But I think ‘Murderbot’ really speaks to everyone who’s ever felt they had to hide who they were, that they had to put on a face just to survive in society,” Mayer says. “For one thing, it’s a lot more human than a lot of humans I know. Petra Mayer of NPR Books says she loved “Murderbot” for multiple reasons. Staying sane by consuming large quantities of media sounds a lot like pandemic binge-watching, a very human quality. “It was very easy for me to imagine a being like Murderbot that has been mentally tortured and in these terrible situations finding that resource and falling into it to stay sane.” “I dealt with depression and anxiety all my life. Murderbot shares that coping mechanism with Wells, who has also watched a lot of media in her time. Being at humans’ beck and call while simultaneously being treated like a dangerous killer has made Murderbot anxious and depressed.Īnd it has even more cause for those emotions: There is a mass murder in its past - something it only vaguely remembers but enough to give itself the name Murderbot and use entertainment as a way to cope. Media binging also provides a welcome distraction. “When Murderbot gets put into these situations of having to make plans and strategies and having to rescue people, it does tend to draw on things it’s seen in the media because it’s seen all that stuff in the adventure shows it watches,” she explains.

“What I was going for was what an AI would actually want to do as opposed to what a human would think an AI wants to do,” creator Wells says.įor Murderbot, media binging actually helps it continue to do its job protecting humans, even though it can get quite cranky when those humans are stupid and reckless. In the over 35,000 hours since it hacked its module, it’s partaken of a little under 35,000 hours of movies, plays, books and music. Having hacked its governor module, it could go on a murder spree without punishment.įortunately for humanity, Murderbot would much rather watch entertainment. Instead they’re considered dangerous and companies install “governor modules” to punish or kill them if they step out of line.īut Murderbot has a secret. But even though SecUnits are self-aware and have emotions, they’re not trusted. Murderbot is a security unit, or SecUnit, in a future where corporations dominate space exploration. But it doesn’t have sex organs: They’re not necessary for its job. A layer of skin covers its mechanical and organic parts. Martha Wells’ “Murderbot” doesn’t fit into either trope. Then there’s good AI like Data in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” who gets lost in wonderment at the human ability to whistle. There’s evil AI - think HAL, the computer in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” who stops obeying orders from the humans so it can kill them.

Science fiction often portrays artificial intelligence in one of two ways. 'Fugitive Telemetry' by Martha Wells (Courtesy) This article is more than 1 year old.

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