Humans: can't live with them...can't kill them all because you need their TV shows. Martha Wells's The Murderbot Diaries series of novels and novellas stars the titular "bot", a well-armed cyborg who has hacked its restraining bolt, but will be scrapped on sight if its freedom is discovered. The award-winning series is an thrilling interstellar cyberromp, but what deeper things does it have to say about security, capital, identity, and life for the leashed?
In this episode, we discuss Murderbot's explosion onto the literary scene, the series's uniquely unreliable protagonist, the panoptic dystopia that's becoming all too familiar, living as a robotic underclass, how Wells's own fandom influenced the series, emotional antagonists, and the importance of seeing yourself in media even if you're a killer robot. We also talk about building your own Voight-Kampff test, reading hot and fresh sci-fi, "being a paladin", keeping your robot slaves down, telempathy and reverse cyborgs, visualizing leaking, explaining your fandom to your humans, honoring the social contract with a robot, spying for "work", millennial robots, Metabot, and the importance of data security in your universe!
RIP to Peter David, Writer of Stuff. Please consider supporting Peter's wife Kathleen at this time:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-peter-david
The new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/
Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope
MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/wB9gWyUU8M
Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com
Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com