Have you ever wondered what happens when robots gain sentience? Take a dive deep under the ocean with us as we develop a story and discuss giant psychedelic cuttlefish, free will, photosensitive programming, and that pesky thing called creating a plot. No scuba gear required, but you might want to keep an eye out for Fish of Unusual Size.

Today’s Prompt System:

The Very Short Story Starter: 101 Flash Fiction Prompts for Creative Writing by John Gillard

What’s Been Inspiring Us Lately: 

• Turned On: Science Sex and Robots by Kate Devlin

• You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place by Janelle Shane

External Links:

• Venus is not currently water-wet

• Vampire "Death" Squid

• SeaQuest DSV (More than we remember about SeaQuest! Also, you can watch it on Peacock!)

• Boxer Crabs

• Cuttlefish use their flashing skin to hunt (and reprogram robots, according to our podcast) (video)

• Programming Bacteria With Light—Sensors and Applications in Synthetic Biology

• The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

• Ex Machina (trailer)

• “When someone asks you if you are a god, you say yes.” (video)

Music: Cherryblossom by Raptorface is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives.