{"id":15190,"date":"2012-12-12T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=15190"},"modified":"2013-02-07T14:21:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T20:21:31","slug":"judge-dredd-the-man-the-tech-the-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/entertainment\/comics\/judge-dredd-the-man-the-tech-the-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Dredd! The Man! The Tech! The Reality!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future America is an irradiated wasteland. On its east coast, running from Boston to Charlotte, lies Mega-City One — a vast, violent metropolis where criminals run rampant. The only force of order lies with the urban police force called Judges who have the powers of \u00a0judge, jury, and executioner for every crime — littering, jaywalking, or murder! Known and feared throughout the city, Dredd is the ultimate Judge, challenged with ridding the city of its latest scourge, a dangerous drug called Slo-Mo, and the crime boss Ma-Ma who is using it to take over the city.<\/p>\n

[yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JqqgrUna28w’]<\/p>\n

If this sounds appealing as your vision of the future, visit the White House\u2019s petition site where there is a petition to streamline the current U.S. Judicial system<\/a>, \u201c …a petition to dissolve the current legal system and replace it with a single Hall of Justice, run by Judges; motorcycle-riding law officers who act as police, judge, jury, and executioner.\u201d When the petition passes the 25,000 mark, it will be granted an official response. So far, the number hovers around 3,000. We promise to let you know what the White House\u2019s response will be, provided another 22,000 people sign up by December 13, 2012.<\/p>\n

To prepare for the Dredd 3D movie Blu-ray release on January 13, 2013, as well as IDW\u2019s American-produced ongoing comic, let\u2019s look at some of the technology of Judge Dredd\u2019s world and how close some of it is to present day reality.<\/p>\n

One of the busiest, most fascinating, and most futuristic characters in Dredd\u2019s world is Mega-City One itself.<\/p>\n

\"Mega<\/a>

New York, some time in the 22nd Century. Probably not Donut-o’clock.
Image: Carlos Ezquerra, 2000AD, 1977<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The reality of the sprawling, coastline spanning Mega-City One with mile-high starscrapers is a long while off. In 1976, when Judge Dredd first debuted in 2000AD, the massive city was constructed from the writings of JG Ballard\u2019s High Rise<\/em> and HG Wells\u2019s When The Sleeper Awakes<\/em>, and films like Logan\u2019s Run<\/em> and Death Race 2000<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Other influences were the stylings of UK architects Archigram<\/a>, but mostly from American and European concepts of the Mega City. These were developed partly out of a reaction to the mid-1950s post-war rapid urban sprawl, in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles particularly, partly out of the ideas of \u00a0Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s ideas of Usonian Living, and partly out of a rejection of the Brutalist architectural ideals in vogue during the 1950s that left so many cities looking like giant cinder-blocks had been dumped haphazardly. The original, early 70s Mega City was a vertical city, self-contained, with a minimal footprint on the planet.<\/p>\n

\"Paulo<\/a>

One of Paulo Soleri’s Hyperbuildings.
Image Source: Paulo Soleri<\/a> & Cosanti Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n

Others have experimented with eco-friendly mega-living in Arizona, near Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s winter retreat Taliesin West, building Paulo Soleri\u2019s Arcosanti, Tsukuba Science City in Japan, and Masdar City <\/a>in the UAE. One Russian architectural firm, Ab Elise, has suggested the opposite of vertical living. The firm has suggested building down, into the ground, turning a disused Siberian open-cast diamond mine into a city of the future dubbed Eco-city 2020.<\/p>\n

The city will be covered with a protective glass dome to guard its residents from Siberia\u2019s inclement weather, while the solar cells on its walls will harvest the sun\u2019s energy to provide power for the whole city. Eco-city 2020 will be divided in three levels containing vertical farms, residential areas and recreational spaces with a large core featured at the\u00a0centre.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ab Elise’s vision for a crowded Siberia.
Image Source: Ab Elise<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the last 36 years, the idea of the crowded, cramped Mega City has become firmly enmeshed in society\u2019s consciousness, and a real reality. Conurbations like Mumbai, Tokyo, New York, and Mexico City have crowding with more than 20 million inhabitants into their areas, with Shanghai, Karachi, Lagos, and Dhaka set to follow suit by 2025.<\/p>\n

Even BMW\u2019s marketing team have touched on it, touting the i3 Electric Concept Coupe as The Megacity Vehicle<\/a>\u00a0despite the i-Series Concept cars owing their looks more to Tron than Dredd.<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/a>

BMW i-3 Coupe Concept.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

With Mega City One as the backdrop, the voice of authority for Judge Dredd is his gun, The Lawgiver.<\/p>\n

Because Judge Dredd was inspired by — among others — Dirty Harry, and Harry Callahan being best known for toting a .44 Magnum, \u00a0\u201c…the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off…,\u201d it\u2019s only fair that the Lawgiver comes next on the list.<\/p>\n

The Lawgiver is a serious piece of murder-ware capable of firing six or seven different kinds of bullet, automatic targeting and focus, and can only be fired by an authorized user based on that person’s handprint or DNA. The idea stems directly from a line in the 1973 movie, Westworld<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The guns issued to the guests also have temperature sensors that prevent them from shooting each other or anything else living but allow them to ‘kill’ the room-temperature androids.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While this sounds like a lot for one tool to be capable of, the disparate parts are coming together.<\/p>\n

One Belgian arms manufacturer has recently devised a Black Box for guns, keeping track of rounds fired and capable of being part of a larger automatic network, allowing soldiers to know when to predict a need to reload, when to re-equip, or perform maintenance. There’s even the possibility of disabling a gun remotely.<\/p>\n

With the rise of affordable biometric readers, fingerprints and handprints are fast becoming readily available and on a small enough scale for a handgun. The readers may lie in the world of concepts for now, but they’re not too far off. Even the latest Bond movie, Skyfall<\/em>, as well as in License To Kill<\/em> featured gadget. (Note: Bond movies aren’t necessarily indicative of technology being presently available. We’re awaiting our invisible Aston Martin for review. Aston Martin has so far refused to answer our phone calls.) In the mid-70s, came the arrival of the Magna-Trigger system, which only allows for the firing of the gun when a special magnetic ring is worn. Since 1999, Mossberg Shotguns have a Smart Shotgun that only fires in the proximity of a special RFID chip.
\n
\nThe New Jersey Institute of Technology has been working on a personalized system based on sensors in the trigger and grip that identifies the owner\u2019s hand size, grip, and strength. This system currently claims a 90 percent success.<\/p>\n

An Australian firearms manufacturer was inspired by The Lawgiver to come up with the Variable Lethality Law Enforcement electronic pistol in 2000. The gun can only be fired by a designated owner and has multiple firing modes.<\/p>\n

Most recently, a number of Armed Forces have begun ordering the ATK XM-25 to the tune of $65 million. The ATK XM-25 is a computerized projectile launcher that can fire ranged ammunition out of the soldier\u2019s line of sight and even around corners. The Pentagon calls it the XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon, which uses a laser rangefinder to precisely measure the distance to a target, and then primes a fuse on a timed grenade so that the projectile explodes exactly where it should.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The XM-25 looking scarily, brutally futuristic. Or like a metal tube that spits death.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The way a soldier operates this is you basically find your target, then laze to it, which gives the range, then you get an adjusted aim point, adjust fire and pull the trigger,” deputy program manager Richard Audette told Army News Service. “Say you’ve lazed out to 543 meters … when you pull the trigger it arms the round and fires it 543 meters plus or minus a one-, two- or three-meter increment, then it explodes over the target.”<\/p>\n

British troops are calling it the Judge Dredd gun. U.S. troops in Afghanistan instead refer to it as\u00a0The Punisher.<\/p>\n

Next on the Judge\u2019s arsenal is the powerful shotgun, holstered on the Judges’ bikes. Previously, and euphemistically, named The Lawrod, it has been superseded by The Widowmaker 2000 and The Arbitrator.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Atchinson developed the AA-12 fully automatic shotgun which can fire up to 300 RPM.<\/p>\n

[yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WOoUVeyaY_8′]<\/p>\n

To get around Mega City One, wielding its own arsenal of cannons, lasers and autonomous computer control, we come to the Lawmaster. Based on the Harley Davidson, this beast of a bike has become an icon of Dredd\u2019s world in its own right.<\/p>\n

\"Lawmaster\"<\/a>

A Lawmaster. Just looking at it could get you killed.
Image Source: Judge Minty Concept Art<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having been copied in films like Batman and the remake of RoboCop<\/a>, motorbike manufacturers have taken notice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This in now way this looks like the Lawmaster. Nope. Not at all.
Image Source: Newscom<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dodge introduced the non-street legal Tomahawk in 2003, a bike that the builders claimed could go faster than 400 MPH with the V10 engine from a Dodge Viper. About nine Tomahawks have been sold at around $550,000 from the Neiman Marcus catalog. (Check out this thorough review at Allpar.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Dodge<\/a>

Insanity has two wheels, it seems.
Image Source: Phil McAvoy<\/a> for BBDO\/Dodge<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Gen-Ryu<\/a>, a Yamaha concept from 2010 for a hybrid model, certainly looks like it wouldn’t look out of place in Dredd\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

\"Yamaha<\/a>

Yamaha Hybrid Motorbike Concept<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

You have your bike, cannon, and handgun, but how do you put down a mass of Cits in the full grip of Block Mania? Riot foam!<\/p>\n

Riot foam! Use it on grandma!<\/p>\n

In the comic, riot foam is sprayed on large groups, where it hardens to form a rock-hard agent that immobilizes the potential prisoners. Sandia National Labs developed a similar product for military use as part of the Less Than Lethal program in 1980. In 1995, U.S. troops tried using it during Operation United Shield in Somalia, but the foam was found to have numerous lethal and semi-lethal side-effects including smothering, solvent damage to the skin on removal, and gun clogging. Sticky Foam was also mentioned in the book The Men Who Stare At Goats<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sonic cannon! Ideal for teenagers!<\/p>\n

At the 2009 G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, police used sonic cannons against protestors to disorientate and disable them. That was the first time such a weapon has been used offensively by American police, although it has been in the police armory since before 2004, when it was on hand for the Republican National Convention in New York. Since then, the sonic cannon has deterred Somalian pirates, unruly football fans at the 2011 Super Bowl, and Occupy Wall Street protesters in Oakland and New York. Most recently, the cannons have been spotted at the 2012 Olympics and being used by Japanese Whaling fleets against Greenpeace ships.<\/p>\n

Of course, the one thing that keeps Judge Dredd going, despite the fancy guns, the tricky bike, and all other kinds of technology, is his ability to never be afraid, to get down, get dirty, and solve a problem with his fists.<\/p>\n

\"Judge<\/a>

Possibly the greatest panel in comics, of all time.<\/p><\/div>\n

Featured image: Brian Bolland<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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