#''you're crying over a space sci-fi novel about a sentient ai?''

[andromeda3116]

in network effect... it's probably going to be a small moment... but when they're trying to escape the hostile planet with art's crew...

and thiago goes back for seth

like.

these are total strangers. they barely even know art. they know nothing of its crew. they got dragged here entirely against their will. they have absolutely no emotional connection to these people whatsoever, except that they are also people, and they need help, and one of them has fallen behind.

and so thiago goes back to save someone he a) has never met before, b) probably doesn't even know the name of, c) has absolutely no emotional connection to, and d) was basically conscripted into coming into horrible danger to find, when he e) had every reason and excuse not to.

he could have kept running. he was leading the others to safety, he could have leaned on that excuse. he had nothing to gain from going back, and quite possibly very much to lose.

but he went back.

because humans, at our best, are the ones who go back for each other. even when it's objectively stupid. even when there's nothing in it for us.

not everyone will do it, but enough will. enough to be a defining trait of our species: we're the brilliant idiots who run into danger to save the wounded and bring each other out to safety. even if we don't know them. just because they can't get out on their own.

that's why it's such a Big Thing in stories when a character doesn't go back -- because this is ingrained into our dna. we have come this far because we build communities. because we build upon one another. because we go back for our wounded even when it's dangerous and we could have gotten out safely and we don't even know them. that's why it's a marker of an evil person or a horribly fraught ethical situation in stories. because that is not who we are. we are not the ones who leave someone behind.

i just. i love what these books say about the nature of personhood and intelligence and love, but i also love what they say about humanity. we're not all bad. we're not our worst impulses. we are the ones who care about a sentient robot because if it can think, it's not a thing, and it deserves to be treated like a person, even if it doesn't want to be a human.

we are the ones who care. that's what makes us human.