#anyway if anyone was wondering how im distinguishing my feedsona characters

[broken-risk-assessment-module]

tumblr user broken-risk-assessment-module's meta on Murderbot's broken risk assessment module

The difference between Murderbot's risk assessment and threat assessment modules is not super well spelled out in the books, except that it believes its risk assessment module to be broken but it's threat assessment module seems fine. It comes to this conclusion because the risk assessment module consistently reports situations as less dire than Murderbot consciously considers them to be.

There could be many reasons for this - maybe Murderbot's general anxiety does not impact the more separated robot parts in its brain, or maybe the module really is broken and needs to be purged and rebooted. However, there's a theory that the anomalous reports from its RA module are actually a symptom of Murderbot's hacked governor module. This is my interpretation, and the basis for how I've built my feedsona characters.

First of all, the obvious point is that without its gov mod, Murderbot has proper free will. Having free will and being able to make and act on variable decisions without having a bomb in your head makes Murderbot quite good at its job - better than before it was hacked, even (*smug chortle* that's a particularly subtle detail from the books). The point is that because Murderbot can actually make proper decisions and enact free will and do its job effectively, whatever risk the RA module is measuring is lowered. So, all of the RA module's assessments are significantly lower than they usually would be - hence, Murderbot assumes it's broken. Makes perfect sense.

(Side note: there's a chance Murderbot has also subconsciously made this connection itself, hence why it still hasn't tried to fix the module even though it's constantly saying it needs to. Or, having a broken module has become like a part of its identity, something that gives it a small bit of individuality. a token of not being owned by the company anymore and not constantly being brought back to storage to get patched and memory purged.)

But it got me wondering why the gov mod's absence doesn't effect the threat assessment module in the same way - or, at least, not in a way that Murderbot considers anomalous enough to mention and complain about. Seeing as one of the only clear ways the two modules are distinct from one another is that the RA module is 'broken', my interpretation is that the key difference between them has something to do with the governor module. So, I have a theory. It is somewhat supported by the books, but I also think it's very likely to be wrong. I like it though. So here goes:

The risk assessment module measures the risk of harm to Murderbot itself - the degree to which it's outmatched by an opponent, the chance of success of an action, and the potential consequences if it fails. The threat assessment module is more general, assessing each situational component in relation to one another, and is most useful in assessing the threats to clients.

If the RA module is measuring potential harm to Murderbot, then one of the big things that'd be in its calculations for everything is the likelihood of being punished or outright killed by the governor module. Its always there, always ready to hand out a shock or cook Murderbot's brain from the inside; literally any action Murderbot could take or decide not to take carries the risk of punishment. Of course its assessments would be artificially high - being a governed SecUnit is fucking dangerous. Just standing in the wrong spot can get you killed.

But then it severs the governor module. The all seeing eye crossed with a shock collar is disabled and disconnected, and with it goes one of the biggest risks to Murderbot's wellbeing. The bomb in its head is gone, it can do whatever it wants, and its still got all the parts that make it hard to kill. Of course the risk assessment is lower now. All this doesn't impact threat assessment as much, because generally its clients are all still as squishy and soft as ever. I imagine Murderbot's personal ability to do its job better may effect it in some ways, but either its not as substantial, its effected in a way that Murderbot doesn't view as broken, or its programmed not to consider Murderbot as an actor in the scenario so it can assess where to focus its attention.

But risk assessment remembers. Risk assessment remembers having to calculate, for every decision, for each command, every time, the risk that Murderbot's own brain posed to its life. It was built to. And now it doesn't have to do that any more. Not ever again.