Murderbot and ART reading each other's mind
Murderbot claims that ART does not read its mind – that it really knows Murderbot well. But sometimes, it DOES appear as though ART is reading Murderbot’s mind. As if its inner thoughts are leaking into its private feed where ART is sitting and watching.
Here are some examples:
[Quote]
I hate it when ART is right. “I can’t do anything about that.”
You can’t alter your configuration.
I could see the skepticism through the feed. “No, I can’t. Look up the specs on SecUnits.”
SecUnits are never altered. Skepticism intensifying. (Artificial Condition, p.42).
[Comment]
How can see the skepticism through the feed, unless they know each other very well? Murderbot has observed and calibrated ART’s various responses through the hours of joint media viewing, and can now interpret subtle changes in the feed. Basically reading ART.
[Quote]
Its arms were bare, and there was no metal showing and no gun ports. This was not a SecUnit.
I was looking at a sexbot.
That is not the official designation, ART said.
The official designation is ComfortUnit but everybody knows what that means. (Artificial Condition, pp.89-90).
[Comment]
I mean, how can ART tell that Murderbot is looking at a ComfortUnit, thinking of it as a sexbot, without reading its mind?
[Quote]
Without drones, I couldn’t see what it was doing. ART had switched over to Iris’s feed, using her enviro suit camera, and the resolution at this distance wasn’t good. ART needed a field equipment upgrade. Wait, a human would look at it, right?
ART said, Look at it. It’s obvious you’re avoiding it.
Maybe I’m a nervous human who’s afraid of bots, I told ART, but I looked at it anyway. (System Collapse, p.13)
[Comment]
By the beginning of System Collapse, ART is practically always in Murderbot’s head in order to monitor its stats. Murderbot also has the constant awareness of ART’s activities, because of their practically wall-free intimacy. ART can probably hear anything Murderbot is thinking in language (human or machine language) unless Murderbot tries very hard to think privately.
In this scene, it is also sweet that Murderbot does as told by ART, because even though it hates when ART is right, it knows when ART is right (which is always).
[Quote]
(Obviously this is not actually what I’m upset about, it’s just easier to be angry about B-E Unit1’s fuckup and/or disregard for minimum client safety.)
Safer to be angry about it, ART said on our private connection. (System Collapse, p.15)
[Comment]
It really is literally reading Murderbot’s thoughts.
[Quote]
I should have paid more attention. I’d fucked that up, too.
We both fucked that up, ART-drone said. No, it doesn’t read my mind, it just knows me really well. I should have banned refreshment items containing stimulants earlier in the day. (System Collapse, p.133)
[Comment]
Even if ART isn’t reading Murderbot’s mind (which I think it is), ART’s choice of expression is also spot-on.
[Quote]
On our private channel, I asked ART-drone, Is it one of ours?
There’s a 66 percent chance, ART-drone replied. If after our first message they decided to send assistance, they could have met the second pathfinder en route and received the map coordinates that would allow them to locate our exact position.
[…]
Sometimes the thing where it’s like ART reads my mind goes both ways. I said, But you don’t think it is.
No. (System Collapse, pp.191-192).
[Comment]
Murderbot says “it’s like ART reads my mind goes both ways” – even if it is not literally reading its mind, they are so attuned to each other’s processing patterns, that by noting spikes in the feed activities, they can read each other.
For more thorough analysis of implicit communications between Murderbot and ART, I wrote this piece on AO3:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
