Science friction

RoboCop
(1987) A critically wounded cop is transformed into a part man, part robot crime-fighting machine.
How close are we to creating a cyborg?
Leo Irakliotis We’re getting there. We are at the point technology-wise where we can add electronic implants or extra memory in your brain like you do in your computer. Technology is progressing enough to produce the elements that you need to build a RoboCop in the near future.
Rusty Nails RoboCop’s a little bit of an older model. I think that McDreamy [from Grey’s Anatomy] and Alan Thicke are the new cyborgs.

The Road Warrior
(1981) In postapocalyptic Australia, a very young Mel Gibson fights to protect a small town’s supply of gasoline.
Do you think the energy crisis will come down to hiring gas mercenaries?
LI Why would you fight for something that’s replaceable? We are short of oil; we are not short of energy. If someone built a solar-energy car, would you care about fighting to protect your oil?
RN I think people are going to start wearing sun-collector devices that are going to give them so much power that their bodies will be like huge flame pits and all of their friends will gather around roasting marshmallows. That’s how we’ll get energy.

Death Race 2000
(1975) In a brutal, dystopian future, cross-country car racers speed to the finish line, simultaneously scoring points and controlling overpopulation by hitting as many bystanders as they can.
Is this a viable way to control overpopulation?
LI After you kill about 30 people, you’re going to have enough structural damage to the car that you’ll have to replace it, and that’s expensive. We have the problem of obesity, too. People are getting bigger, so these cars—if they don’t have metal plates on the front—they’re going to slow down after hitting five people. Why spend 50 grand to kill five people when you can do it much cheaper?
RN I’m going to let you in on a little-known fact: Scientists are currently working on flavor drugs that are going to make human beings taste better. That’s why cannibalism kind of went the way of the dodo. Humans just don’t taste that good. But now there’s a new buttery flavor, and I think that’s going to take care of overpopulation.

Island of Lost Souls
(1932) It’s your typical mad-scientist-grows-his-own-half-human-half-mutant-race-on-a-sequestered-island plot.
Are human-animal mutants possible?
LI We can create a “mutant” in an operating room. If you’re going for heart surgery and they need to replace one of your heart valves, they could use a heart valve from a pig because it’s compatible with a human heart. The science is there, but we’re not even close to making a half-human, half-mutant.
RN Isn’t Dick Cheney already the embodiment of that? Half man, half ogre-sloth?

The Sci-Fi Spectacular lands at the Music Box Theatre (3733 N Southport Ave, 773-871-6604) on Saturday 10.