WarGames & S1M0NE

[School of Movies 2026] This is the beginning of a month-long project on films exploring humanity's relationship with Artificial Intelligence. We will take you from early estimations that veer between cautionary tales and deluded fantasies about what computers could do in the 80s through to robotics and the potential for a soul inside of a machine, and onward to the effect of Social Media and algorythimic learning upon unprepared 21st Century phone-owners. Some of the films are terrible, some are stupid, some are intriguing and a few are brilliant! Welcome to MA.I. We begin with cold war paranoia and the pitfalls of handing over total control of our nuclear arsenals to unstable mechanical systems with WarGames from 1983 and Colossus: The Forbin Project from 1970. After that, a film that presents the world's first digital actor with S1M0NE, although as you'll find out, this isn't simply the recent Hollywood anxiety over artificial people being given work over real ones, this nightmare is so much worse! Next Week: WALL-E

You can listen to WarGames & S1M0NE online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

WarGames & S1M0NE is an episode from School of Movies by Alex & Sharon Shaw.

This episode is 93:55 long.

This episode was published on May 1, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from School of Movies when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.