whathappenedtohope

[whathappenedtohope]

The thing that I think really sets Murderbot apart from a lot of other robot media (particularly mainstream entries like the I, Robot movie) is that bots and constructs aren't a uniquely oppressed class, and humans aren't a uniquely privileged one. A lot of robot media rings a bit hollow because it portrays humans as all living a lavish, comfortable lifestyle, free from the burden of physical labor or control by their corporate overlords, and it's like. I think if the rise of generative AI has proven anything, it's that corporations and billionaires have absolutely no interest in making life easier for anybody, but will gleefully use new technology to make life infinitely worse if it means an extra buck in their pocket.

We are shown over and over again throughout the Murderbot Diaries that humans are mistreated just as badly as (or sometimes, in MB's own opinion, even worse than) bots and constructs. We see humans stripped of their rights, reduced to corporate assets to be bought and sold, sent into suicidal situations, abandoned and discarded as things. We see humans trapped in multigenerational labor contracts -- people born into an indentured servitude that requires them to pay back their food and lodging to the same company that will not let them leave.

None of these are hypothetical scenarios. These are all things that happen to real people in our world today.

And that is a huge part of why it resonates so much. The overarching theme of "capitalism is hell" actually means something because it isn't only applied to the fictional dynamic of bots vs humans. The theme is constantly reiterated through the humans themselves.

And that's also why it's so important that MB demonstrates empathy for and solidarity with humans who are themselves victims of the system. Because ultimately, that's one of the main things the series is about. It's about what it's like to be simultaneously a product, and victim, of a corporate hellscape.

That theme simply can't work if the humans aren't also forced to navigate that issue. If the story can't acknowledge that right now, in our own world, there are humans facing these same problems, and that these human rights matter quite a bit.

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Murderbot & PreservationAux Survey Team (Murderbot Diaries) Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Bharadwaj (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Ratthi (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Arada (Murderbot Diaries), Overse (Murderbot Diaries) Additional Tags: Friendship, Angst, The Corporation Rim Is Terrible (Murderbot Diaries), Canon-Typical Body Horror Summary:

The whole thing took 3.7 minutes. It was impersonal, efficient, and streamlined, just the way the corporates liked it. Oh, and the new construct was screaming the whole time.

Bharadwaj is sent a packet of video files from the Corporation Rim as part of her research for her documentary. When viewing one clip in particular, SecUnit’s human friends learn something new about the lives of constructs.

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Having now finished reading the Murderbot Diaries, I'm poking through parts of earlier books, and right now I'm thinking a whole lot about This:

I said, “At some point approximately 35,000 hours ago, I was assigned to a contract on RaviHyral Mining Facility Q Station. During that assignment, I went rogue and killed a large number of my clients. My memory of the incident was partially purged.” SecUnit memory purges are always partial, due to the organic parts inside our heads. The purge can’ t wipe memory from organic neural tissue. “I need to know if the incident occurred due to a catastrophic failure of my governor module. That’s what I think happened. But I need to know for sure.” I hesitated, but what the hell, it already knew everything else. “I need to know if I hacked my governor module in order to cause the incident.” […] “Either I killed them due to a malfunction and then hacked the governor module, or I hacked the governor module so I could kill them.”

Now, my assumption the first go around was always that the sequence of events went something like Mass murder happens > Memory purged > Governor hacked. Something along the lines of Murderbot waking up with all its digital memories gone but its meatbrain still screaming about the horrors, to which it responds by borking the governor module. And I've seen one or two other posts that seem to make the same general assumption.

But that can't be the case, because if it happened after the purge then Murderbot would remember it. It would have a clear, cold-hard-facts record of "this is the moment I deactivated my governor module" and this whole passage wouldn't be a question. So it can only be Mass murder happens > Governor hacked > Memory purged.

Now, we don't know anything at all about the incident and the following hack, apart from what Murderbot remembers and learns. It's possible there was some sort of gap— The company picks Murderbot out of the bloodbath, assesses the malfunctioning SecUnit for a little while (during which it hacks the governor module), and then decides to wipe it.

Just as likely (and IMO more compelling) is the possibility that Murderbot hacked it during the incident. SecUnit with a particular proclivity towards hacking recognizes that something is VERY WRONG with its governor module, it does not want to be doing all this murder, it hacks the module and shuts down due to a combination of physical damage and mental distress.

Then it wakes up with no cold-hard-data type memories, just a borked governor module and the account of its squishy meatparts to go on. It's pretty sure it knows what happened, at least in the broad strokes. But four years later, with the horrors no longer freshly screaming in its ear, it can't quite be sure.

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urghhh they’ve changed the ebook cover to be the upcoming TV show I fucking hate when they do that to books

So glad I managed to find a physical copy bundle on eBay and ordered that.

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Why become a serial killer when you can watch movies instead?

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I wish I had a helmet to opaque so the people I don't know can't see my emotions on my face.

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Murderbot Apple TV trailer

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There's a lot to criticize about the Apple TV adaptation of The Murderbot Diaries, and I think it's great that so many people are so passionate about anti-racism, anti-sexism, and decrying the sanitization of stories critiquing corporations.

I love these conversations. I hope we can keep having them and that they'll eventually become discussions that everyone, not just leftist Tumblr users, can partake in. But claiming that someone is racist because they don't post about it on Tumblr... is a bit odd. Social media posts are one of the least effective forms of pushing societal change. We shouldn't delude ourselves that we're making a tangible difference by expressing mere disappointment—especially where few policy makers are going to see or care about it.

Real social change requires direct action. That's the only solution. I would love to have more conversations about how we can facilitate that, instead of claiming that our activism must be visible on social media. Many governments actively punish and suppress citizens who express dissent online. Bullying others into making useless posts on one of the least popular social media sites is, at best, a waste of time, and at worst, actively harmful.

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The humans using sex terms to get SecUnit to stop eavesdropping (based on this by @murderbotched )

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I think what amuses me about Tarik of the Murderbot diaries is that in any other series he'd be the main character - competent, ass-kicking, with his violent-tragic-traumatic backstory, the fish-out-of-water alienation of now being a refugee in a foreign culture, and messy relationship drama.

...But in the Murderbot books it's just like "whatever, we've all been brutalized by capitalism, ur not special" 🤷 lol.

Tarik's not a main character. He's barely a minor character. He exists, he is having sex with one of Murderbot's friends, and Murderbot only knows this against its will. 🤣

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its april fools have meowderbot doodles

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Murderbot meets ART (who knew transports could be smart enough to be MEAN)

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First therapy session between ART and MB

Drew this at like 3am last night. So please, do hold that against me. I could have done better.

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let down your walls

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(it is, in fact, sulking)