This is Future Tense Fiction, a podcast featuring stories about how technology could change tomorrow.

I'm Maddie Stone.

Technology is essential to modern warfare and is often deployed in combat with the goal of keeping troops safer.

So, when a billion-dollar combat drone joins a squad, the soldiers should welcome

the help, right? No matter how much I tell myself it's fine, I have the feeling that

this bot is really, really bad news. On today's episode of Future Tense Fiction, we're bringing you a reading of Justina Ireland's

story, collateral damage.

As a veteran herself, Justina knows firsthand how pricey military tech can wind up failing those

who serve.

I don't necessarily think that everything that is given to a soldier is really there to help a soldier.

I think sometimes it's just we put money into a program and that's where it is.

That's all coming up on Future Tense Fiction. Stay with us.

This is Future Tense Fiction. I'm Maddie Stone. Every month, Slate's Future Tense Partnership with New America and Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination publishes a short story that explores how science and technology will shape our future. Now, we are bringing some of those stories to

you in a podcast that includes a conversation with the author or an expert in a related field.

There may be no institution that's more connected to emerging technology, in reality and our

collective imagination, than the military. Much of the tech that's become a part of

our everyday lives got its start in the defense industry, from microwave ovens to GPS to the

internet itself. On the battlefield, drones, robots, and smart weapons are supposed to make

fighting more precise and less dangerous for civilians

and soldiers. But in this month's story, collateral damage, a platoon discovers the unintended

risks of replacing soldiers with machines. Its author is Justina Ireland, a writer specializing

in science fiction and fantasy for young adults.

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