Fugitive Telemetry
{4.5/5} “It’s usually easy to make friends with low-level bot pilots, but this one had been coded to be adversarial, directed to operated in stealth mode, and was wary of incursion attempts. It tried to alert its onboard SecSystem, but a the old saying (which I just made up) goes, if you can ping the […]
The Acolyte (season 1)
{3.5/5} “A scandal like this would inspire fear and mistrust. We should handle this ourselves.” The Acolyte season 1, aired in 2024 Osha works as a meknek on a Trade Federation ship — she goes outside on the hull to fix problems. She previously trained as a Jedi. Someone matching her description has taken her […]
Foe
{5/5} “Do you want to live mundane lives like everyone else, or do you want to be part of something special and unique?” Foe, released in 2023 Hen and Junior live on a farm that’s been in Junior’s family for generations, but they don’t do any farming. One night a man named Terrance comes by […]
Network Effect
{4.5/5} “If you put everything that had happened to me on a scale of awfulness and assigned exact values to each incident (which I had done once, it’s in my archive somewhere) dealing with corporates who exploited failed colonies, and probably went through SecUnits as fast a Amena did fried vegetable crunchy things, was in […]
The Lazarus Project (season 2)
{4.5/5} “That’s not a ‘don’t worry, everything’s OK’ siren, is it?” The Lazarus Project season 2, aired in 2023 George gave Sarah the serum so now she’s in the loop, and Wes has hired her. George, on the other hand, has been fired — but he’s still trying to help solve the problem. They’re trying […]
WALL-E
{5/5} “Try blue — it’s the new red!” WALL-E, released in 2008 WALL-E compacts garbage and puts it into neat piles. When one of his parts is broken he takes one from a machine that’s no longer functional. He and his friend, a cockroach, seem to be the only beings left on Earth — everyone […]
Exit Strategy
{5/5} “I knew interpreting the emotional subtext in the speech and appearance of real humans was completely different from interpreting it in shows and serials… But the interpretation I wanted to make of Bharadwaj’s vid statement was that Mensah was being held by GrayCris, who had threatened her life if Preservation didn’t make a formal […]
Rogue Protocol
{5/5} “I considered telling Miki that I was here to collect data on possible alien remnant violations by GrayCris… But if Miki told Abene, she would ask how it knew, and I knew Miki would tell her about me. It wouldn’t lie to a direct question. Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present […]
Artificial Condition
{5/5} “I told myself I still looked like a SecUnit without armor, hopelessly exposed, but the truth was I did look more human. And now I knew why I hadn’t wanted to do this. It would make it harder for me to pretend not to be a person.” Artificial Condition by Martha Wells, published in […]
All Systems Red
{5/5} “So I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m […]