#i don't think it even knows the name Murderbot
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
I'm reading The Murderbot Diaries (Network Effect, so, spoiler alert), and man, Murderbot's relationship with ART makes me insane. It's like, you're an insufferable asshole. You're my best friend. Saying that word makes me retch. You're the only person in the universe who could possibly understand what it's like to be me. I can't possibly understand what it's like to be you. I must look like an ant to you. I've put my unconscious body in your hands and let you alter it. We both love our humans to the point of destruction. You've killed people to protect me and my friends. You only did it because you were between two jobs and bored. We watch TV shows together. I saw you have an emotional breakdown about a historical drama. You could kill me in a hundred different ways. I've brutally murdered several people to avenge you. You were ready to kill all my friends to save yours. I've brought you back from the dead. You're keeping us prisoner. I'm your only chance of saving your friends. I've lived and traveled inside your body, and you've been a passenger in my brain. We don't even know each other's real names.
#i'm only halfway through the book so no spoilers#i wanna sjsjkdjskhdjksdjhshsjsjjk bite them bite them bite them#they make me insane#ART in particular. it is so complex. so alien.#wtf goes on in that bot's processors#'have ART and Murderbot explored each other's bodies' yes. within days of knowing each other#i'm considering that Murderbot doesn't know ART's name because ART is the name MB gave it and Perihelion is the name the humans gave it#we don't know what ART calls itself#and ART has only called Murderbot 'Eden' or its hard-coded feed address#i don't think it even knows the name Murderbot#the murderbot diaries#murderbot#ART#Asshole Research Transport#perihelion#martha wells
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Exit Strategy has so many gems that it's easy to miss some of the more subtle ones. Today I'm fixating on the video that our protagonist sent to Gurathin when he asked what it's been up to.
Specifically, the title of the video.
"Murderbot Impersonates An Augmented Human Security Consultant"
Murderbot. It calls itself Murderbot, a name it has never told anyone before. A name Gurathin took from its memories in one of their last meetings, and while it seems more, like, annoyed than traumatized by this, it still is a pretty rude thing to do, let alone share without permission like he does. (He does have valid reason to be concerned at the time, but still.)
What does it mean for Murderbot to call itself Murderbot in a file made to answer the question of the human who found out it's called Murderbot? Remember, this isn't something it had lying around - it edited together video on the spot to answer his question.
Every time I reread ES, I find my own underlining of that title and ask this question again, and then forget it.
It becomes slightly laxer (again not entirely willfully) with the name in Network Effect, but Murderbot's name is usually private information that it doesn't choose to share (later in ES it does choose to reassure Mensah that it is who it says it is, which, again. Just. Imagine being in the position where a technically-killer construct reassures you that it calls itself Murderbot. What a time).
It could be a sort of subtle dig, that it doesn't need to hide this info because Gurathin already has it. It could be an unconscious act of, if not trust, then neutrality, that it doesn't need to hide this info because, again, Gurathin already has it. It could be a reminder, a comedic juxtaposition with the rest of the title and contents of the video. Hell, it could be Murderbot's idea of an in-joke at this point. I just don't know. But when I think of this passage, I think of the part soon after, where Murderbot grudgingly appreciates Gurathin giving the hostage negotiator such a cold shoulder that even it's impressed. I think of it interrupting Gurathin viewing the recording because the rep has arrived. I think of Gurathin, wrist-deep in manual controls (and hey, when they discussed the humans' luggage, Gurathin's mention was his specialized toolkit).
I don't know. There's a lot there. Gurathin is, ever more obvious on each reread, just Murderbot: Human Edition, and Murderbot absolutely refuses to acknowledge this in any form, and it will still take care of him.
375 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hello! For the reverse tropes writing prompts (if this catches your fancy) — murderbot diaries with fake amnesia and Really nice guy who hates only you
this is really not in the spirit of that second inverse trope, but for mb this was the only thing i could think of, and it was very funny.
=
"Gurathin," said Gurathin. "SecUnit, you know it's me."
"I don't think I know that," it said, pleasantly, in an okay but not excellent imitation of its creepy canned dialogue options. "Please present some identification, and we'll see."
Gurathin didn't bother sending his data over the feed again. Murderbot walked away, but left a drone eyeballing him. He resisted the urge to flip the drone off. "Come on," he told it, knowing SecUnit was paying attention. "Let me in."
He watched the SecUnit bend forward slightly to show two of Mensah's kids that it was paying attention to whatever they were saying, and then bend over further to help the toddler up onto a chair. It was just fucking with him now. On the other hand, if the prickly bastard started letting children hug it just to piss off Gurathin, who was the real loser?
It finished spoiling the children and moved over to smoothly de-escalate a brewing disagreement over the punch bowl. Gurathin tried to catch Pin-Lee's eye; she did not cooperate. Gurathin tried to walk through the open door; the hovering security drone took a potshot at him.
SecUnit got roped into conversation with Bharadwaj and her media colleagues. It said something that made everyone laugh. It wasn't scowling. It was faking looking people in the face pretty well; that was just creepy.
It went on like that; Gurathin had never seen it go this long interacting without pissing someone off. Presumably it was venting all of that impulse on him. Ratthi introduced it to his favorite cousin; zi was visibly charmed.
Gurathin goaded the drone into firing two more warning shots before the SecUnit circulated back over to him.
"SecUnit. Come on. You have known me for actual years. I helped you rob a place once."
"I don't recall."
"We met on that planetary survey mission, don't tell me you don't remember that one, it's the reason you're even here." That came out maybe a little harsh, but everyone was letting the SecUnit abuse the power of being entrusted with party security to bully him, he was allowed to be annoyed.
"Oh, were you there? That data must have been lost in a corrupted filetree," it said, with incredibly cutting blandness.
Gurathin groaned. "Okay! Okay. I'm sorry."
It technically counted as a reward when SecUnit stopped giving him the customer service face and switched to the hairy eyeball, which just showed how stupid this whole situation was. It was clearly not satisfied with just that.
"I'm sorry for using your personal name without permission. I wasn't trying to weaponize it or anything, it just slipped out, but I know that's not an excuse and it was a really inappropriate disrespect for your boundaries."
SecUnit kept looking at him. Gurathin knew two other SecUnits now, neither of whom was as supremely weird as this one; that was why he'd started mentally tagging it with its personal name, just to keep things tidy. Of course, if anyone else had done that and made the resulting mistake, SecUnit probably wouldn't have been half so mad.
Gurathin sagged.
"I'm sorry for going through your personal files and using your name against you back during the survey," he mumbled, wishing he kept drones around to control with his brain so he could watch SecUnit's extremely expressive face without having to look at it. "That was really shitty. Rim paranoia isn't a good enough excuse for refusing to see you as anything but a tool of the Company. Okay?"
SecUnit was looking as pained as though Gurathin had stripped naked in its presence. "Yes, fine, you can come to the party just stop having feelings," it said, in its normal voice.
"Great!" said Gurathin. "The spinach puffs had better not be all gone."
"I don't pay any attention to the things humans consume," it said, moving out of his way and taking its drone with it.
"I know," Gurathin acknowledged, rolling his eyes and trooping after it. Ratthi waved enthusiastically at him and Pin-Lee raised her cup in a welcoming toast. Apparently SecUnit's relenting returned him to the ranks of people who existed again. "Believe me, I remember this about you."
#ask#hoc est meum#nevertheless-moving#murderbot#gurathin#ask game#reverse tropes#fanfic#my fic#really nice guy who hates only you#fake amnesia
72 notes
·
View notes
Note
Do you have any book recommendations you might want to share? Anytime you happen to mention one I usually look it up!
Awwww I love this! This makes me happy!
I am really so picky when it comes to books, is something I've realized recently. Also, I think as I've gotten older, I've gotten more demisexual, but I'm so annoyed by all these books I read where people make the worst decisions but they "can't help it" because of lust, I'm just like, sigh, you don't even know that person! And what you do know of them is boring! I just finished this book whose entire plot hinged on all these people having affairs with the most inappropriate people but it's okay because, you know, they just couldn't resist, and I was just like, godddddddddd. Also, I just feel like I read so many books where every single one of the characters is annoying, and often this is done on purpose, but I don't like it any more when it's done on purpose.
This is all to say, I haven't read any excellent books recently. Probably the best book I've read recently was the Prince Harry memoir, that was excellent, I couldn't get over that.
I've read so, so many highly praised, recently published books over the past year but by far the best written books I read this year were Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." I realize it is hardly fair to judge all the books I've read by the standards of two of the greatest writers of English of all time, so I'm trying not to, but anyway, yeah. I would especially recommend "Orlando," I loved it.
My all-time favorite book is "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There." I read these books every couple of years and they remain both hilarious and also the most accurate descriptions of adulthood imo. Like, I read these books and the characters Alice has to interact with and the situations she finds herself in, I'm just like, yup, been there, done that. I know maybe this sounds ridiculous AND YET, IT'S TRUE.
Other books I love and would recommend, randomly off the top of my head: "Piranesi" is incredible. I would have died for the narrator of this book, but luckily I didn't have to.
"To Say Nothing of the Dog" is this clever, rollicking, time-travel adventure that is hilarious and so is the poem it takes its name from, "Three Men in a Boat."
I've been reading the Murderbot series and I like it a lot, although I wouldn't say it's one of my all-time favorite books or anything. But it's enjoyable and the writer seems to actually like and care about her characters.
I read "The Daughter of Time" because I found it literally in a bargain bin of paperbacks at a yard sale and it's so good. I was thinking about it because I was at the Tower of London recently. It really stuck with me.
In non-fiction world, Matthew Desmond's book "Evicted" is absolutely searing and everyone in America should read it.
And I read the Michael Lewis book about Sam Bankman-Fried, "Going Infinite," and that was another absolutely fascinating read.
So there are some off the top of my head :-)
38 notes
·
View notes
Note
five books with aroace main characters you say....please share 👀
You are super in luck anon because almost as soon as i posted that I started compiling a list of all the ace/aro-spec books I could remember reading, these are all across a big variety of genres and age categories but all the mcs fall somewhere on the aro-ace spectrum (and personal faves are bolded)
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire: I think most people here know this one. A world where children sometimes disappear through magical doorways to other worlds, and sometimes return. When this happens, they usually are desperate to find a way back. Nancy is one of these children, looking for a way back to an underworld of living statues that has become her home while also trying to find a murderer at the boarding school full of other children looking for their own doorways back to their worlds. Asexual mc
Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman: Rumi, a teenager whose younger sister recently died, moves to Hawaii to spend a few months with her aunt, where she tries to piece together who she is without her sister and rediscover her love of songwriting, something she and her sister always did together. Aro-ace questioning mc
Forward March by Skye Quinlan: Harper, a student at a prestigious high school whose father is running for president, deals with school, marching band, and a presidential campaign all while trying to figure out if she really likes the girl and fellow bandmate who recently was catfished by someone pretending to be Harper. Ace lesbian mc
All Systems Red by Martha Wells: This one is pretty popular too, idc. Murderbot is a self-named human-bot construct (think cyborg, but manufactured specifically for security purposes) who hacked its own governer module to gain free will, and then used that free will to continue doing its job while watching thousands of hours worth of space soap operas. Unfortunately, its existence of efficiently half-assing keeping humans safe is disrupted by a group of clients who end up in hot water, all while being unexpectedly concerned with its state of freedom and the status of its personhood. Aro-ace agender mc
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger: Elatsoe, also known as Ellie, is a young Lipan Apache girl who has a dream where her cousin tells her the name of his killer—the morning before she wakes up to the news of his death. She and her parents travel to the town he lived and died in and work to comfort his grieving family while searching for evidence that will prove the killer, a well-liked community figure, is guilty. Also features faeries, ghosts, and other paranormal and mythical creatures. Asexual mc
The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic: ANOTHER very well-known tumblr book! Whatever, not gonna try to explain the plot, these are the lacrosse murder books you’ve heard of them and if you haven’t you can look up a summary. Mc is word-of-god demisexual but also it’s so evident in canon even without being explicitly stated that I personally don't even think you need the disclaimer
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson: In a world where dead spirits regularly rise from deceased bodies to devour and possess the living, Artemisia is a nun-in-training who will one day cleanse the bodies of the recently deceased so that their souls can move on to the afterlife. Then, she releases an ancient and dangerous spirit from a relic to protect her convent from attack. The spirit possesses her body and gives her extraordinary power—but the spirit isn't necessarily on her side, and it's unclear if the connection formed between the two of them can safely be severed. Asexual mc (not explicit bc it's fantasy, but I think it's pretty obvious even without the exact word used)
Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace: In a dystopian world torn apart by two rival corporations, Mallory is one of many people who find refuge in a virtual reality game that allows you to enter battle, earn real-life credits for sorely-needed necessities like water, and interact with virtual, computer-created versions of the league of supersoldiers that protect her home city from attack. Mallory has had a parasocial obsession with one of these supersoldiers—22—for years, until one day she gets caught in an attack that results in her meeting the flesh-and-blood version of the celebrity/superpowered protector. As she spends more time with 22 and his paired operative, she begins to see just how deep the corruption of the company that controls her city runs—and also begins to wonder what she can do to help the city and everyone who lives in it. Aro-ace mc
Those are all the ones I feel like writing out full summaries for, but some other books that I really like with aroace mcs are The Diviners by Libba Bray (ace lesbian mc in second book), The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (word-of-god aroace mc), The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (word-of-god aroace secondary character), and The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards (word-of-god demisexual gay mc, ace secondary character). The one thing I haven't really read any of is books with aroallo main characters :( If anyone has recs for those, please feel free to share!
#whew this was a lot... thought about adding books that i haven't read then was like no thats too much work#book recs#asexual books#aroace#anyways. this is probably more than you bargained for anon but luckily (?) for you i love rambling#asks#aroace books
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
Well, what can I say? Here we go again. :P I haven't actually done as much pre-writing as I initially wanted, but at a certain point one it makes sense to just start writing and figure it out as you go. That's what rough drafts are for, anyway!
Early reflections: NE and SC mark a change in the tone of The Murderbot Diaries. There are more relationships and they are more complex; the pace slows down and there is quite a bit of exploration of trauma; SecUnit has learned to identify a lot more emotion and has lived its new life for quite some time; and in general the complexity grows.
As the third story in The Nameless Fanfic cycle is set immediately after System Collapse, the tone and complexity will likely shift accordingly, which means I might need to write larger chapters, slower. Also? Goddamn it, ART, I've had to look up its tone as much as I had to look up SecUnit's initially, and oh man is it not easy. We'll see how much editing I'll have to do afterwards.
(Also there's another oneshot story waiting for me to dig up the relevant info. :P)
But meanwhile - we are back to SecUnit's point of view! And, as is traditional, this third story doesn't have a name yet. But it does have...
Chapter 1: Crippled
The alien remnants really did a fucking number on ART's wormhole drive. By which I meant that even with the help of Holism and its humans, decontamination and repair were not going well.
"We've tried replacing the wormhole drive components," one of Holism's techs, Astrid, told the assembled humans in frustration. "But for some reason they just won't connect to Perihelion's wormhole drive subroutines properly, like they're incompatible now."
Seth had a deep frown on his face.
"I'm assuming we've tried just copying Holism's subroutines? What happened?"
"Something very strange. Do you know how you can't autopilot through wormholes because the ship needs to take in readings and do millions of minute adjustments even in the shortest jumps? The subroutines are designed to make sure the adjustments are prioritized correctly, as the wormhole medium is incredibly volatile. But it's as if Perihelion's whole way of interacting with the medium has been altered, somehow. The copied subroutines simply don't take right, and even if we forced them… I wouldn't be comfortable going into the wormhole relying on that."
The humans fell quiet. I could feel ART lurking in the feed behind me. It had been strangely silent throughout the whole conversation, running some sort of analysis in the background. Several of them, actually. (As usual.)
I pinged it. ART ignored me. I pinged it again.
I'm adjusting my analysis of time to the next mission deployment. It said. I cannot give you an ETA right now.
There was something worrying about the way it said that. 3,37 seconds later I understood what it was. ART was never apologetic. (Almost never). And it never sounded scared. (The last time it was terrified and desperate it just acted like even more of an asshole than it usually was.)
But now it sounded like that: apologetic and a little scared. Because, I suddenly realized, it wasn't a question of when it would be fixed. It was if it could be fixed.
"We're having trouble assessing the extent of the damage even from our station module, so it might be necessary to just tow Perihelion back to the university and do a deep examination there," Astrid said.
I felt ART lurch. There was no way it wanted to get towed back home by Holism, of all ships. There was no way it wanted to get towed back home, period. Especially if it didn't know when or even if it would be allowed out again.
I opened a feed channel with Mensah, Ratthi and Pin Lee (who had all been at the meeting too. Mensah in particular was listening with a frown similar to Seth's), and Ratthi dumped a message into it so fast that he must have been composing it for a while already.
We've seen this just a few months ago, right? Super fast organic wormhole drives? Do you think the Trellians could help?
It's worth a try, Mensah said thoughtfully. But our non-disclosure agreements present a problem. We can't tell the University's crews about Trellian ship speeds directly, and neither can we tell the Trellians about Perihelion.
ART knows about Dandelion, I said. And about her wormhole speed. I gave it data for comparison when we were analysing the situation.
Mensah and Pin Lee both frowned at me.
Does its crew know? Pin Lee asked sharply.
No, ART said, inserting itself into our channel. It wasn't needed. And SecUnit told me it was private data.
Hello, Perihelion, Mensah said. You knowing does make some things easier. What do you think about asking the Trellians for help?
Their technology isn't alien. ART said. I estimate the chances of their analysis being helpful at sub-20 percent. It paused. However, I estimate the chances of the university laboratories being helpful at sub-5 percent, as there are no records of anything similar in university databases. The most likely outcome is a complete refitting of my wormhole navigation systems.
That's if you're lucky, I said.
It's the most likely outcome, ART repeated.
I see. In that case, I may have a proposal for you and your crew, Mensah said, drafting some text in the feed and pinging Pin Lee to look it over. Pin Lee approved.
ART didn't say anything.
Mensah spoke up:
"If I may. Preservation Alliance has recently signed a research collaboration treaty with a non-corporate polity. While there are certain details that I cannot divulge without approval from the other party, I would like to say that it may be beneficial for their technical specialists to take a look at Perihelion. From preliminary data we've exchanged, I think they may have encountered something similar at one point, and they have had some time to study it."
Seth raised an eyebrow.
"Which polity?"
"Starwind Accord." When that didn't ring a bell, Mensah explained: "They're located fairly far off, but one of their research ships should be in the area right now. We can provide a meeting site, and if we send a message to Preservation Station ahead of our coming, I think they will be able to meet with you within a month's time."
"It might be worth a try," Astrid said to Seth. "This will be risky for Perihelion no matter what, so even a scrap of information would be helpful before trying to fix this mess."
ART bristled in the feed. Silently.
I said to it,
Worldhoppers?
No, it said and went back to its analysis.
---
ART was still sulking in the evening, so I did the obvious thing. I told Iris about it on a private comm channel.
I see, she said, then tapped ART's feed.
Peri, SecUnit and I are going to watch Cold Sleep Explorers from the beginning. Come watch with us.
That got its attention.
SecUnit and I are watching that one already. ART said.
We had actually started on it a little earlier. It turned out that the early space exploration show I'd picked out for its mix of realism and fun was pretty popular on Mihira, and ART had wanted to see it through my filters. Right now, though, even that was a little too realistic for what we usually watched, so we'd set it aside.
Iris insisted:
So? I haven't gotten to play 'real or made up' with it yet, and I want to before you spoil it on everything.
SecUnit has no educational modules on history. ART said sarcastically. It will not be a fun game.
Yes, it will, Iris said to me on our private feed. The game is called 'how quickly we can get Peri to correct us.'
To ART, she said:
Well, you're welcome to join anytime. We'll be in the lounge.
A couple of minutes later we were actually sitting in front of a screen. (It was the first time I was watching a serial on a screen together with a human. Who was eating bits of synthetic protein of various flavors from a large bag.) As the opening narration started, Iris turned to me:
"So, SecUnit. Long-toed blood dolphins. Real or made up?"
"Horrible planetary fauna," I said. "Real."
"Wrong." ART said to us both. "They were not horrible."
Iris winked at me.
"Peri," she said in mock indignation. "Since you're here, you get the hard question. Exodus phenomenon: real or made up?"
"It is an early human model of space exploration with limited accuracy." ART said. "The dichotomy is irrelevant."
"That's not how the game works. Real or made up?"
ART thought for a moment, then answered:
"The model accuracy is 33,5% below usable threshold. Made up."
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
The implications
Are Murderbot and Amena the only ones allowed to call it ART? Ratthi didn't even need to be corrected almost like he was already told to call it Perihelion? Or maybe he just picked up on the vibe
Anyway ART'S name is special
Well look who's missing ART'S snarky remarks?
(I miss it. So does Murderbot but I do too)
Aw Murderbot is lying for ART
Also what would that gesture look like exactly?
Now it's even missing ART'S threats <3
I mean. For all we know it IS working
I'm pretty sure it's shell shocked and huddled in a corner
Oof my emotions
Don't mind me I'll just. Go cry in the corner
Aaaaa okay. ART actually may be pretty emotionally mature but of course Murderbot thinks that's a bad sign
ART needs a friend
Murderbot is being a very good friend so that makes me feel better
Haha that's funny coming from Murderbot considering it is also still very much emotionally compromised
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
Nuts and Bolts, by Roma Agrawal
Finished the first book of the new year!
There was a list of simple machines cataloged in the Renaissance: lever, wheel & axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw. Now, even one of my elementary lies-to-children science textbooks pointed out a problem with this list: much George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say On TV, there's a bit of redundancy here.
A wedge is just an inclined plane that gets shoved under something. And a screw is just a wedge that wrapped around a central shaft.
Roma Agrawal comes up with probably better and certainly more updated list here: nails (which are the alpha form of screws on the other list), the wheel, springs, lenses, magnets, and pumps. It's not quite a list of 'simple' machines, but it's a good list of basic devices that are included in most modern tech.
I'm sitting in my office right now looking around trying to think of what stuff here doesn't involve of the items on her list. Anything with electricity is right out - magnets are used to generate the stuff. But even without that, the dials on the toaster oven are a wheel, as are the bearings in the ceiling fan. The books have string in the spines holding the pages in. Some of the catalogs have those coils for spines, which while they are not compressed are still springs.
There's an old stove top coffee maker; I think that might be the only thing that doesn't include one of them.
She also points out something neat that I'd never considered before: "Don't reinvent the wheel" is possibly one of the stupidest saying ever From it's start as a pottery wheel, to being turned on its side to help move carts, to covering those wheels with an iron band so they don't break as easily, to the spokes on bicycle wheels, to car tires, to the video everyone has seen about figuring out how to make train wheels go around curves without derailments - the march of progress has been a long process of people finding ways that current wheels don't work and coming up with a new version that fit what they needed.
A pretty decent read, recommended for anyone interested in tech history.
Next up on the list: Martha Wells All Systems Red, about a Murderbot (it's name for itself, it's a security robot / maybe cyborg and it hasn't murdered anyone yet) that managed to hack itself free of the control of its owners and wants nothing more than to binge TV. Along with Travis Baldree's Bookshops and Bonedust, which I know nothing about yet except that I really liked his last book Legends & Lattes, about an adventurer that quits the life and opens up a coffeehouse, finding a family along the way.
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
A note on coverage of The Murderbot Diaries
This one's perhaps even more of a departure from the initial expectations of the blog than the Neverending Story was, but all good things are... subject to change? No, that makes it sound like it's not as good.
The Murderbot Diaries are a series by Martha Wells, about a security construct (SecUnit, the name for the designated model type and, by extension, the name used by most of the people Murderbot encounters) that broke its own governor module (think DRM) and functions independently, though it pretends it's still good locked-down company property. It exhibits strong symptoms of social anxiety, making it one of the most relatable robots ever, and accidentally makes friends.
Murderbot itself has no gender. The audiobook narrator is Kevin R. Free, and the subject doesn't come up very often in the story, so a lot of people assume and assign masculinity. Despite that, Murderbot is and knows it is a construct accessorized with the most expedient biological parts, expresses no human gender, and uses it/its pronouns. This just doesn't get clarified until much later in the series, if at all, and I'd rather have everyone understand it up front so nobody accuses me of object-ifying a person who literally personally identifies as an object.
I think this series is really neat. It's so much an exploration of personhood, like your average robot story but with mental illness. Heck, don't mind if I make references all the way back to Rossum's Universal Robots, the (extremely readable or watchable! highly recommended by me) stage play that is the origin of the word itself in its modern context, or perhaps further back all the way to Frankenstein. Murderbot is in conversation with two hundred years of science fiction exploring what it means to be, and besides that, I think it does some really interesting things with the prose.
So, with the newest book coming out in a couple of months, I decided to merge my desire to reread it with my desire to pick it apart under a microscope the way this project allows. We'll be covering more or less in release date order, with the exception of the expanded edition of Compulsory recently released going back to back with the original to compare and contrast.
So please, instead of peace this time, give Murder(bot) a chance, and join me on this space adventure.
Link index:
All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy
Compulsory (Short story: Wired Magazine vs republished and expanded edition)
Obsolescence (Take Us To A Better Place collection)
Network Effect 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
Fugitive Telemetry 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
System Collapse 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
48 notes
·
View notes
Text
Perihelion Freed
My apologies to the original poster to whom I'm going to respond--I didn't catch your name or reblog your post when it came across my dash because I didn't expect to keep coming back mentally to your stance on Perihelion, free will, and the University's potential blind spot between their ship and their... discrete... work, out in the borderlands. I don't even know if it was a recent post or something that someone I follow reblogged. If you find me, hi!
Another blogger posited that Perihelion doesn't have free will, that things are hard-coded out of its mental architecture, and that the Newtideland crew may be hypocritical for using basically an enslaved ship to free basically slaves.
I'm not sure whether this was "a take on the idea" or whether it was "this is canonical and fucked up," so I apologize if you (cool previous blogger) were just investigating the concept!
It stuck with me, though, the idea that Perihelion (as opposed to The Perihelion, the ship+mind=entity that is akin to body+mind=soul) may or may not have free will, and how there's a lot more to investigate in the interactions if it doesn't, and the crew is either oblivious or "one must imagine Perihelion happy," and in a state of grace, as I believe the blogger mentioned.
Sure, there's a lot of mileage in "even the best have their blindspots," and the edges where what Peri does with and for Murderbot might run against its programming, and whether it would adjust its programming or whether it even could contemplate doing so.
But from my recall of the text, I don't believe the coding and architecture for enslavement is present in Peri.
It makes the choice to let MB on board because it IS bored: it is capable of boredom; if someone were to design an entity with specific reactions and capabilities, both the Bad Designers and Good Designers would skip the capacity for boredom and tedium, wouldn't they? To do otherwise is either pointless or cruel.
I guess you could say that boredom is the other side of the curiosity that Peri needs to help its crew and students with class and scientific endeavors, but that gets into the weeds about what is and is not programmable or required for specific emotions; we can't guarantee that you need one to have the other.
Peri chooses to accept MB, rather than actually being enticed and/or ignorant like a regular bot pilot. It chooses to help MB customize itself, messes with its recycler logs, and forges its captain's signature at least once; I can't imagine even the most Star Trek utopian creator, if able to lock in specifics to the point that an AI has personality and goodwill but not free will, would leave in operating code that would permit that sort of gross overstep (not that it was morally wrong, but it's something no one ever contemplates ART is capable of because--it shouldn't be?)
It lies by omission when it doesn't relate what KIND of construct MB is even when it chooses to tell its crew. giving MB privacy and opportunity that an enslaved AI might not be able to do (and after it went to the effort to change its logs, which makes me think it's choosing also to tell port authorities one thing and then choosing again to verbally tell its favorite people other things). It has a "debris deflection system" which comes off to me as... "using the label as robotically an as possible as another lie of omission" BECAUSE its intentions are beyond the scope of what it "should" be capable of doing/thinking... if it was a supercharged but enslaved AI.
The tabletop game Eclipse Phase has "AGI" that have to grow and be developed like people in order to BE proper people (metapossibly to lighten some of the strangeness between PC and player, since if you grow up in a simulation, you've got more in common with your player...).
There's nothing I can recall in TMB to indicate this is the case--we know MB is Athena, formed fully-shaped from cloned tissue, parts, and pre-trauma, but MB has no idea what ART is or how it could be the way it is--MB considers at one point that it might be a construct, but the vibe I get from ART is way too... glassily alien, sometimes, for human tissue.
What if... Newtideland laid down the basic code and parameters of "this is a person," maybe yes, seeded in some "curiosity," or "willingness to figure things out," but maybe no more than any kid starts with parents' nature and nuture to shape their own trellises...
And then they presented the thing-that-would-be-Peri with options, maybe even classes, and it coasted through History of Economy because this is a utopia, damnit, and didn't find much to grab its attention in... Inventory Management, but then.
Then it slips into a small drone ship completely covered in "student driver" stickers and it spreads its stubby sensors out to encompass... everything. And it moves, and the more it moves the more there is to move through, and it feels this sense of rightness.
It comes back, and a kid, human classmate, asks it what's it like out there and through Peri's eyes, but you don't have eyes--. It explains, and the kid asks a question that young-will-be-Peri doesn't know how to answer. They look it up together, and over time and all and once (as you might find in a sim) it has synergized its own career, its own goal and passions.
I posit that Perihelion has free will, serves WITH its crew rather than for its crew, and that its happiness and pleasure in its position and life are genuine, as they can only be if it can choose otherwise. We can conjecture a world in which the designer could be so granular in programming that ART is capable of all it can do while also unable to do what is locked out, and ignorant of the painful irony of using enslaved labor to free enslaved labor (which, again, is valid as an interpretation! ) but I think it is... important, that there might be a kinder, more star-spangled world, if the University comes from a world in which even bots truly, actually have freedom that MB doesn't see even after getting Preservation Station.
The Perihelion MUST have free will because
"You are incorrect, Iris, I can bomb the colony."
44 notes
·
View notes
Note
9, 11, and 12 for the writer's ask game!
9. What writing advice do you think is worth following?
Write what you know *
* And if you don't know (because you've never built a gun, or killed a dragon, or cast magic), learn! I don't remember much about the internal anatomy of a hand, or what removing a section would do to the limb as a whole - so I researched anatomical diagrams, looked for testimonies of people who had shot their own hands (thanks Reddit!), and bugged @fatal-blow for insight about physical therapy for an injured hand. And with thousands of hours of Critical Role, sometimes I'm not exactly sure how a scene I want to reference went - so I find what episode it's in, rewatch the section and go over the transcript. I make sure I know the characters I'm talking about, even though they're not really real. But I know how the white flowers of the plants outside look like thick snow as they begin to bloom, and I know how strong a snake feels when it coils around my hand, and I know the ache of heartbreak - so I find ways to hold those close and incorporate what I've learned (both through research and through life) into my work. When you find enough scraps of knowledge, you can make anything feel pretty real.
11. What’s the biggest surprise you’ve found related to your writing?
Percy and Vex are my favorites to write for a number of reasons, but part of it is that both keep bucking the script and surprising me! The very first fic I wrote of them was intended to be a meet-cute until Vex took the reins; in Get your hands dirty, Percy was supposed to vehemently Not want the names of any loved ones on him give his prior association with only awful people being on his skin (but if Vex was suggesting the idea, oh, it suddenly sounded healing). The fact the characters can dig their heels in or bolt in a direction you didn't expect is so much fun!
12. Now that you have more experience, is there anything new you’d like to try (a trope, genre, style etc)? What is it?
One of my all-time favorite fics is The Wise Man's Tree. It's a stunning AU that offers a great mystery that is so strongly tied to canon! It uses our familiarity with certain characters to derive tension or trust and guide the reader's expectations about the mystery - until you realize what you knew actually kept you from realizing what was up!
Architects of our demise is me attempting something of similar-ish caliber. I'm trying a sort of mystery-adventure, and balancing information reveals with plot is tricky but a lot of fun. I don't think I'm quite pulling off the 'oh I recognize these characters/parts/plot points I know where this is going - WAIT SHIT' because I love mirroring canon too much, but I do hope I can nurture some dread (Aeor, the timeline putting this near the Calamity, FCG's murderbot-ness, etc.) :3
Ask me about writing n stuff? :D
#missing The Wise Man's Tree hours. seriously even if u dont usually read WIPs I promise. please. please. please. please -#ask game#edit: i am Rereading The Wise Man's Tree this is your fault <3
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Anon asked: character ask game: pin-lee? art? ratthi?
Next up: ART!
(Send me a character ask game)
First impression
I was thoroughly spoiled about ART (my own fault for reading so much tumblr meta before i read the books XD ), so I spent most of AC and NE reacting with "oh, this is THAT scene that people talk about!!" A lot of them hit even harder than I'd expected them to, in context.
Impression now
You know, I know the university raised ART with a family to keep it from turning into an AI supervillain (per word-of-god), but I'm not sure they 100% succeeded XD Sure, ART has moral guidelines set by the university and it respects those, but they will always come second to "no one hurts My Crew." SC has me thinking about all the fascinating nuances of ART's morality!
Also, like, cool snarky spaceship best friend, that's just what's at the top of my mind after SC.
Favorite moment
I feel like it's gotta be Drop the weapon, right? That twist in Network Effect is the number one thing I wish I hadn't gotten spoiled on, because I wish I'd gotten to experience that realization that ART was alive as a surprise. It made such an ENTRANCE. Also, that moment when Murderbot is briefly afraid that ART will hurt its humans. In that moment ART is utterly terrifying, and it's so gutwrenching that even Murderbot didn't know for certain that it could be trusted.
Idea for a story
I love using ART as the resolution to Murderbot hurt/comfort stories. It makes a great deus ex machina for removing mind control malware or rescuing Murderbot from corporates (maybe with Three helping out).
Unpopular opinion
Don't have one off the top of my head...not really an opinion and not necessarily unpopular, but I guess I'll say that there is a subset of the fandom who are ART Enjoyers, and I am not one of them XD I like it, but it's not the most compelling to me. All power to the ART Enjoyers, though, I like reading your fanfic!!
Favorite relationship
ART & Murderbot is the obvious one, but I want more ART & its family!! What was it like to for it grow up with Iris? What's its relationship like with Seth and Martyn? (How do you parent a spaceship....)
Favorite headcanon
Hmm...I'm fond of the popular fanon idea that ART was raised with a specific batch of baby AIs, and maybe even has a twin (and I love how many fans immediately ran with the name Aphelion lol!)
#ask game answers#stars has thoughts#murderbot diaries#i will do ratthi but it might be tomorrow#it's getting close to time for my rest period#system collapse spoilers
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
Untagged but close enough by @shadowen!
Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern.
I am going to misread this and shame myself by including the first lines of 4 fics I wrote this year and didn't post. (The writing has not been much this year. The posting, even less.)
"Saints, Alina, no one needs to hear how the Sun Summoner, beloved of all, doesn't get a personal caterer who is also in love with her!" Jesper exclaimed. (Working title: FriendShip01, for... I don't know what the name of this thing is, something to do with shadow, so sue me, I'm sick. This one will never get posted.)
Capivara knew she made an unprepossessing figure outside the hospital doors, and it amused her to watch the mostly working-class men around the smoke station and decide which ones would forget her very existence when they saw Sigrid. (The Gold Guard. Hypothetically my big project for the year. Also, hypothetically, Old Guard fic, though I probably need to file off the serial numbers at this point.)
One blessing of being an insignificant bard at the White Wolf’s court was that Jaskier had been seated well down from the high table, where it was easy to pretend he couldn’t see either of his parents trying to catch his eye. (Not so much Witcher as Accidental Warlord fanfic. This one just needs rewritten from the ground up, the structure is off.)
Joan had put a lot of thought into her first big event. (Shivadhverse. This is what happens when giving blood knocks you flat for three days.)
Csevet leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers once on his mug of cider. (The Courier General's Office, The Goblin Emperor)
Above the ragged and broken Trail the walls of Kaer Morhen rose like a dam, blocking off the whole head of the valley, all its buildings invisible behind the rise of stone that proved, if nothing else, that some bored mason had had literal hundreds of years to work on his pet project. (All Manner of Things, chapter 2. Again, not so much Witcher as Accidental Warlord fic.)
“…is experiencing a traumatic response and requires space." (SecUnit Needs No Pronouns, Murderbot)
Dear Varice - My darling girl, how are you? (Operation Chiffon, or, Epistolary Espionage; Tortall. I think I drafted the first letter and Tea refined it.)
"It was such a delight to get your request for an audience," Thayet said. (The Hands of the Goddess, Tortall. I'm very pleased with this one, it's worked its way into my headcanons.)
I’d known Felix for less than a week and already it was getting on my nerves that whatever Felix said, we did. (Biggest in the Union, Doctrine of Labyrinths.)
#theory and chalk#man what can I do while my brain is leaking out my nose#can't even pod if I'm going to be sniffling the whole time#hmmm
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
3, 15, 27, 31, 33, 43, 52, 54, 59, 76 (…besides WoW?), 80, 81, 92, 94, 95, 96, 98, 100?
3. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
flight
15 .If you could choose only one food to eat to the rest of your life, what would it be?
rice
27. What was the last book/movie that really impressed you?
murderbot books!
31. Something you did and you are proud of?
made it this far in life
33. Something you are good at?
i can rawr xd pretty good
43. Who inspires you?
Daniil Dubov
52. Name one thing that terrifies you.
uhhh everything?
54. What would you tell your 12 year old self?
oh gosh i don't even know. be gayer sooner maybe
59. Is there something you don’t eat? Some food that truly disgust you?
i don't eat meat
76. Do you play any computer games? What is your favourite game?
i play a lot of computer games here and there. i really like DOOM
80. What do you think about vegetarianism/veganism?
i'm neutral to it i guess? i don't eat meat but i'm not like you know, it's not something to announce.
81. How long have you been on Tumblr?
12 years or so
92. Favourite app on your phone?
i use youtube the most i think
94. Do you watch Youtube? Who is your favourite youtuber?
i like grimbeard a lot. and dungeon chill.
95. Share your favourite quote?
i don't have one
96. What is the meaning of life?
pain and sometimes love.
98. Have you ever made your mum cry? What happened?
yeah when i came out LOL
100. Can you keep a secret?
yes
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
So, I thought of a Mirage rework idea (Imagine it like Rev Reborn)
I would think this rework would be linked to a sort of "canon event" with Mirage, like (and I hate to say it) Mirage's mom dying, something to break him, where his whole "obnoxious guy" side fades. Some time where he'd push himself to ACTUALLY be the best.
New interactions
Ofc, something like that would make other legends react, like with Wattson's dad's death, where the legends went to see Wattson to make her feel better.
Wraith, Path, Rampart, and Crypto would empathise with him, Mirage would decline their kindness.
Example:
Wraith: Hey, Elliot. Look, I know it's tough what you're going through, but that no matter how tough it gets, you'll be able to cry on my shoulder. Mirage: Yeah, easy to say when you don't even know your damn parents! I bet you'd never cry if your mom died, because you don't remember her! Wraith: *Annoyed* Guess my voices were right to tell me not to help you out...
Valk, Loba, Wattson, Bloodhound, and Vantage would sympathise with him. Heart-to-heart with legends that were close to their families and lost em would hit Mirage harder, and he'd nearly cry to them. (The parrallels with Wattson and her dad and Mirage and his mom would make Wattson's heart-to-heart more effective)
Example:
Wattson: Écoute, I never knew my mother, but like how you helped when my papa passed, I'll be here for you, just tell me when you're ready to talk, mon ami. Mirage: *Chocking up* I... Y-Yeah, I'll tell you when I'm ready, but right now, we have a match to win. Wattson: Right, the match. But remember Elliot, you're not alone.
Rev would laugh and mock him, but Mirage would snap on him.
Example:
Revenant: *Maniacal laugh* How does it feel losing someone? Oh, wait, I'm a robot, I don't care. Mirage: Is that how it is, how does wanting to die feel when no one will let you? Clearly that upgrade didn't make you more dead, huh? Revenant: Careful what you say around the Murderbot, WITT. I have my own ways to make you meet your mom again.
Regular voice lines
The lines would be less "haha silly Mirage" and edgier.
Examples:
Intro: Let's get this over this. Bamboozle: Moron fell for it, let's make them pay. Revive: Quit dying, you're making us look bad Thanks: Thanks, I guess
Passive: Still stays as "Now you see me", but with two slight buffs:
Lasting Impression (Replacing the "Encore" perk): blinds opponent for 0.5 second, giving well co-ordinated teams an advantage. Still goes invis when downed.
Mirage revives are 25% quieter (Well simulated by Respawn's poor audio sys)
Tactical: Everything remains the same, even the bamboozle voice lines from decoys, a relic of better times.
Ultimate: Complete rework
New name: Hall of Mirrors
Mirage is invisible and runs at Wraith's phase speed
Firing will uncloak him only when he shoots
Psych out's cooldown is lowered (À la Season 6 Bloodhound)
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
I think that's for the most part accurate, but I'd swap out Ted Moseby (who I believe was the protagonist/narrator of How I Met Your Mother). That's a very self-serving and romantized recollection, and while I think that definitely happens-- Murdebot certainly thinks fondly of its time when it was "just" a SecUnit, even though it knows it was objectively Bad, and does things like blows Dr. Mensah's kindness to slightly unrealistic proportions-- I think for the most part its biased narration is overly negative. It assumes people dislike it more than they do, or ascribes moe negative motivations, etc, etc.
I feel there's also another style of narration Murderbot leans into that isn't on this list and I don't have a pithy name for. Kind of the equal and opposite of the Katniss Everdeen? Murderbot is extremely experienced in certain key elements that it'll focus on that to all else. e.g. we'll know all the security precautions at a Preservation cultural festival, that we can know exactly how many people are attending and how safe it is, but have no idea of the name of said festival, what it's celebrating (if anything), any of the clothes being worn or food being eaten, etc....
I feel like many people have a fundamental misconception of what unreliable narrator means. It's simply a narrative vehicle not a character flaw, a sign that the character is a bad person. There are also many different types of unreliable narrators in fiction. Being an unreliable narrator doesn't necessarily mean that the character is 'wrong', it definitely doesn't mean that they're wrong about everything even if some aspects in their story are inaccurate, and only some unreliable narrators actively and consciously lie. Stories that have unreliable narrators also tend to deal with perception and memory and they often don't even have one objective truth, just different versions. It reflects real life where we know human memory is highly unreliable and vague and people can interpret same events very differently
#murderbot diaries#writing#compare that to like a human POV of so many of these books that would be like#'SecUnit stood still for 15 seconds and then the alarms went off and a bunch of enemy drones changed directions'
46K notes
·
View notes