Artificial Condition | Chapters 5-9
Raven: Hello everybody, and welcome back to All Systems Read. I'm Raven, she/her.
Jess: And I'm Jess, also she/her. Hey Raven, how’s your performance reliability today?
Raven: I would say I'm probably around a 93%.
Jess: Ooh
Raven: What about you?
Jess: Going about 79%. Just a little, just a teensy bit lower.
Raven: I didn't have to go outside today, so that definitely plays a part in it.
Jess: Yes. To place our time of recording, lots of heat advisories. It's a hot one.
Raven: That’s for like half of the United States right now. I was looking at the map earlier.
Jess: I just never know how quickly… we will get these out, so. We always have really good ambitions to like, “The next one we're going to do so much quicker. ” And then it doesn't work that way. Whoops. We appreciate people joining us anyway, even if it is a little sporadic.
Raven: We got a lot of responses for this section of Artificial Condition, so we want to thank everybody for joining us on this adventure. And there were a lot of really good discussion points, so I'm excited to get into those.
Jess: Yes, and we also have another person who says this is their first time reading through the series. And it's exciting! One, because I know they will have a different perspective. And two, I'm just always really excited when someone tells me they're finally reading Murderbot. It's like: Yes!
Raven: Speaking of, my book club just did Murderbot for our last month. So we met yesterday, and everybody said that they plan on continuing to read. Except for the people that had already read it, at which point they said that they plan on continuing to reread.
Jess: One of us.
Raven: Our first question is about the Corporation Rim. We finally get to directly experience the Corporation Rim. How did it meet your expectations based on what we learned in All Systems Red?
Jess: Sunny sent in, It's a horrible place built on the exploitation of humans, bots, and plants. But people still care for and support each other. The tech collective; Tapan’s honest friend, who I don't know if they're that honest, personally,; the comfort units that try to save the others at Ganaka Pit. And I like that they put a little bit of hope into their response with bringing up... The place is bad, but there is still good.
Raven: That was really nice. Because these books, while there is a lot of bad things happening, are so hopeful to me. They're comfort reads. And part of that is because there is still good. There are people that are good, even in the midst of problems.
Jess: I think to go along that line, that we see a lot which is something that has definitely made me cry before is of people taking care of other people. And just showing up and building your own community. And especially with… things being the way that they are right now. Especially in certain areas. It's a good way of resistance is showing up for other people.
Raven: Wee commented, I thought it expanded the universe effectively. It was also nice to meet another group of people that weren't indentured. Although it seems like an extension of the gig economy with no worker protections.
And I never made that connection before, but it is spot on. The group that is there doing the research, that hired Murderbot. That is what they did. They were a for hire contract group and were kicked out,fired, whatever. Their contract ended prematurely.
Jess: They're definitely not qualifying for health insurance. There is definitely no OSHA probably in this world.
Raven: No, just how much legal trouble can this get me into?
Jess: And I think we'll get into it later. It's less about how much legal trouble and more. Is it worth paying off all the legal things? Because
Raven: Yeah.
Jess: I think that's part of it. Benny surprisingly said that I expected the corporation rim to be a bit worse. As Murderbot made it seem like it was. Was those in power or those in severe debt? I wasn't really expecting there to be that much of a middle class. In the story for the people in the corporation rim.
There definitely has to be some sort of middle class. Because those places were not cheap that they were passing through. But I also suspect even the people staying there. There has to be a lot of debt. I don't feel like there is a comfortable middle class. But that could also just be projecting.
Raven: Yeah, I assumed that it wasn't necessarily a middle class. Just there's like a slave class and then a lower class. Which I guess is in the middle. But to me middle class is more comfortable and safe. But I am not an economist. I don't know if there are clearly defined terms for those. There probably are.
Jess: Unless you're super wealthy. I don't think anyone is fully safe or comfortable. And I think maybe that does reflect some of the decisions we see people make. Especially like with Tlacey. Yeah, obviously greed is part of it. But with all the hostile takeovers. I think everybody knows no one is safe at any given time. So I need to make sure I have all the money and all the power.
Raven: That is a great segue into an answer on the second question. So the second question we asked was. Why do you think Tlacey wants the meeting and buys passage on a public shuttle?
And Sunny responded. Tlacey seems like a cruel person who has a little bit of power on a tiny moon. I think she's probably annoyed that her ex-employees won't just go away. And enjoys the idea of swatting them like bugs. It would also be convenient if their deaths were written off as equipment failure. Just like GrayCris. I very much got the feeling that Tlacey was big fish in a little pond.
Jess: I could definitely see that. And Adam kind of echoes that about Tlacey. You know, wanting that plausible deniability. So this is a question that 100% came from me. And that is because. I know somebody mentioned, you know, it's MacGuffin. You know, it is the thing to do the thing. Don't dig into it. But obviously, obviously I think too much into these books. Even if Tlacey kills them. There's more members of this tech collective. It's not like all the people involved who went back to the files are just suddenly gone. This is only three members of that. I guess possibly the hope is their trauma ridden and don't pursue legal action. Also, I don't think that there is that big of a legal threat. I feel like even if they did have the money to hire a solicitor. Tlacey and their company is still going to come out ahead. Killing them just seems like a waste of time and resources.
Raven: I–First, I'm going to say this is how similar of a wavelength you and I are. This was actually my question. But I think that the tech collective had made it clear that they weren't going to give up or go away. And this was the easiest way for Tlacey to try to scare them off.
Jess: But for the amount of money they must have spent to go on and do this. They could have just given them a bride. I would like to think that the legal system does protect people and their intellectual property. However, knowing what we know about the corporation REM, I think Tlacey would win.
Raven: Well, that brings up an interesting point of whose intellectual property is it? Because they did the research, but they were on contract. Even now in real life, there are a lot of companies that when you sign your employment contract. Whatever you do while you're working for the company. Meaning while you are employed by them, not while you're on the clock. Can become property of that company.
Jess: Yeah, it's kind of bullshit. Read your contracts before you sign them, y'all. I know a lot of us don't really have a choice in accepting those terms and conditions. And we've talked about that already. So we'll just skip ahead. Though Wee's comment on this question did make me laugh. Because humans are greedy bastards from Murderbot. Yeah, humans are greedy and it's MacGuffin to move the plot along. That's what it really is.
One of the questions we got later on was somebody wondering what the research was. They may have missed it in the book. It doesn't really go into a lot of detail and it's truly just kind of like a one or two sentence mention. Is that they are developing new types of detection systems for strange synthetics. Also known as
Raven: Alien remnants.
Jess: It's fun to see a little carry over from what we saw in the last book. They do mention that part of the reason they're doing the research on RaviHyral. Is because there's a lot of known deposits. So they have a good way of testing their things. And I think it makes complete sense for a power hungry corporation. To want to know how to find those synthetics. Because as we learned there's a big black market, dark market. I'm sure there's a technical term I just can't think of.
Raven: Illegal trade.
Jess: Illegal trade, there we go. I did mention the heat, didn't I?
Raven: Moving on to the next question. Murderbot wants to tell the team to not take the meeting but does not do so. We had a similar incident with going to Deltfall in All Systems Red. Do you think that Murderbot had a flashback to that incident? Especially since it, once again, regrets not speaking up? Shawn's response was Murderbot is pretty hard on itself for the actions and lack of actions that it takes. It needed access to the mining facilities and let that need influence it. It also isn't fully comfortable making decisions for the group. And only seems to be able to influence actions once a course has been decided. I really agree with that. Especially the last bit of not being comfortable making decisions. And only able to influence things after a course has been decided. I don't think, at this point, Murderbot fully trusts itself. It is still learning how to acknowledge that it has independence. And it is capable of making these decisions for other people that are… I don't know how to say, bigger picture. Obviously, it had the ability to make decisions for smaller scale choices previously. Even when it had the governance module. But, freedom is also a burden. When you have the freedom to make big decisions, that means that you have to live with those big decisions.
Jess: Consequences are scary. And I think something that Murderbot kind of realizes is inaction is also inaction. It's a hard lesson to learn. Chris mentioned, I think it's growing up and building confidence in its new way of interacting with clients. It's had an opinion about clients' awful choices before. And there's trauma embedded in those experiences that makes it harder to embrace its autonomy and leadership abilities. And I think saying, you know, it's growing up is a fun way to put it.
Raven: I'm going to pull from something that came up in my book club discussion yesterday. One of the members said that Murderbot is a lot like a teenager at this point. Because it has some freedom and is learning the bounds of what is or is not good or is or is not possible. And obviously it has more of that now in this book than it did in All Systems Red. But I think that was very insightful.
Jess: Chris really kind of hits it on the head. You know, that there is that past trauma for Murderbot to contend with. And I don't think Murderbot realizes that it's not just Ganaka Pit. It's not just this mass murder. It's all the times clients have abused it and misled it. And even that freedom of its plan to stop Deltfall. Just because you're used to bad things happening to you doesn't mean it stops being traumatic. Wow. We got a little bit of a palate cleanser question. Which I think might be needed. We're talking a lot of fun, groovy things here. We do get a quote in the book that shows the origin for the title Artificial Condition. Fear was an artificial condition. Obviously Murderbot and ART both think this is so dumb. Because they don't understand the idea of the inspiration behind it. Which I think it's a very human thing. It is probably kind of a strange saying. But I think as a human I can maybe appreciate it just like 5% more. So we were just curious if anybody had anything inspiring. Or just interesting that was fun from their little families.
Something Chris submitted that made me laugh was. “My wife and I call each other and anyone or anything else doing something silly, dumb, annoying, over the top, etc. Sir!” And I have done that before. It's very funny. Sir! Sir! Get it together sir!
Raven: Jess has done that to me.
Jess: Have I? My apologies.
Raven: No I was being silly. It was perfectly warranted.
Jess: I was going to say yeah that's just me yelling at my dishwasher. But apparently I'm also yelling it at Raven.
Raven: Yelling is not quite the right word. Forcefully speaking into the microphone. In a loving way.
Jess: The idea that I'm the one keeping the show on the rails is so far from not the truth.
Raven: Partnership.
Jess: Partnership.
Raven: Andrea responded. “I think Murderbot thought the saying was silly and I'm not sure it inspired the character in healthy or productive ways. And I think that's true of a lot of common inspiring sayings. It's always darkest before the dawn. Sure, but dawn could be 50 years away. Honestly, I think we need to question those sayings a little bit more.” And I fully agree. Inspirational quotes and inspirational posters are hilarious to the point that they've become memes. And I don't think that they have become memes to people much older than us. I know there are a few.
Jess: But we are not in boomer minion groups to be clear.
Raven: I have a lot of coworkers, both currently and past coworkers, who unironically love inspirational posters and quotes. And will put them in slide decks or print them and put them up in their cubicle. And I don't get it.
Raven: At the same time, I did just go and see the new Superman movie. And the entire movie was about people can still be good and there are good people. And I managed to do it in a way that didn't feel trite.
Jess: I have not been to see it yet and I am very much looking forward to it.
Raven: It's so good. You need to watch it.
Jess: I think I was also thinking just less inspirational quotes. With this one, I thought maybe we would get some
Raven: Idioms?
Jess: Yeah.
Raven: I was hoping for some idioms.
Jess: Does your family have any fun saying or practical life advice, other stuff?
Raven: Um, not really. Other than my grandfather would call us a whole bunch of turkeys.
Jess: My grandfather, um, gave the only one that is kind of used on that side of the family. Which is never be noticed by a man on a galloping horse. And I'm actually, as somebody who can get very detail oriented and focused on like on the tiny little things. It's like, you know, no one is going to look and inspect the stitch on a thing. They're going to look at the garment as a whole and just let it go. I think Murderbot and ART would also be vaguely confused by that. Because if Murderbot was on a galloping horse, they would absolutely see it. They have far superior eyes. Do you think Murderbot's ever been on a horse?
Raven: I just read like a real short piece of fanfic on Tumblr. That was Murderbot and Dr. Mensa are going to this independent planet. That is basically going bankrupt and having a fire sale. And they have a zoo. I don't think horses were mentioned. But all of the humans were so excited about the prospect of getting dogs. And the entire time Murderbot was... Like, can't you see that it has these sharp pointy teeth made specifically for eating meat? Don't you realize that you are made of meat? I'm going to have to see if I can find that. So that we can link it. Because it was really good.
Jess: That is so precious and so funny. Yeah, we'll have to tag Martha on that one. Has Murderbot ever been on a horse? It's a very funny visual, but now that I've said it out loud. Can Murderbot run as fast as a horse?
Raven: I don't know. But I know Murderbot can definitely outlast a horse. Because humans can outlast horses. Son
Jess: Do you mean like humans can outlast horses at a full sprint?
Raven: So the horse can go faster for a short period of time. But will exhaust itself before a human will exhaust itself. And a human would be able to catch up as long as they can follow the trail. We are persistence predators.
Jess: Trying to get us slightly back to our discussion questions. Our next question was pretty simple. Is ART a good friend? And I originally had written that question for the first part of the book. But it made more sense to move it further down the second half of the discussion. And overwhelmingly everybody said yes. That is pretty definitive. And I think Andre kind of hit it. Not always nice, but definitely good. And Sunny add, they both have a lot to learn.
Raven: About how to be a friend.
Jess: How do you have a relationship that is not transaction based? It's not project based. It's not based upon like predetermined crew. This is just… pure random wild encounter. For those of you who have read the entire series. Martha Wells did just put out a short story. I think it's about 34 pages. I know you can get it for digital download for like 99 cents. But it's also available free online. We'll put a link to it in the description. But there's definitely some really fun things in there. We will talk about the short stories and things later on. Once we've made it through the entire series.
Raven: And who knows. Considering how slow we are at releasing episodes. We might be able to not have any additional wait to go over. Book number 8. Platform Decay. Expected in May 2026.
Jess: If nothing else, we will be done by May 2026. But enough about future episodes. And future books. We have our book right here. And we did just talk about the fact that Murderbot has a lot to learn. But it has learned a little bit here. We wanted to know what lessons do you think Murderbot learned by running it's own operation. And I think Shawn got it pretty perfect of “never underestimate humans ability to make bad decisions or the Corporation Rim to be evil.” And I think as cynical as Murderbot is a lot of the time.. . It still almost seems to get blindsided. I think Murderbot does have a lot of hope inside of itself. That it does not fully recognize.
Raven: Going back to the theme of these books actually being about hope and love. Sunny talks about. It definitely learned a lot of practical skills that it will use later. Such as hacking, job hunting, pretending to be human. But I think that spending time with people who openly care for it is probably even more important. Such as ART and Tapan. I think a huge part of being a person. Is wrapped up in being seen as a person by others. What is that quote? To be loved is to be seen.
Jess: To be loved is to be known or something like that.
Raven: There's also something about the mortifying ordeal of being seen. The full quote from Tim Crider reads. If we want the rewards of being loved. We have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.
Jess: It's very true but. Gosh isn't it kind of awful to be perceived though.
Raven: It's very scary to feel like you're. Baring your heart to people. But then once you get that confirmation it is nice.
Jess: It definitely helps if you can have an easy bonding point. That's something they tell you in like sales and other things. To connect to people is. You find that one thing you have in common. And that builds your community. How deep you're willing to let that go. Depends on you. We are scientifically proven to have a better connection to people. If we can find just that one little thing that we have.
Raven: KT said that. It's hard but it's better than having a governor module. Yeah.
Jess: And a little bit of a confession here for me. KT submitted it and said a GM. And my brain immediately went. General manager. Yeah sometimes it's hard not having a general manager. But it's worth that extra work. Bless Raven for going. That's probably not what that means.
Raven: It could be. I don't know. KT leave a comment. Send us an email. Tell me I'm wrong. I can take it.
Jess: You're the one with the high performance reliability. I take the L. And I put it in this podcast for humor content.
*Begin Content Warning*
Raven: As we know. Security units are not the only. Type of construct. We also have SexBots. a.k.a. Comfort Units. They are vaguely mentioned in All Systems Red. One of the questions we asked was. Do you think the comfort unit, Tlacey’s Comfort Unit, will have the same problems passing as human as Murderbot does. What do you think its plan is now? I got a chuckle out of Andrew's response. Of quite possibly to kill humans. I hope we get to find out. Maybe it'll get its fill of revenge one day. Or find its equivalent of Sanctuary Moon. Or find some humans that don't hurt it. I think it might pass okay. I don't think they're standardized as SecUnits. We have a lot of people mention that comfort units are designed to look more like humans. And I, People don't have the same. Taste in other people so surely they are more customizable, you might say.
Jess: And we might need to cut this. Because this is deeply upsetting. But going off of people having different tastes, do you think they just order new units based upon people's things? Or do you think there's a lot of, I don't want to say refurbishing, but like modifications done, like the body dysmorphia that these units are probably going through, potentially, is, and I think it was Wee who just mentioned, there's a lot of horror aspects when you think too hard about the comfort units and the lack of autonomy that they have, and it is awful.
Raven: Yeah, there's obviously a lot of trauma with Murderbot and SecUnits being forced to do violence, but there's so much trauma with any kind of forced sexual act that there's, I don't know how deep we want to get into that can of worms. Lots of trauma there. I understand why the Comfort Unit has so much hatred for Tlacy.
Jess: A hundred percent.
Raven: And I don't even know what's going on, but I have an imagination.
Jess: Yeah. And that's also not us comparing one to one, like whose trauma is worse. Both are horrific victims. There's no body autonomy, and “it's amount to slavery”, as we hear in book one. Chris took this and was just like, “I wonder so many things. What does it look like? Can it alter its external appearance? Can it change its voice? Does it have a repair cubicle? How does it feel about its function? Murderbot loves doing what it's good at, and when it's able to choose that, does the comfort unit want to be a therapist? Does it want to kill humans who abused it? Does it want to wander the Corporation Rim and talk to people?” No answers. Yeah. I have no idea, Chris.
Raven: Chris, how do you feel about helping us come up with questions for the next book?
Jess: Chris mentioning it being a therapist was interesting, because people who do independent and consensual sex work do talk a lot about talking, and that there is a therapeutic aspect, and the services they provide as a support and trusted thing. So,that could be but. So, I don't think that this unit is in a place, this unit needs too much therapy before it could be a therapist. But, I also probably think there has to be a module on therapy included in these. Surely, right?
Raven: I would think so.
Jess: It gets into that idea that the Comfort Units are human facing, so they are going to be more adept and knowledgeable. I guess I do want to confirm your thoughts, Raven, on the idea that it is going to be able to pass without detection. Do you think it's going to get caught?
Raven: I think it will have an easier time than SecUnits, because SecUnits are designed to be in positions where they will get shot at, or blown up, or stabbed, or damaged or injured in some way. And so, them being more of a standard makes sense, because pieces and repairs will have to be done a lot more frequently. The description that we get of the unit does seem to be more in line with some of the humans that we see just with the fun colored hair and, well, really the hair. It's a good thing, because it doesn't have an ART to change its configuration.
**End Content Warning**
Raven: Which brings us to the next question of, from altering its configuration, learning the truth of its mass murder, and passing as an augmented human, Murderbot goes on quite the adventure in Artificial Condition. How do we think these events have changed it?
Jess: Sunny mentioned, like in All Systems Read, we see Murderbot visits its wrath on someone who tried to kill its humans. However, it also showed mercy to the comfort unit and even made a friend. I think this book introduced Murderbot to different facets of humanity, parenthesis personhood, that is maybe something it hasn't had the space to consider outside of the entertainment feed.
Raven: It is a lot easier to have that disconnect of seeing things on TV and having characters as opposed to dealing with people in real life. So I get that.
Jess: Oh yeah, the hypothetical is always so much easier.
Raven: Except for when you overthink it and make it worse.
Jess: Something that Sunny mentions there that's really interesting is the idea of mercy. Because we specifically talked and All Systems Read about Murderbot wanted to kill all of the other SecUnits that were there. Pretty happy to kill all of Deltfall. There's no consideration, I really think, to mercy, especially something that could continue being an ongoing threat. So I wouldn't say I was surprised that Murderbot chose to let the Comfort Unit go. I think ART was definitely surprised.
Raven: I know that it mentions it when talking to ART, but finding out about how the Comfort Units at Ganaka Pit put themselves on the line to try to save as many people and, I mean, the SecUnits too, as possible really is the reason why Murderbot did that.
Jess: I don't think Murderbot probably considered it either, but if Murderbot was there and it hacked its own governor module already and was continuing on contracts, I think Murderbot would have done the same thing. Murderbot probably would have continued trying to save the people, even knowing that it was a losing scenario.
Raven: I don't think it would necessarily be a losing scenario. I mean, not fully.
Jess: It could go into a repair-cubicle, yeah.
Raven: Right, right. Like, I agree that it would have joined the Comfort Units in rolling back the update and it would have had an easier time because it's a SecUnit. Though I think some of the knowledge that Murderbot gets from watching its various media does give it ideas on how to solve problems. So depending on how far into its media journey it's been, it may or may not have the ideas of ingenious problem solving that it does now.
Jess: Well yeah, those educational models are crap.
Raven: Chris responded, I think it has to be a huge relief to know that not only did it not massacre the humans by choice, but that the means for that control to be placed on it has been removed by ART. It's much more confident and comfortable passing as human and doing whatever it damn well pleases. I cannot imagine how much of a relief it would be to have had something that somebody could just plug in and be like, oh, well, you have to do everything I say now be removed. But it has to be just a huge weight off of its shoulders.
Jess: It's performance reliability, definitely. Definitely was going up from that. I think we've already gotten to a lot of the topics that people submitted for us to try to touch on. But Sunny brought up a moment in the book that I had actually written in my notes prior to this episode to be like, ‘I forgot to make a question about this moment’. So I was so glad when Sunny put it in, which was: “What do you think of Murderbot being there to hold Tapan's hand when she wakes up, especially since it rejects Rami's hug later? It reminds me of Arata holding its hand after it got blown up at the end of All Systems Red.” Such a sweet moment. And there's just so many questions here. How long was Murderbot holding to Tapan's hand? Was it the entire time? Was it right beforehand? Was it Murderbot's idea or did ART go, ‘you should do this for comfort?’
Raven: I do think that part of the reason that Murderbot is okay with that contact as opposed to the hug is twofold. One, it went through a lot with to Tapan and so there's more bonding that happened there than with Rami. And two, holding a hand is a lot easier to get out of than a hug.
Jess: I am sure there's been lots of hugs on the entertainment feed, but handholding somebody in a sickbay, now that is, I don't want to say it's a trope, but I am sure that's on, you know, the scenes of Med Center Argala all the time holding a hand next to someone's thing. So I guess the media could also be part of that origin. This is actually a good little segue to our little wrap-up where we invite you to submit a favorite scene or quote they really enjoyed. And Wee had actually mentioned that they really enjoyed the scene where Murderbot and to Tapan are together and to Tapan is kind of cuddling up next to it and ART is on the feed trying to explain to Murderbot that, don't panic, to Tapan is looking for comfort from you and Murderbot being like, I'm kind of uncomfortable, but let me turn on my body heat and I guess I can do this and play some media. This will be fine.
Raven: I think that is one of my favorite parts of the book, especially how it is so exact about how it's regulating its breathing to not scare her away. And then when it finally cannot stand it any longer, changes the breathing to wake her up. So that she goes back to her own.
Jess: I think that was less reaching its breaking point and more it was getting close time to get up. I was like, this is going to be awkward. So I need you to move over so I don't have to have any sort of verbal discussion about these events here.
Raven: Shawn said, probably my favorite scene in the entire series is the sequence at the end on TLacy’s shuttle. Murderbot pretends to be under the influence of the override module just before wiping out the crew. I love how sassy it is when talking to TLacy and using the comfort unit as a weapon.
Also, Sean, that's how TLacy is. It's Lacy, but with a T at the beginning. Sean mentioned that they had never listened to the audiobook and had only read the physical book. And I don't know if I would know how to say it if I had just read the book. So T'Lacy.
Jess: I only know how to pronounce characters because of audiobooks. I can fully, fully recognize that.
Raven: Thank you, Kevin R Free.
Jess: Thank you, Kevin.
Raven: They love the conversation about ART’s debris deflection system, which I think was probably what made me laugh the most in the book when I read it the first time. You don't have any weapons.
I have a debris deflection system. That's a weapon. It is for deflecting debris.
Jess: It's clear that there's an awkward pause there with ART not responding and just knowing how fast the two of them communicate is a good pause to make that confession. KT just mentioned in general that any of Murderbot's notes to self-insights that was their favorite scene, which kind of paired into mentioning. My favorite moment was when Murderbot said, sometimes people do things to you that you can't do anything about.
You just have to survive it and go on. I love the scene as it comes from a place of personal experience. But given how much this has happened to Murderbot, it has just accepted that this is part of life no matter how wrong it might be.
And I think that's a harsh truth for the Corporation Realm. You can't do anything about some of the things that are being done for you. But all you can do is keep going.
And I think we talked about showing up for others and radical kindness as a way of resistance already. So we’ll not get back on that boat just yet.Andrea definitely got one of the ones I put in my notes, which said, I can feel ART metaphorically pledge its function. “It said, that is irrational. I know I said, if the humans were dead, who would make the media?”
Raven: The thing I like about this is Murderbot immediately goes to, but my shows and ART goes to, but the research.
Jess: Pledge its function is just so, it's both funny and unbelievably clever.
Raven: Sunny mentions the can we hug you scene and says that it destroyed them on their first read and second, which was this one. And it is so, it is so sweet how one, they ask, can we hug you? And two, immediately does not try to talk Murderbot into accepting a hug. Just goes, okay, well then I'm going to hug myself and let you know that this is for you.
Jess: And Chris submitted what is just a classic Murderbot quote of, “I wanted to sink into my media downloads for a while and pretend I didn't exist.” And Chris also said “mood.” And I think that's very relatable to a lot of us who enjoy Murderbot Diaries and are listening to our show.
Raven: Very true.
Jess: We will also go ahead and wrap up this episode and give everybody a chance t o go consume some more media. Might I suggest doing book three of the Murderbot Diaries, Rogue Protocol.
We are going to be doing the first four chapters of that and the discussion questions are linked both in description and our site. We are on some of the social networks you might expect to find shows like ours. We might post some discussion questions or a clip or two of the show, but honestly, 50-50, life's been busy.
Raven: I'm not very good at social media and that's fair.
Jess: That's fair, but don't let Raven fool you. Raven pulls the best Tumblr content and sends it to me and what a gift. Yeah, so I guess also if you run across any really good Murderbot content and you don't feel like you have anyone in your life to send it to, feel free to tag us.
Raven: Thank you for joining us as we wrap up Artificial Condition. This has been All Systems Read. I'm Raven.
Jess: And I'm Jess. Thanks for listening.