Robocop & Detroit - Fiction meets Reality

Did the 1987 movie predict the future of Detroit?

I have been following the problems in Detroit. It is a fact that they are filing for bankruptcy and the fact that the city is broke! Detroit used to be the highest median household incomes and now ranks 66th out of 68. There used to be over 2 million people living in Detroit at the height of the cities population; now, the population has declined severely and is around 700,000. There are abandoned neighborhoods, houses in shambles, and abandoned skyscrapers. I have included several videos to show the truth and the comparison to the movie. It is sad times in Detroit Motor City!

Police ignore calls to the abandoned neighborhoods. The abandoned neighborhoods have lost several homes and fields replaced the once home and property.  This is just one example, there are many more.

Detroit is a city that is dying on the vine. Home prices less that $500 is common place. One home is only $50. The lowest price a home sold was for $1. Yes, $1 dollar. The abandoned skyscrapers that once had bustling businesses.

Detroit had 5000 Police officers and now have less than 2800. They are stretched to the limits of breaking. There are promises of a "Pot of money", but no one can find it.



Detroit also has the most crime and highest murder rate in the nation. It is as if Detroit has become a third-world city in the heart of America.




Plot:
In the near future (freaky 1987 to 2013 = a mere 26 years), Detroit, Michigan is on the verge of collapse due to financial ruin and unchecked crime (both of which are happening today!). The mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) enters into a contract with the city to run the police force. OCP plans to demolish "Old Detroit" and redevelop it as a high-end utopia called "Delta City." To address the city's crime, OCP tests several projects to engineer robotic law enforcement. During a presentation of a project spearheaded by the senior president, Dick Jones (Ronny Cox), the ED-209 enforcement droid malfunctions and kills a junior executive. With Delta City's construction scheduled to begin within months, the OCP Chairman (Dan O'Herlihy) immediately advances an alternative put forth by an ambitious, middle-ranking executive named Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer). Morton calls his cyborg project "RoboCop."

Now onto the comparison to the 1987 Robocop movie and some clips from the franchise.The Robocop trailer.

Crime running rampant in the streets and not a single cop to be found.

Robocop scene when Detroit went bankrupt in the movie (Robocop 2).



Was the 1987 movie Robocop a foreshadowing to the future of Detroit? Is the movie's fictional tale of crime, abandoned area, and bankruptcy becoming a reality? Will a Robocop Detroit be a reality and not a fictional movie? You decide.

Philosophical Zombie

I have always been fascinated with philosophical arguments and I found the Zombie one of the most interesting, actually I love it!

A philosophical zombie or p-zombie in the philosophy of mind and perception is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except in that it lacks concious experience, qualia, or sentience. When a zombie is poked with a sharp object, for example, it does not feel any pain though it behaves exactly as if it does feel pain (it may say "ouch" and recoil from the stimulus, or tell us that it is in intense pain).
The notion of a philosophical zombie is used mainly in intended to support arguments (often called "zombie arguments") against forms of physicalism such as materialism, behaviorism, and funtionalism. 

So, since a zombie is defined as physiologically indistinguishable from human beings, even logically, do they really feel pain?
Or does the zombie mimic the pain that it once knew when human? Almost like a motor response without actual pain.
We all know they hunger for brains and if they have no logic, then how do they know they want to consume brains? Also they are known to eat raw flesh.
"Braaaaiiins...braaaaiiiins...braaaaaiiiins..." they chant as they slowly approach the “normies” or better known as us humans. But how do they know this if they have no thoughts?
In some cultures such as Hati and West Africa, in the religion of Vodou Zombies are normal. They know that they can raise such creatures.

Some zombie conspiracies I have heard: 
The Chinese Cover-up: So far the Chinese have been able to cover up their Zombie outbreak but there have been leaks getting to the news media, and as fast as it gets out the government cuts the lines of communications. My sources close to our government have told me that the Chinese Government has been working for some time on re-animating humans in hopes of making a super soldier. And it’s not just China.  Many countries are doing the same thing. The USA, our own government might be doing the same? You decide?
There is a thought that the CDC is working on a drug to create zombies then decrease our population. It is called the, “Zombie Virus.” 

Knowing your zombies: 
Slow zombies are described in detail by Max Brooks in The Zombie Survival Guide. In a basic sense, slow zombies are technically dead predators who are totally independent from a physiological need of any kind. They feel no pain, need nothing to fuel their bodies, and require only their intact brain to exist. While they do eat their prey, they do not need to, as their digestive system is completely inoperative and the flesh simply is forced out through the rectum as later "meals" push it out of the body, or the flesh stagnates and rots inside the Zombie. They are almost totally without intellect or reasoning skills (according to the Zombie Survival Guide, only a quarter of them can figure out how to use a ladder). And as named, their top speed is slower than a normal human's calm stride. As mentioned earlier, they are extremely durable, being able to survive and hunt for years if not killed by brain destruction. The Solanum Virus which kills a person, and infests an reanimates the corpse, takes between 12-48 hours, depending on how quickly the virus reaches the brain (it's been proven that a small bite which reaches no major blood vessels takes longer than the traditional model to produce a zombie). 
Slow Zombies normally do not climb and a chain-linked fence seems to be their kryptonite. 

Fast zombies are usually (but not always) humans still technically alive, but radically transformed mentally and physically by a mysterious viral infection. While they also feel no pain, without the concern for food or water (they do not need sleep), they inevitably die to thirst or hunger. While they are more durable than an ordinary human, this is because of constant adrenaline production, and deactivation of pain receptors, so injury and fatigue also do not concern them. They ultimate depend on all of their organ systems, and can be killed through blood loss, asphyxiation, or poisoning. Typically, the fast zombie transformation period is very fast - in 28 Days Later, it can be mere seconds. Fast Zombies can be excellent climbers (see Valve Zombies). 

Good luck out there my friends, good luck. And always remeber to aim for the head! Also remember, if you have a boat, Zombies can't swim.