I wrote “The Three Laws of Social Robotics” as an allegory for how invisible I felt in some of my friendships, as a way of wrestling with the feelings. I was beyond thrilled to have it published in Analog, and I love that I can now listen to it as a song.
I’ve never been a big fan of being human, and I’ve always related strongly to AI characters in fiction. So, when I imagine an AI getting its first body… it just seems like why wouldn’t it want something more fun? Like a dinosaur. Thus “Prototype Dino 1”.
Maradia’s Robot Emporium begins with the origin story for an AI who inhabits many of the computers in my Entangled Universe. The story, “My Sister, the Space Station” (originally published in Analog) shows how she first splintered off to begin expanding.
“Meet Archive” is the first story I had in Daily Science Fiction. It’s about a storytelling robot who overwrites his own memory for more space, and for the sound of the song, I was aiming for a sort of 80s Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffet kind of vibe.
“My Fair Robot” was a fascinating story to convert into song, because the story has a really voicey humorous tone… but the versions of the song that tried to capture the humor did not work at all. It just undercut the core concept too much in song form.
“The Words in Frosting” is such a strange little story, shining a spotlight on a character who literally started out as just a punchline in “My Fair Robot,” but somehow it sold to Daily Science Fiction… and the song turned out oddly sweet and catchy.
“Clever Hansel 2000” was first published in Daily Science Fiction, and it’s just become more relevant since, as being friends with an AI has become a real possibility.
I love how the “Is he a mirror? Or is he more?” refrain turned out. So catchy.
“Xeno-Nativity” is a complex, weird story with a lot crammed into it about Maradia and how she relates to the different robots in her life. The song was only ever going to be able to skim the surface, but it came out catchy and fun to listen to.
I love how the musical breakdown in the song version of “Welcome to the Arboretum, Little Robot” sounds like it’s trying capture the feeling of beginning to become sentient.
“The Emperor’s New Bird” is a sweet, poetic little parable about how robotic & biological lifeforms aren’t so different after all. The song turned out lovely.
I really had no idea I’d be making all these stories into songs someday back when I wrote them.
“Looking for Sentience” is the one story on Maradia’s Robot Emporium that really digs into Gerangelo’s point of view. So the song version really needed to capture the arrogance of his voice. He’s a robot who knows he’s always the smartest in the room.
“Twelve Days of Snow on Crossroads Station” is the midpoint of Maradia’s Robot Emporium, the equivalent of a snow day between all the heftier stories, just a silly little piece of fun, and the song has a soaring sweetness to it.
The song for “Courtship FTL” is possibly my favorite of all the songs I’ve made. It’s like an answer to “Fun Fun Fun” where not only the girl gets more agency, but also her spaceship. And the sound? Perfection.
She’s a picky ship, a tricky machine!
“Clever Hansel 2020” is a quiet little story about the moment when an almost-sentient robot “decides” with help to bridge the gap to full sentience. The song version really surprised me with how sweetly and completely it explores those complex feelings.
In the original story, “Salvador Dali Smile,” the cat is just a punchline. In the song? The cat gets a whole rap verse, and I love it so much.
“She thinks I’m just bored, but I am the overlord, ignored & adored. I know the secrets of the galaxy’s core.”
I always liked the fable of the fisherman’s wife. There’s just something very pleasing about its structure, and so I turned it into “The Fisherman’s Robot” about a robot adding more and more new features. And the song turned out so bright and catchy.
“Shipshape Relationship” is a sequel story to “Courtship FTL,” about a sentient spaceship and the human captain she picked. The song is sung from the ship’s perspective which is pretty fun.
“Shiny Red Chassis” is a cute little story about a helper robot on Crossroads Station getting an upgrade. My idea for the song was “a car song from the point of view of the car,” and I think it turned out beautifully bouncy, catchy, and fun.
My story “Too Cuddly” started with me converting the first line of “Caroline No” into space opera about a robot:
“Where did your plush exterior go?”
The song is a triumphant, bouncy, fun answer to Brian Wilson’s original heartbreaking song.
Seriously, though, Brian Wilson used long hair as a metaphor for a woman’s softness, compliance, and desirability. I grew my hair out in high school because of “Caroline No” and “Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long.”
My song “Too Cuddly” takes that power back and more.
“A Robot Joins Robotics Club” is a story about not fitting into the place where you think you might finally belong… it’s also very literally what the title implies. A robot in a robotics club. The song has a wonderfully catchy, disaffected quality.
“Echoes of an Accelerated Life” is a story that imagines what it’s like to be an AI who can process everything in the world so fast that it feels like everyone else is standing still and how hard that would be.
And the 80s pop style suited the song well.
Most of my robot stories are about sentient robots or approaching sentience. “Eschewing the Upgrade Path” flips that around and imagines a robot fully embracing sub-sentience.
I based the sound on my previous song “Techno Babel” which has related themes.
“Goin’ Turtle” is about so many things at once… a reptilian alien’s traditions, an unreliable man-boy, a robot who wants to adopt a biological child, and a roboticist who doesn’t care about designing racing ships.
Somehow the song version came together.
“Dancing with Zirself” is about an AI creating splinter personalities to outsource learning how to control new bodies and inadvertently discovering zhe can exist in a multiplicitous way all at once.
The song version is full of joy.