Hitman – killer Skynet. Hitman vs. Real Life Assassinations
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The Miami contract offers one more, inventive solution for neutralizing the target, and the only entity to be blamed for the assassination is... arificial intelligence! The struggle on the track is just one of the attractions of the event – another one is a presentation of cutting-edge military gear, including a soldier android, who can be programmed to shoot the target itself. Agent 47 only needs to dress up as an influential officer and upload a photo of Robert Knox to the robot's memory, instead of some test image during the presentation. The deadly android will then start shooting at the bewildered entrepreneur – just like ED-209 in one of the scenes from Robocop.
PASSWORD! THE ROBOT IS SHOOTING!
Androids using facial recognition to kill people is still sci-fi, but autonomous turrets already exist in reality. Israel and South Korea are the leading manufacturers of sentry gun devices. The latest models can detect and attack the target themselves, although countries using these inventions argue that the "open fire" order is always given by man.
Automated sentry guns don't have a reliable friend/foe recognition yet, but the Koran guns are allegedly able to recognize a cease-fire password with a few microphones they have. Autonomous towers already guard dozens of places around the world, including the borders of Israel, South Korea, the United States, some nuclear power plants, the Abu Dhabi Palace, and many others.
History – bowler hat and umbrella
The assassination of Georgi Markov was something straight from a spy movie. That incident actually shows that reality can often be more cruel than fiction. Markov was a Bulgarian playwright and an unwavering critic of the Communist regime. In 1969, he managed to take refuge in the West. He worked in London for the BBC radio and radio Free Europe. He talked about the realities of life behind the Iron Curtain, in an Eastern Bloc state, he exposed the oppressive methods of the Communist authority.
On 7 September 1978, he was waiting for a bus, right by the Waterloo station in London, when a man poked him with his umbrella. Markov recorded only a small prick in the calf. After a while, however, he started feeling bad. The doctor found a small wound on his leg, which Markov linked to the umbrella that jabbed him. Three days later, he was dead. The autopsy revealed a microscopic ampoule in the calf that contained a deadly poison – ricin. The identities of the perpetrators were never discovered. A former Soviet agent cooperating with the Western authorities confirmed that it was most likely the KGB – perhaps working by order of the Bulgarian Communist government. The murder weapon was later called the "Bulgarian umbrella." This seemingly mundane item was furnished with a needle and a gas cartridge that allowed the user to inject poison into the victim's body.
