A future of robots replacing military and police personnel is just a matter of time. The new Robocop, a remake of the 1987 cult classic, bases the need for a cyborg police officer after mass refusal of robotic policing of US citizenry. To put a human face on the next age of police service, detective Alex Murphy is used to operate a new body that makes him a cyborg supercop and his success will provide acceptance for OmniCorp to begin selling robots to police all over America.

As part of the Robocop system Alex influences, but doesn't always control, the police software or the body it operates. The film explores his posthumanity and the line where the human ends and the robot begins - or the other way around. Seen as the Future of American Justice, Alex/Robocop works through issues at a personal level while acting as the star of the Detroit police department and a pawn of OmniCorp's need for new contracts.

Why you should watch this
It's hard to review a remake of a film that influenced my view of the future as a child. The new Robocop doesn't capture the magic of the original, though much of that is how close we may be to creating a real life Robocop with systems already giving experienced police, unable to operate in the field due to disabilities, telepresence abilities using robots to protect and serve from a distance. Even without the magic of a new idea, this film impressed on a few levels and asked important questions as we move closer to cyborgs as part of our posthuman development.

As I mentioned above, the main focus of the film is on the human/robot joining. When is Alex in control, bring his human emotions to the mission? When is the robot in charge, acting as a passionless agent of the law? As neuroscientists edge closer to controlling human actions and feelings through external stimuli (and eventually internal systems), when will we know we are acting with free will or under the influence of technology? Robocop offers an example of this issue when Murphy is unable to continue and is locked into Robocop mode, unable to respond to his loved ones.

(Spoilers in this video)On a personal level, the hardest scene to watch was Alex discovering his posthuman form. As they stripped him down to what remains, his human fear and horror contrasted with the humanoid form in which he finds himself housed. In this moment, he finds much of his body missing and asks for it to end. For me, it brings up questions of elective body modification and how thoroughly we will be able to re-humanize ourselves once we realize what we've lost.

While the film chooses to focus on the humanity he attempts to retain, it reminds me of issues George Lucas built into Star Wars and how Luke Skywalker's robotic hand was the beginning of his father's path, a path that ends with Darh Vader losing his humanity as his body is replaced by machines.

The new Robocop isn't a great film, but it does offer some important points on our path towards posthumanity and how much we gain and lose by crossing that line. Magical or not, it's worth two hours to watch.

Topics covered
Futurists will enjoy the topics explored in the movie, including:

• Body replacement technology - cybernetics
• Issues of freedom and ownership for posthumans
• Hybrid human/robot personality and ethics
• Hyperaware police systems
• Militarized robots

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