In the golden age of science fiction radio, when rocket ships roared forth from the warm glow of vacuum tubes, futures arrived one static-filled episode at a time, and the airwaves still carried the electric promise of tomorrow—X Minus Onequietly broadcast a revolution. On January 23, 1957, Episode 85, “Open Warfare,” adapted by Ernest Kinoy from James E. Gunn’s May 1954 Galaxy Science Fiction novelette, entered the ether. Clocking in at just over twenty-one minutes, this deceptively compact drama contained the complete architectural blueprint for the collision we are living through right now: the instant when perfect machines step onto humanity’s most profoundly human stages and declare open war on what it means to strive, to excel, to connect, to create, and to endure.

This installment of the You Have 5,000 Days ...