The Threat Of Private Mechanical Police
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
I can’t help but think that, were these mechanical cops to have been produced, they would have immediately been drafted into service by private entities. Indeed, the inset in the upper left of this illustration brings to my mind, not of the police sedating a mob — something that, along with “war purposes”, it is well suited for, according to the numerous mentions of each in the write-up — but of the private security forces of the Ford Motor Co., tearing through the picket lines of striking employees. The idea of, say, John Pierpont Morgan, his rhinophyma riddled visage contorted in murderous glee, controlling an army of unstoppable automatons, chills me to the bone. At the very least it would keep the machines from helping those in who are truly in need of robotic justice, like the young lady being harassed by this floating Rape-Bot. Maybe it’s just me, but I wonder just who was looking forward to the future of 1924.
Robocop 1924 [davidzondy.com] : Thanks, Melissa!
Categories: Pulps, 1920s, Rape, Retrofuturism, Robots
Posted at 10:11 am on July 2, 2008
7 Comments -
Look who’s the author! Hugo Gernsback himself! Father of science fiction and Amazing Stories.
Comment by ALEXISTAN — July 2, 2008 @ 11:55 am
ED-209: there I said it.
beat the proletariat down!
Comment by j — July 2, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
Those whirling ball things look incredibly capable of dealing out greivious injuries.
I’ll take 2.
Comment by Giania — July 2, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
Why would you give it a tear gas spewing cock?
And worse, why would you make it undersized, so that it must prove itself to truly be a man.
Comment by Nr Miller — July 2, 2008 @ 2:40 pm
When I saw that picture I assumed it WAS a depiction of the Robopinkertons breaking a strike…
Comment by Brian Schlosser — July 2, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
They look remarkably like fruit fuckers.
Comment by AwkwardTurtle — July 2, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
The tiny nut toxic penis, those kinky rotating beads, the threaded feet…. that could be a great sex robot.
Comment by Optical — July 3, 2008 @ 1:59 am