Hello, SFIA audio listeners, in this month's Nebula exclusive, Big Alien Theory,

we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and add free, plus hours of bonus content, check

out go.nebola.t.v.tv slash Isaac Arthur, and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

We all hope for a peaceful future, but if not, I think we could settle for a future where we went to battle in giant robots to fight huge alien bug monsters or endless legions

of Android curebots.

So welcome back to another sci-fi Sunday here on SFIA, and I'm your host, Isaac Arthur.

Today's topic is a popular one in science fiction, the notion of either robot battlesuits or drones,

or automated tanks, fighter jets, and so on.

It is worth noting that this is not just sci-fi anymore. We've been using robots

in our wars this entire century, and even a bit before, and with increasingly greater usage and

wider roles, so I thought we would look both at the modern and near future options, and more

distant future options. Some years back, we did a look at the topic of giant robots and power suits to examine

the basic idea of people wearing powered armor or piloting big robots, but I felt that

could use some updates, and more detailed looks, which we'll be doing both today and next

Thursday in our Dropships episode.

But it's not really terribly likely, that

would be the main role of robots on the battlefield, as some combat suit or vehicle, which

is a good place to begin. For every soldier or combat unit you've got in an actual combat

role with guns and armor, you've got the robots doing field support activities, recon, or

even back home building your equipment.

Robots in factories are already a game changer in warfare because they allow the ultra-high

...