Future Tense Fiction: When Robots Go to War

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Justina Ireland about her short story “Collateral Damage.”

The story follows a group of soldiers deployed alongside TED, the Army’s first self-aware combat drone. TED is relentlessly efficient, quickly outpacing its human counterparts—and leaving them worried for their jobs. But when a wrong call from the clunky robot puts soldiers’ lives at risk, they realize just how hard it is to program for battlefield experience.

After the story, Ireland shares how her own time in the military shapes her writing, and why tech dreamed up in D.C. rarely reflects the needs of soldiers on the ground.

Guest: Justina Ireland, a veteran and author of books including Dread Nation, Deathless Divide, and Ophie’s Ghosts 

Story read by Joanne Lichtenstein

Podcast production by Tiara Darnell

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