You already receive tickets for speeding and running red lights by robots. In the not to distant future, I don’t think it’s a huge leap to think that you may be receiving parking tickets from robots. You may receive littering tickets from robots. You may even be forced to be home in bed before 1AM because new laws don’t allow you to be out past curfew with old mate Robocop at the end of your street guarding your safety and not allowing you to go out into the night where the unthinkable may occur.

OK that last one may be a bit extreme but I sometimes wonder if we are going to get to a stage where robots are policing our streets? And if we do, what sort of power would be entrusted to such an officer of the law.

We are living in a world of UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles) that can be armed with weapons and attack our enemies without risk to pilots, no problem with that for me, well until our enemies use the same weapon against us. Bomb disposal robots are now used to disarm dangerous weapons; again I see no problem with this. The robot solider is well and truly in the scopes of the US government. Is it totally beyond the realms of possibility that such a robot could be repackaged into a saleable product, available to governments and ‘other’ organizations around the world?

Yes I am paranoid, untrusting and anti-authority. Yes I have fallen for the story line of one to many Hollywood blockbusters and, I indeed, should go and live with the Armish people and avoid all these evil machines. But that just ain’t going to help anyone, my place is here with you, the good old faithful consumer blind to there future plans.

I wish this ‘evil’ government had the same foresight with planning freeways, toll roads and tunnels as I seem to credit them with in controlling our future laws. I guess I am trying to say that I don’t think they are deliberately planning this future for us but there is an underlying concern it will become an ‘obvious’ solution some time in the future. Much the same as speed cameras became a solution to a problem at one point in time and are now accepted as a part of our society.