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ART, any additional makeovers you would like to give Murderbot? ART: That presupposes I care what it looks like now.
(from Feelings REDACTED)
I love this quote because it makes me think about how ART views MB and also other people, too.
Humans with normal vision tend to judge, or at least react to, others based on their appearance. How they look (beautiful, ugly, scary, has scars, etc) often affects how we perceive them. Of course, once we get to know them better, we can go beyond that, and yet, it is still sometimes hard to ignore them completely.
ART can process visual information by processing data from its cameras and sensors. It can analyse facial expressions and body languages to infer the person's internal state. But probably, they do not affect ART's (subjective?) evaluation of the person.
Having developed like a sibling to Iris, it may have even acquired social skills like:
Iris: My hair's got too big! But I'm too busy to get a haircut right now.
ART: Why don't you use that blue hairwraps with the yellow flower pattern? You can use clips to keep them in place.
Iris: Great idea! (3 minutes later) How do I look?
ART: You look lovely, Iris
Iris: Thank you, Peri!
But ART doesn't care if Iris's hair is a mess or Seth is sporting a toupee, as long as they are healthy and not distressed. It loves its crew the way they are. If ART were to have any preference among them (other than Iris, who is its favourite), it is probably based on its observation of how they are behaving, and also on its own interaction with them through verbal communication. Humans cannot react to ART's non-verbal cues unless ART deliberately makes it obvious, so it may like humans who enjoy communicating with it.
With Murderbot, it can see more clearly in the feed. And MB is also responding to ART's unspoken tones. They can sense each other clearly in the feed, in the way humans cannot fathom. ART cares about MB's physical well-being as well, but the important thing is how they are interacting in the feed.
It is also notable that ART doesn't get upset when MB is physically hurt. It knows how to help and repair it, and just deals with that. It does care a lot, however, about MB's mental state, organic / non-organic generated.
So ART doesn't care what MB looks like. It can and does love its friend whether or not it has any tangible part. It's remarkable and touching because it is not often that we can say we unconditionally love someone's internal core being, ignoring all the physical parts.
Listening to the SecSystem’s audio, I heard a crew member in the corridor say, “I’ve never seen one out of armor. They really do look human.” I made a gesture in that direction that I had only seen in the shows that were rated high on the obscenity scale. Gurathin saw me and made a choking noise.
[from Exit Strategy]
Murderbot is quietly getting famous as The One who saved SecUnits from eternal slavery. They show respect to the saviour.
Usually, MB must make sure it is running act-like-a-human codes which seems to have become second nature to it over time. But now, it has to do the opposite - it has to pretend to be a bot!
In order to rescue humans stranted on an asteroid, MB must board a scouting vessel with an advanced AI bot pilot (with cheerful disposition).
ART is not happy, obviously
In The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, an important plot point is the murder of the other survey team on the planet, DeltFall, by GrayCris. The first attempt to do so was via malware disguised as an upgrade package intended for their secunits. If it had been applied, GrayCris would’ve been able to remotely take over the secunits and force them to murder the DeltFall team.
(notably, this attempt failed, and GrayCris had to hack the secunits in person, but thats not important for this post)
Importantly, GrayCris sent this same malware to Preservation Aux at the same time, intending to take over Murderbot. Take a look at the reason Murderbot gives for refusing the download:
“I don’t do automated package updates anymore, now that I don’t have to.”
Throughout the series, especially early on, Murderbot will bring up two things: The memory wipes it had undergone, and the mass-murder at it’s hands that had prompted said memory wipes.
In Artificial Condition, Murderbot goes back to the scene of the crime to figure out why it committed mass murder.
As it turns out, malware disguised as an upgrade infected the system and causes the deaths of 57 people.
it might be a stretch to assume that Murderbot subconsciously remembers the cause of the incident. the upgrade package was sent to the comfortunits, not the secunits. But we do know that Murderbot hacked its governor module almost immediately afterwards, so that it couldn’t be forced to kill against its will ever again. It might be more accurate to call it a demonstration of autonomy.
The moral of the story seems to be that automatic updates are bad for security
Excellent analysis!
You may be right about MB having subconscious memories about what caused Ganaka incident. Its organic brain is not wiped after all.
Also, it’s possible that such malware attacks are not uncommon considering the corporate climate of “if somebody takes from you, it’s your own fault for being so weak”
Autonomy is the running theme of this series and I love to see how MB is gradually learning to assert it. It’s sometimes harder to do so to people you like.
They are watching their favorite shows and messaging their research transports
What they’re talking about ╰(*´︶`*)╯
I'm trying to figure out what exactly each member of PreservationAux does, went to wiki in hopes it had the answer, and most of them are just stated as "a scientist". This is not a sufficient amount of information, I know murderbot never gave a damn and that's why we don't get detail in the books, but ughhh, what must a poor fanfic writer do to get some worldbuilding around here.
From All Systems Red, I gathered that:
Ratthi - biologist
Arada - biology specialist (ocean biology?)
Overse - field medic
Bharadwaj and Volescu - taking samples in big craters, so possibly geologist of some sort
Gurathin - system specialist
Pin-Lee - solicitor but a gifted amateur in system interpretation
Mensah - nothing mentioned
This is so, so, so beautiful!
Thank you so much!!
SecUnit does NOT want to hear about your relationship issues.
This was one of the funniest scenes from SC.
MB back stepping like 2 metres at a mention of sex-related discussion lol
that one fma panel but make it murderbot
bonus:
The only tag I can access on Ratthi is a partial that says my human friend.
[Exit Strategy]
Thiago had said he felt like he should apologize and talk to me more about it. Ratthi had said, “I think you should let it go for a while, at least until we get ourselves out of this situation. SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to discuss its feelings.” This is why Ratthi is my friend.
[Network Effect]
Ratthi is a lovable guy, somehow strongly associated with the phrase "For fu*k's sake, Ratthi!", first uttered by Pin-Lee in All Systems Red. He seems naturally accident-prone, but is a competent biologist, loved by everyone. He was quick to accept Murderbot's humanity, getting indignant about how SecUnits are treated, and was sensitive to MB's social anxiety.
He is everyone's friend, and even MB finds it easy to talk to him and ask for assistance, as long as it is not something dangerous.
Ratthi was the one who was quick at picking up something between MB and ART, and ask that directly - "So, you have a relationship with this transport".
And yet, when I think about who the most important friends in MB's life are, he comes the 3rd at the highest, after Mensah and ART. And I wondered why - apart from his screen time.
My conclusion is this - Ratthi is very nice and sensitive to MB's needs, but he seldom brings MB out of its comfort zone. He did try to talk to MB about its emotions in ASR, and he did ask about its relationship with ART in NE. But he did not push it much.
Mensah and ART both pushed and challenged MB, and brought it out of its comfort zone. Made it question itself. Made it experience something it was reluctant to try. But also, importantly, they were there to have its back. Ultimately helping MB grow as an independent being.
Additionally, being out of comfort zone results in physiologically and psychologically heightened state known as arousal in psychological term. When you experience it with someone who is there for you, you are more likely to develop positive attachement for this person. (known and "misattribution of arousal")
I have no doubt that Ratthi will be there for MB if it needs his help, but I've got the feeling that Ratthi is too nice to push it out of its comfort zone.
@jadefyre Oh yes, absolutely! He is everybody's go-to person when they are in trouble or simply want a company. And for MB, he can provide a social buffer. Even ART went to Ratthi when it wanted to find somebody to get mad at the B-E SecUnit together, when AgBot nearly hit MB!
Murderbot waking up in ART’s MedSystem + Art showing Iris and Seth images of it
This...
Making me cracking up lol
The only tag I can access on Ratthi is a partial that says my human friend.
[Exit Strategy]
Thiago had said he felt like he should apologize and talk to me more about it. Ratthi had said, “I think you should let it go for a while, at least until we get ourselves out of this situation. SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to discuss its feelings.” This is why Ratthi is my friend.
[Network Effect]
Ratthi is a lovable guy, somehow strongly associated with the phrase "For fu*k's sake, Ratthi!", first uttered by Pin-Lee in All Systems Red. He seems naturally accident-prone, but is a competent biologist, loved by everyone. He was quick to accept Murderbot's humanity, getting indignant about how SecUnits are treated, and was sensitive to MB's social anxiety.
He is everyone's friend, and even MB finds it easy to talk to him and ask for assistance, as long as it is not something dangerous.
Ratthi was the one who was quick at picking up something between MB and ART, and ask that directly - "So, you have a relationship with this transport".
And yet, when I think about who the most important friends in MB's life are, he comes the 3rd at the highest, after Mensah and ART. And I wondered why - apart from his screen time.
My conclusion is this - Ratthi is very nice and sensitive to MB's needs, but he seldom brings MB out of its comfort zone. He did try to talk to MB about its emotions in ASR, and he did ask about its relationship with ART in NE. But he did not push it much.
Mensah and ART both pushed and challenged MB, and brought it out of its comfort zone. Made it question itself. Made it experience something it was reluctant to try. But also, importantly, they were there to have its back. Ultimately helping MB grow as an independent being.
Additionally, being out of comfort zone results in physiologically and psychologically heightened state known as arousal in psychological term. When you experience it with someone who is there for you, you are more likely to develop positive attachement for this person. (known and "misattribution of arousal")
I have no doubt that Ratthi will be there for MB if it needs his help, but I've got the feeling that Ratthi is too nice to push it out of its comfort zone.
That one scene,,,, because they make me kind of insane
Awwww ❤️
24 Hidden
Awww so sweet!
Aaaand I found Ratthi's fauna! 🐈
I saved a backup copy and hid it where only a trusted friend could find it.
[Network Effect]
When Perihelion found its beloved crew gone after a forced restart, and alien remnant installed on its wormhole drive, it decides to seek help from Muderbot. Not from its university colleagues. When it considered the possibility of itself being deleted by the targets, it made and hid its copy in such a way that only Murderbot could find and reinstall.
This is such an amazing level of trust. And even more amazing when you think about the fact that they had only known each other for just over 3 weeks. Yes, I know that the duration doesn't matter - it's the quality of the time spent together.
When they met, all MB asked for was a ride to RaviHyral. It asked for nothing else, and ART certainly didn't need anything from it. Even though a rogue SecUnit was something new to ART, with its capabilities, it didn't need to speak to it at all. ART could have taken anything under control.
But ART chose to speak to MB. It wanted to get to know it. It decided to befriend it, and help it survive. For MB, it was something extraordinary - to be wanted for something other than its functional values. All ART asked for initially was to watch media with it so that it can understand the context.
ART had no ulterior motive at all to help MB. Knowing this somehow made it easier for MB to ask for ART's help when it faced problems while working for Rami, Tapan and Maro. ART watched MB do much beyond what was required for that contract - which was really just a way to have access to RaviHyral. It saw how far MB went to protect the humans it barely knew. ART, as a research transport, is not supposed to be impulsive or jump to conclusions, but it comes to like and trust MB very, very quickly and completely. Which is heart warming.
Their friendship was founded first by ART really wanting to know this curious rogue SecUnit, mutual, implicit understanding of each other through joint-media viewing, and again by ART's selfless desire to help its new friend survive. It was such a rare, unexpected fortune that MB met ART almost as soon as it started its life as a rogue SecUnit off inventory. Someone who wanted to be its friend, not for its functions.
Everybody else MB met and interacted was through its job (or a pretend job). Fulfilling its functions (esp. the ones it likes, like protecting people, thinking of a clever way to protect them) is very important to Murderbot, certainly. But starting a friendship where nothing except it being itself is asked for must have been very rare and special for it. Just by being itself earned ART's complete trust - with its life, and its crew that it cares about so much.
I'm rambling - sorry. It's just their friendship is so special - to borrow MB's expressions somewhat, I like them being together, and want them to keep on being together!
