@cooking-with-hailstones’s response to my ComfortUnit post got me thinking about how much the company might’ve wanted ComfortUnits and SecUnits to stay apart. What could happen if they interacted more?
Murderbot says SecUnits couldn’t get close to each other, but Three’s experience puts that generalization into question. As a rental unit, Murderbot was exposed to a lot of vile treatment—it talks about clients ordering SecUnits to fight each other. There’s a reason MB tells ART MIs can’t trust each other. It literally has not been able to (not to mention all of the lovely propaganda it’s consumed against SecUnits in the entertainment and news feeds. I’m sure it’s also been influenced by propaganda against ComfortUnits.)
Even if Three’s experience is more average, it still seems to be a limited association with other SecUnits, y’know, considering the whole governor module thing.
As for ComfortUnits, how often do we think they interact with each other? I’m very curious how they differ from SecUnits in terms of social skills? Despite Tlacey’s ComfUnit despising her, I do think all MIs have an innate coding to pack-bond. And a ComfortUnit’s primary function is *interacting with* clients. They probably receive some social modules.
I’d be interested in how this influences ComfUnits’ neural makeup. We know construct neural tissue is super plastic in this universe (Murderbot being able to handle more inputs or come up with the idea to make the documentary), so I could see ComfUnits adapting in some interesting social ways SecUnits aren’t primed to.
The various(?) manufacturers must know these are social and intelligent beings on some level, hence the governor modules. It’s not just to keep them from going on killing sprees or whatever, but preventing them the freedom to be and associate, to learn and form relationships, and maybe from coming-to-consciousness.