Love, Death, and Robots: Demon Seed (1977) and Ex Machina (2014)

This episode’s topic explores how direct relationships develop between humans and A.I., leading to questions about the nature of consciousness and the nature of love, sexuality, human emotion and bodily autonomy. Firstly we have a discussion about whether there are differences between robots and A.I. and survey some key examples of robots/A.I. throughout cinema history (01:33). Then we go on to explore one woman’s nightmare of A.I. domination in Demon Seed (24:44) and Alex Garland’s examination of human/A.I. relations (and possible robot liberation) in Ex Machina (01:01:05) . We end with some Honourable Mentions of other films about robot/computer/human relations (01:33:24).

Content Warning - this episode discusses depictions of sexual assault.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

Visit our website: https://rss.com/podcasts/scifrights/

Email us at [e-mail]

Follow us on:

Instagram

Facebook

Bluesky

Letterboxd