The political economy of speculative fiction
In an experimental episode Marshall and Stephen break down the cost of the destruction of the MCRN Donnager in James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse and what that can tell us about the future of naval warfare and planetary governance.
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Consulting legal eagles from the Hugo, Girl! help us break down the Cardassian court system as we review Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s “Tribunal”. Season 2, episode 25.
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Comradery is a worker coop building for the future. It feels like science fiction but it’s fact. We’re super excited about it and invited Ty from Comradery to tell us more about it.
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller Jr.
Consider Phlebas – Ian Banks
Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas – Bethesda Softworks
Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe
Resonate – Resonate is building a new music economy based on fairness, transparency and cooperation.
Ampled – Ampled allows artists to be directly supported by their community without intermediaries or gatekeepers (and is collectively owned by its artists and workers).
Means TV – Means TV is the world’s first worker-owned, post-capitalist streaming service.
Our fiftieth episode, we talked with Karl Schroeder. He talks about using technology to build a better world. We were reminded of his work while thinking about Comradery.
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Vedek Bareil is running for Kai of Bajor but our favourite villain, Vedek Winn, sows doubt about his suitability and encourages Kira to look into his past. Kira discovers that the man she loves may have been responsible for the death of 43 Bajoran freedom fighters.
What is Gold-Pressed Latinum worth? by EC Henry
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons took the world by storm in 2020 and continues to be a cultural touchstone. One question that gets asked over and over is whether Tom Nook is a man of the people or an oppressive capitalist exploiting your labour?
We are joined this week by Kateryna Barnes to discuss the world of Animal Crossing and to hash out if Tom is a welcome ally or an enemy to be destroyed.
Loading… Volume 13 No 22, Animal Crossing Special Issue edited by Rainforest Scully-Blaker and Emily Flynn-Jones
“Tom Nook, Capitalist or Comrade? On Nook Discourse and the Millennial Housing Crisis” by Emma Vossen
Interview with David Harvey on debt peonage
The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity by Slavoj Žižek
Difference and Repetition by Gilles Deleuze
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In “The Wire” Bashir and Garak explore the intricacies of addiction and effective methods for treatment.
In “Crossover” we are subjected to the first mirror universe episode of Deep Space Nine. Kira and Bashir accidentally visit the mirror universe and change the course of history in an alternate world.
Here’s the link to our conversation with Premee Mohamed that Stephen referenced: https://androidsandassets.ca/the-dark-sciences-in-conversation-with-premee-mohamed/
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Androids and Assets teams up with The Hugo Girl Podcast to review the 2018 novel The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.
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C.S. Malerich joins us to talk about her novella, The Factory Witches of Lowell, a story about an early unionization effort that gets a magical boost. The most important part of the struggle, though, is still solidarity.
You can get The Factory of Witches of Lowell through our Bookshop affiliate link, we get a small kickback, if you do.
Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar – This is How You Lose the Time War
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – Hard to Be A God
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We talk about Season 2 episode 18 and 19 “Profit and Loss” and “Blood Oath”. Both episodes are about being a bro: what obligations do you have to other people and how do those obligations act as incentives?
We also have our inaugural segment “Hey Fellas” where we talk to our bros and provide important life advice.
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The Androids and Assets team sits down with journalist Paris Marx of Tech Won’t Save Us to talk about the ongoing struggle for the future of technology and by extension the future of humanity.
Follow Paris and Tech Won’t Save Us on Twitter.
Paris has written articles on this topic and a few are collected here for you.
Aaron Bastani’s ‘luxury communism’ is a false future
Jeff Bezos and His Billionaire Space Fantasy
Jeff Bezos’s Vision of the Future Is Basically Blade Runner
Elon Musk Is Planning for Climate Apocalypse
Paris mentioned a whole bunch of great things to read and we’ve done our best to list them all here for you.
I Can’t Bring Myself to Stand in Line for Food Again by Mirta Ojito
Utopia, not futurism: Why doing the impossible is the most rational thing we can do by Murray Bookchin
Eco-Socialism or Bust by Thea Riofrancos, Robert Shaw, Will Speck
A Path to Democratic Socialism Means a Path To Climate Justice by Thea Riofrancos
The Green New Deal as proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin and also everything else she ever wrote.
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
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