfunctions spectacularly during a  boardroom sales pitch.

ED-209 challenges an OCP executive in a corporate demonstration who mock-threatens the law and order robot with a handgun. ED-209 bristles with the now immortal warning: "Please put down your weapon - you have twenty seconds to comply."

The provocateur drops the gun but ED209 persists in deep malfunction. As the disarmed and alarmed volunteer receives ED’s lethal response, the tech crew rip away at wiring looms and smoking electronics vainly trying to disable the CopBot.

It was with particular irony, therefore, to receive this press release from Joe over at iRobot - two decades after the prescient virtual event.

iRobot and TASER Team to Deliver New Robot Capabilities for Military, Law Enforcement .. BURLINGTON, Mass., June 28, 2007

iRobot Corp.  today announced a strategic alliance with TASER International, Inc. to develop new robots that can remotely engage, incapacitate and control dangerous suspects with integrated TASER electronic control devices.

Built on iRobot’s combat-proven PackBot robot platforms, the new TASER-equipped robots will add a new ability to control dangerous suspects while keeping personnel, the suspect and bystanders out of harm’s way.

iRobot and TASER together have developed a working proof-of-concept model - iRobot PackBot Explorer with TASER X26 device  to showcase the first robot of its kind with an on-board, integrated TASER payload. The two companies will demonstrate the proof-of-concept model at the annual TASER Tactical Conference, July 9-10, at the Westin O’Hare in Chicago.

"iRobot continually looks for new or proven technologies from best-of-industry companies to integrate on our battle-tested robots," said Vice Admiral Joe Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), president of iRobot Government & Industrial Robots. "The addition of TASER technologies onto iRobot platforms will provide a critical tool for SWAT, law enforcement and military to handle a variety of dangerous scenarios."

Ok, saved this (below) for the veteran readers.

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