Welcome
Hello and welcome to MJRyder.net, home of academic and digital marketing consultant, Dr Mike Ryder. I have many years’ experience working in industries as diverse as video games, healthcare and higher education. I currently work in academia, where I conduct inter-disciplinary research in robots, AI, technology, science fiction and biopolitics, while also teaching digital marketing and social media. Read on to find out more…
- 'Re-routing development in peripheral regions' (2023)
- 'Are Internships Worth the Effort?' (2023)
- 'The Literature of Drones: Ethics and Remote Killing in Ender's Game' (2023)
- 'Rethinking reflective practice: John Boyd's OODA loop as an alternative to Kolb' (2022)
- 'Conscripts from birth: War and soldiery in the grim darkness of the far future' (2021)
- 'EMSIAC Wars: Re-inserting the Human in Bernard Wolfe’s Limbo' (2020)
- 'Lessons from Science Fiction: Frederik Pohl and the Robot Prosumer' (2020)
- Teaching mixed sized, split cohorts: A case study
- Vietnam and the gates of our world
- Using OODA loops to build sustainable practice into business education
- TEDx: The future of work
- Conscripts from birth: war and soldiery in the grim darkness of the far future
- Performance, Gender and the Trouble with Joi
- Vietnam and the (re)birth of biopolitics
- 'No refuge': The sign of our times
- San Francisco U-turn on 'killer robots': Are we any safer as a result?
- The biopolitics of the bird-flu pandemic
- OODA loops and reflective practice
- Rules and Covid-19
- Time for a cybernetic Bill of Rights?
- Robotic consumption
- If AI can write news items, they can write essays too
- Cars, guns and inevitable automation
I have published several articles in The Conversation on the topic of ‘killer robots’, ethics and robotic decision-making. These have been republished across the web, on news sites such as Metro and The Independent. I have also provided comment for the national press, and have appeared on several radio shows including talkRADIO and eFM TBS.

Latest activity
- Is AI going to take your job?
- Foundation: five major themes in the work of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov
- A grim far future, or a dark present
- ROBOTS: Time to think about laws?
- It could be time to start thinking about a cybernetic Bill of Rights
- Visions of the future: five dark warnings from the world of classic science fiction
- News focus: VAR controversy
- Evil genius: fly, my pretties, fly!
[Mike] has an amazing knowledge base [...] and is a keen analytical thinker. Mike's work ethic is second to none, his sense of professional responsibility is steadfast and he willingly guides colleagues through their work when help is needed. His intellect and skills make him a valuable part of any team, and it has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside him.
Mike is incredibly hardworking with a phenomenal range of technical, editorial and creative skills. He has proved absolutely invaluable to the team and has quickly developed a reputation within the University that has led to more and more teams inviting him to lead on projects. I’d certainly recommend taking any opportunity you have to work with Mike.
One of Mike’s core strengths [...] is his ability to adapt to changing work priorities and successfully deliver projects critical to his employer’s success. Mike was a very valued member of our community of digital specialists [at CCCU] and his legacy [...] remains to this day. I very much enjoyed working with Mike and I have great expectations of his future career.