Future Tense Fiction: Coming March 25

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2023

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When you imagine how science and technology will reshape our future, does it excite you, or scare you, or both? Each month, the Future Tense Fiction podcast will introduce you to a short work of science fiction, one that will challenge, surprise and intrigue you. Then host Maddie Stone will talk with the author to explore how their own experiences with technology—from smart weapons, to electronic pets, to virtual reality—informed their writing and their vision. That’s every month on Future Tense Fiction, a podcast from Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. See you in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Maddie Stone. I'm an environmental scientist, a journalist, and the host of the Future Tense Fiction podcast, produced by Slate, Arizona State University, and New America.
0:15.3	I spend a lot of time thinking about the future. And while I'm naturally an optimist, between the ravages
0:21.9	of climate change, future pandemics, and artificial intelligence making us all obsolete, I know
0:28.1	there's plenty to worry about. Fortunately, I also know that humans have a superpower that can
0:34.4	help steer us away from some of the more dystopian outcomes for our future,
0:38.9	our imagination. Storytelling is the playground where we can explore different possible futures,
0:46.0	utopian, dystopian, and somewhere in between, and create an emotional connection that will
0:52.0	help guide us toward a better tomorrow. Each month, future tense fiction will bring you a story that hopes to do just that,
0:59.0	read by an actor and followed by a conversation with its author.
1:03.0	And while the stories are as diverse as their writers, they all have one thing in common.
1:09.0	They explore how tech that's emerging today could dramatically reshape tomorrow.
1:15.2	This season, you'll hear from thought-provoking authors like Justina Ireland about the relationship
1:20.6	between a military robot and the soldiers it's meant to replace.
1:24.7	I don't think necessarily we can program a robot to inspire loyalty when we can't even do that
1:28.9	well consistently ourselves.
1:31.1	And from Annalie Newitz, about the complex world of health surveillance.
1:35.7	Robot got lucky because Robot had one of the few programmers out there who was like, you know,
1:41.2	I'm aware that there aren't just like middle class and rich white people using this device.
1:46.8	Plus, David Iserson, who will tell us about love, fate, and life in a simulation.
1:53.6	I think it's just that when you are offering people the opportunity to know the truth, the truth is not always appealing,
2:04.9	and that is outside of her control. Along the way, we'll also cover AI, climate change,
2:11.7	gig work, and even haunted houses. And we'll discuss how science fiction can help us imagine better futures. Future tense
	...

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