In Real Life

 Hello, and welcome to another episode of "I've Seen That Movie," the show that helps us all keep guessing whether the life we are currently living is actually a work of fiction. Or not. 

For example, did the San Francisco Police Department really just propose that, in certain cases, their robots would be allowed to use deadly force? 

Robocop? WarGames? About half the episodes of the original Start Trek series? Is this for real? The robots in question are generally used to defuse bombs or to deal with other hazardous substances. But if the folks in San Fran have their way, "The robots listed in this section shall not be utilized outside of training and simulations, criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessment. Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD."

At least that's what the powers that be in San Francisco would like to suggest. In the heart of liberal, pacifist Northern California, how could this go wrong? Some fifty years ago, it was these very streets where Inspector Harry Callahan lugged his .357 Magnum from crime scene to crime scene, dispensing justice in ways that would make most Bay Area residents shudder. Or cheer, depending on the circumstances. Was it a movie, or did it happen in real life? 

Ultimately, on paper, this sounds like a good way to keep everyone safer than keeping Clint Eastwood on the payroll. After all, there is no way that a machine could make the same sort of deadly mistake that their human counterparts have. Which makes me wonder what Isaac Asimov would have to say about all of this. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. That seems like a pretty tough contradiction there, but maybe it's all about the extremes. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. This is the kind of logic that Captain Kirk would love to get some robot confused. And finally, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. If one were to apply Asimov's Laws of Robotics, it sounds like it might be easier just to find these robots a desk job until everything gets ironed out. 

In real life.