#fugitive telemetry

[leguinning]

my favorite thing is the fact that it is canon that muderbot likes musical theatre

#and dr. mensah does not #meanwhile gurathen is trying very very hard not to call murderbot a cringe theatre kid #ART probably already has #murderbot #murderbot diaries #the murderbot diaries #fugitive telemetry #dr. mensah #ayda mensah

[ghostcashewart]

a day in dr. mensah's office! featuring an earlier design concept for murderbot that i've since updated a little bit lol

#murderbot #murderbot diaries #tmbd #ayda mensah #dr. mensah #murderbot art #murderbot fanart #fugitive telemetry #the murderbot diaries #murderbot series #art #fanart #image description in alt

[arsonwizard]

i think what makes murderbots’ autism more compelling than most robots with autism in media (besides, of course, it resulting from Martha Wells’ own undiagnosed autism) is that not only is it human autistic, but its also ROBOT autistic

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries #tmbd #tmbd secunit #fugitive telemetry #hiiii im rerereading fugitive telemetry again <3 #acorn speaks

[beartrice-inn-unnir]

10. What is your favorite genre book to recommend to someone who doesn’t usually like that genre?

Usually when people ask me for a rec for a genre they don’t usually like, they are asking for sci-fi, and I start by trying to figure out different access points based on what they already like. I’m not much of a hard sci-fi person, tending more to the space opera and political thrillers, so here’s a few “if you like x, maybe try y”:

If you like romance, give Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit a try. It’s definitely sci-fi in setting and plot, but it also hits nicely in the formulaic patterns of a arranged-marriage, strangers-to-lovers story that will help you through it even if the sci-fi elements are throwing you off. The author has another similar book that increases the sci-fi elements and is enemies-to-lovers as well, so if you like Winter’s Orbit, Ocean’s Echo is a good next step.

If you like non-fiction, The Martian by Andy Weir is a great pick. I have multiple friends who got into reading again as adults via The Martian. It’s well-written, well-grounded, funny, and very sci-fi. If you’ve already read it, then maybe give To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers a try. It can be described with all the same adjectives, plus it’s a short novella, so if you’re hesitant, it’s less intimidating.

If you like mysteries or political thrillers, boy is there a lot of great sci-fi out there for you. The crux of a lot of sci-fi is space or high-tech settings with a plot that asks questions about personhood, and that mixes really well with detectives and spies wandering around trying to solve problems and find truths. Try Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (it’s partway through a series of great books and novellas, but that one’s the most traditional mystery plot) or A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (ambassador solving her predecessor’s mysterious death while trying to do his job)(I’d also recommend this one if you read a lot of classics) EDIT: just realized I mistyped - book 1 by Arkady Martine is A Memory Called Empire.

If YA/ Bildungsromanen/ New Adult figuring the world out through trial and error is often your jam, try Provenance by Ann Leckie (for the kid who really wants to do things right) or The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (for another kid who wants to do things right, but is also a high-energy chaos gremlin).

If you like fantasy, you probably already have read some sci-fi; it’s all under the speculative fiction umbrella and genres are vague anyway. All the same, I know this is the Locked Tomb Website, but give Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir a shot (it’s got magic and mayhem and an epic locked-room whodunnit mystery). The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord is also good - it has a team of people traveling together and thinking about morals and discovering new abilities, plus some romance.

I’m sure there’s lots of genres I’m forgetting right now, but feel free to send me another ask for any specific one!

#readers asks #winters orbit #oceans echo #everina maxwell #the Martian #andy weir #to be taught if fortunate #becky chambers #fugitive telemetry #martha wells #the murderbot diaries #a desolation called peace #arkady martine #a memory called empire #provenance #ann leckie #the warriors apprentice #lois mcmaster bujold #gideon the ninth #tamsyn muir #the best of all possible worlds #karen lord

[sunlitsorrows]

love that Ratthi and Gurathin are, while being at opposite ends of the friend spectrum, both equally down to clown

yes i will use my lunch break to help you break into a mysterious spaceship that needs unspecified help for unknowable reasons

yes i will wake up in the middle of my night to help you break into a mysterious spaceship that needs unspecified help for unknowable reasons

AND NOT ONE OF THE THREE OF THEM CONSIDERS THE POSSIBILITY OF A BIOHAZARD.

lookin at you Ratthi you’re a BIOLOGIST

(also as a side note i feel like the memes

Ratthi Stays In The Shuttle

and

He Should Have Been At The Club

are on a collision course…)

#sunny liveblogs #murderbot #the murderbot diaries #fugitive telemetry

[treemaidengeek]

I am LIVING for the portion of Fugitive Telemetry in which Murderbot repeatedly uses "blorp" as a verb during a dire life-or-death hostage situation

#blorp #murderbot #fugitive telemetry #morwen reads murderbot

[maracate]

I love SecUnit in Fugitive Telemetry. "Why are these stations security officers standing next to me right now" "why am I being offered a drink" "why are they defending my existance" pls they are trying to be social and friendly they have realized you're cool actually and they like you

#murderbot diaries #murderbot #fugitive telemetry #martha wells

[space-manatees]

them: how many times have you read Murderbot Diaries this year

me: yes

#murderbot #murderbot diaries #martha wells #all systems red #artificial condition #rogue protocol #exit strategy #network effect #fugitive telemetry #system collapse

[tenowls]

Do you think you could draw the picture from Fugitive Telemetry where is Dr Mensah, Pin-Lee, Secunit, and Bharadwaj and they’d just been asked if GrayCris reps would be allowed on station (it’s page like 30 or something). I really love your style and ur mbd art (ha) always makes me happy

i have actually wanted to draw this for a while and this ask reminded me to do it.... here u go!!! 

Mensah was walking down the steps away from the council offices and I was standing behind her between Pin-Lee and Dr. Bharadwaj. We were all looking to the side, with various what-the-fuck expressions. (One of the journalists had just asked the council spokesperson if GrayCris reps would be allowed at the meeting.) (It had been such a stupid question, I had forgotten not to have an expression.)

#murderbot #murderbot diaries #secunit #pin lee #mensah #ayda mensah #bharadwaj #fugitive telemetry #fanart #asks #dindindjarin #and thank u so much!! :')) #i almost forgot to draw the feed interfaces whew #requests

[rosewind2007]

I loved Sherlock Holmes in the original books, which I first read in the 1970s

My Doctor (in my heart) will always truly be Tom Baker

Loki was one of my favourite (not technically a god) gods some three decades before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was even a thing

I argued as a child about whether Darth Vader could have a redemption arc

I read and re-read my 1990s copy of Good Omens until it fell apart

I am OLD, and damnit—if they do make Murderbot into a TV series I will welcome newcomers to the fandom with arms wide open: because they’ll have very bit as much right to be in it as anyone else

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries #murderbot diaries #secunit #martha wells #all systems red #tv adaptation #exit strategy #rogue protocol #artificial condition #fugitive telemetry #network effect

[leguinning]

Fugitive Telemetry or, as I like to call it, Murdermysterybot

#murderbot #murderbot diaries #martha wells #fugitive telemetry #the murderbot diaries

[ghostcashewart]

"I had trained them too well to step past me in a situation like this, walking into a strange place, but Ratthi peered around my side and Gurathin stood on his tiptoes to see over my shoulder." - Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

i've finally drawn secunit's boys!!!!

#the murderbot diaries #murderbot #murderbot diaries #tmbd #ratthi #fugitive telemetry #murderbot art #murderbot fanart #gurathin #tmbd fanart #tmbd art #art #fanart #the murderbot diaries art #the murderbot diaries fanart #tmbd ratthi #tmbd gurathin #image description in alt #martha wells #secunit

[rockalillygirl]

Mamma mia here we go again…

So I have more thoughts because apparently there’s no bottom to the murderbot mindhole I’ve fallen down.

(Spoiler warning- minor stuff from several of the books, pls check tags etc.)

I’ve been reading a lot of things recently exploring Murderbot as an unreliable narrator, which I think is a cool result of System Collapse (because we all know our beloved MB is going through it in this one). There’s also been some interesting related discussion of MB’s distrust of and sometimes biased assessment/treatment of other constructs and bots.

And I’ve been reading a lot about CombatUnits! And I want to talk about them!!

Main thoughts can be summarized as follows:

We don’t see a lot about CombatUnits in the books, and I think what we do see from MB’s pov encourages the reader to view them as less sympathetic than other constructs.

I’m very skeptical of this portrayal for reasons.

The existence of CombatUnits makes me fucking sad and I have a lot of feelings about them!

I got introduced to the idea of MB as an unreliable narrator in a post by onironic It analyzes how in SC, MB seems to distrust Three to a somewhat unreasonable degree, and how it sometimes infantilizes Three or treats it the way human clients have treated it in the past. The post is Amazing and goes into way more detail, so pls go read it (link below):

https://www.tumblr.com/onironic/736245031246135296?source=share

So these ideas were floating around in my brain when I read an article Martha Wells recently published in f(r)iction magazine titled “Bodily Autonomy in the Murderbot Diaries”. I’ll link the article here:

(Rn the only way to access the article is to subscribe to the magazine or buy an e-copy of the specific issue which is $12)

In the article, Wells states that MB displaced its fear of being forced to have sex with humans onto the ComfortUnit in Artificial Condition. I think it’s reasonable to assume that MB also does this with other constructs. With Three, I think it’s more that MB is afraid if what it knows Three is capable of, or (as onironic suggests in their post and I agree with) some jealousy that Three seems more like what humans want/expect a rogue SecUnit to be.

But I want to explore how this can be applied to CombatUnits, specifically.

We don’t learn a lot about them in the books. One appears for a single scene in Exit Strategy, and that’s it. What little else we know comes from MB’s thoughts on them sprinkled throughout the series. To my knowledge, no other character even mentions them (which raises interesting questions about how widely-known their existence is outside of high-level corporate military circles).

When MB does talk about CombatUnits in the early books, it’s as a kind of boogeyman figure (the real “murderbots” that even Murderbot is afraid of). And then when one does show up in ES, it’s fucking terrifying! There’s a collective “oh shit” moment as both MB and the reader realize what it’s up against. Very quickly what we expect to be a normal battle turns into MB running for its life, desperately throwing up hacks as the CombatUnit slices through them just as fast. We and MB know that it wouldn’t have survived the encounter if its humans hadn’t helped it escape. So the CombatUnit really feels like a cut above the other enemies in the series.

And what struck me reading that scene was how the CombatUnit acts like the caricature of an “evil robot” that MB has taught us to question. It seems single-mindedly focused on violence and achieving its objective, and it speaks in what I’d call a “Terminator-esque” manner: telling MB to “Surrender” (like that’s ever worked) and responds to MB’s offer to hack its governor module with “I want to kill you” (ES, pp 99-100).

(Big tangent: Am I the only one who sees parallels between this and how Tlacey forces the ComfortUnit to speak to MB in AC? She makes it suggest they “kill all the humans” because that’s how she thinks constructs talk to each other (AC, pp 132-4). And MB picks up on it immediately. So why is that kind of talk inherently less suspicious coming from a CombatUnit than a ComfortUnit? My headcanon is that I’m not convinced the CombatUnit was speaking for itself. What if a human controller was making it say things they thought would be intimidating? Idk maybe I’ve been reading too many fics where CombatUnits are usually deployed with a human handler. There could be plenty of reasons why the CombatUnit would’ve talked like that. I’m just suspicious.)

(Also, disclaimer: I want to clarify before I go on that I firmly believe that even though MB seems to be afraid of CombatUnits and thinks they’re assholes, it would still advocate for them to have autonomy. I’m not trying to say that either MB or Wells sees CombatUnits as less worthy of personhood or freedom- because I feel the concept that “everything deserves autonomy” is very much at the heart of the series.)

So it’s clear from all of this that MB is scared of CombatUnits and distrusts them for a lot of reasons. I read another breathtaking post by @grammarpedant that gives a ton of examples of this throughout the books and has some great theories on why MB might feel this way. I’ll summarize the ones here that inspired me the most, but pls go read the original post for the full context:

https://www.tumblr.com/grammarpedant/703920247856562177?source=share

OP explains that SecUnits and CombatUnits are pretty much diametrically opposed because of their conflicting functions: Security safeguards humans, while Combat kills them. Of course these functions aren’t rigid- MB has implied that it’s been forced to be violent towards humans before, and I’m sure that extracting/guarding important assets could be a part of a CombatUnit's function. But it makes sense that MB would try to distance itself from being considered a CombatUnit, using its ideas about them to validate the parts of its own function that it likes (protecting people). OP gives what I think is the clearest example of this, which is the moment in Fugitive Telemetry when MB contrasts its plan to sneak aboard a hostile ship and rescue some refugees with what it calls a “CombatUnit” plan, which would presumably involve a lot more murder (FT, p 92).

This reminds me again of what Wells said in the f(r)iction article, that on some level MB is frightened by the idea that it could have been made a ComfortUnit (friction, p 44). I think the idea that it could’ve been a CombatUnit scares it too, and that’s why it keeps distinguishing itself and its function from them. But I think it’s important to point out, that in the above example from FT, even MB admits that the murder-y plan it contrasts with its own would be one made by humans for CombatUnits. So again we see that we just can’t know much about the authentic nature of CombatUnits, or any constructs with intact governor modules, because they don’t have freedom of expression. MB does suggest that CombatUnits may have some more autonomy when it comes to things like hacking and combat which are a part of their normal function. But how free can those choices be when the threat of the governor module still hangs over them?

I think it could be easy to fall into the trap of seeing CombatUnits as somehow more complicit in the systems of violence in the mbd universe. But I think that’s because we often make a false association between violence and empowerment, when even in our world that’s not always the case. But, critically, this can’t be the case for CombatUnits because they’re enslaved in the same way SecUnits and ComfortUnits are (though the intricacies are different).

There was another moment in the f(r)iction article that I found really chilling. Wells states that there’s a correlation between SecUnits that are forced to kill humans and ones that go rogue (friction, p 45). It’s a disturbing thought on its own, but I couldn’t help wondering then how many CombatUnits try to hack their governor modules? And what horrible lengths would humans go to to stop them? I refuse to believe that a CombatUnit’s core programming would make it less effected by the harm its forced to perpetrate. That might be because I’m very anti-deterministic on all fronts, but I just don’t buy it.

I’m not entirely sure why I feel so strongly about this. Of course, I find the situation of all constructs in mbd deeply upsetting. But the more I think about CombatUnits, the more heartbreaking their existence seems to me. There’s a very poignant moment in AC when MB compares ART’s function to its own to explain why there are things it doesn’t like about being a SecUnit (AC, p 33). In that scene, MB is able to identify some parts of its function that it does like, but I have a hard time believing a CombatUnit would be able to do the same. I’m not trying to say that SecUnits have it better (they don’t) (the situation of each type of construct is horrible in it’s own unique way). It’s just that I find the idea of construct made only for violence and killing really fucking depressing. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror of their day-to-day existence.

@grammarpedant made another point in their post that I think raises a TON of important questions not only about CombatUnits, but about how to approach the idea of “function” when it comes to machine intelligence in general. They explain that, in a perfect version of the mbd universe, there wouldn’t be an obvious place for CombatUnits the way there could be for SecUnits and ComfortUnits who wanted to retain their original functions. A better world would inherently be a less violent one, so where does that leave CombatUnits? Would they abandon their function entirely, or would they find a way to change it into something new?

I’ve been having a lot of fun imagining what a free CombatUnit would be like. But in some ways it’s been more difficult than I expected. I’ve heard Wells say in multiple interviews that one of her goals in writing Murderbot was to challenge people to empathize with someone they normally wouldn’t, and I find CombatUnits challenging in exactly that way. Sometimes I wonder if I would’ve felt differently about these books if MB had been a CombatUnit instead of a SecUnit. Would I have felt such an immediate connection to MB if its primary function before hacking its governor module had been killing humans, or if it didn’t have relatable hobbies like watching media? Or if it didn’t have a human face for the explicit purpose of making people like me more comfortable? I’m not sure that I would have.

Reading SC has got me interested in exploring the types of people that humans (or even MB itself) would struggle to accept. So CombatUnits are one of these and possible alien-intelligences are another. All this is merely a small sampling of the thoughts that have been swirling around in my brain-soup! So if anyone is interested in watching me fumble my way through these concepts in more detail, I may be posting “something” in the very near future!

Would really appreciate anyone else’s thoughts about all of THIS^^^^ It’s been my obsession over the holidays and helping me cope with family stress and flying anxiety.

#murderbot diaries #murderbot meta #artificial condition #exit strategy #fugitive telemetry #system collapse #murderbot spoilers #combat unit #FEELINGS #i blink and then it's 2000 words later #jesus christ

[alex-van-gore]

I made a Murderbot Animatic for @grammarpedant ! Happy New Year, enjoy the Fugitive Telemetry pain!

#mbd gift exchange 2023 #murderbot diaries gift exchange #murderbot fanart #murderbot #SecUnit #the murderbot diaries #murderbot diaries new year gift exchange #mbd gift exchange #martha wells #fugitive telemetry #animatic #Youtube

[grammarpedant]

A small fun thing I noticed about Murderbot's narration in Fugitive Telemetry:

This is how Murderbot describes JollyBaby:

Tell me its name is not JollyBaby. It was five meters tall sitting in a crouch and looked like the mobile version of something you used to dig mining shafts.

And this is the Murderbot vs Balin fight getting interrupted:

The impact knocked me off Balin and I landed two meters away. SecUnits don't stun easily and I managed to hang on to the weapon, but I'd damaged an ankle joint and struggled to get upright. Then a giant scoop thing slammed down in front of me. For .05 of a second I had no clue what it was, then I picked up my drone inputs. JollyBaby the cargo bot had just put its hand down between me and Balin.

(emphasis mine)

Fascinating, right? Murderbot talked mad shit earlier about how pissed it was with Tellus's humanized body language, anthropomorphizing itself for human convenience or whatever, but here as soon as MB realizes the "giant scoop thing" is JollyBaby's, it switches to calling it a "hand."

JB apparently can sit in a crouch, which could MAYBE mean that it's humanoid in design, but- I dunno about you guys, I was not imagining "something you used to dig mining shafts" looking in any way like you ought to describe it as having "hands." (Link to my favorite art of JollyBaby ever, it's 100% how I imagine it.)

What gives, Murderbot? What's with the shift in terminology? Are you instinctively empathizing with JollyBaby and so using the terms of your own body? Are you, too, anthropomorphizing JollyBaby for the sake of making it familiar to your implied audience--emphasizing for us the way JB is not "just" a machine but a person getting in between two participants in a violent conflict? Or are you just not bothering to look up what the proper term for a scoop thing is? What, can't a guy (a bot) just have some servos (scoop things), is that not good enough for you, Murderbot?

#murderbot #jollybaby #the murderbot diaries #fugitive telemetry #murderbot diaries #verso writes #meta #ive spent time in Transformers fandom #where they refer to the humanoid robots' hands as 'servos' #so this stood out to me bigly lmao #and that's right. jollybaby gets a tag #im love jollybaby your honor #a credit to the bot community

[dale-the-human]

IT'S DONE! Thank you to everyone who contributed their lovely art, including but not limited to @tenowls @souldagger @eagleeyethree @noomyart @mayasynth @uncannycookie @animusbell @charlie-artlie @cringe-but-freee @six-sticks

#Murderbot #the murderbot diaries #murderbot comic #comic #comic dub #martha wells #dr mensah #SecUnit #ART #asshole research transport #murderbot funny #funny #compilation #animation #Youtube #fanvids #fanvid #murderbot diaries #gurathin #fugitive telemetry #all systems red #system collapse