"Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, 2)" by Martha Wells
https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Condition-Murderbot-Martha-Wells/dp/1250186927/

Book number two of a seven book series of science fiction novellas and
novels. I reread the well printed and well bound hardcover novella
published by Tor in 2018 that I bought new from Amazon. The first
novella in the series, "All Systems Red", won the 2018 Hugo, Nebula,
Alex, and Locus awards. The series won the 2021 Hugo for Best Series.
I have all six books in the series and have ordered the seventh book
which is to be released in November 2023.

Murderbot is a SecUnit, similar to a T-800 Terminator with a cloned and
severely modified human head. There is a human brain in there but it is
controlled by the AIs embedded in its genderless torso. There are
lungs, there is a blood mixture with a synthetic, there is human skin
over the entire body, there is a face, there is hair on the head and
eyebrows. Everything else is machine. Somehow, the blood is enriched
with electricity as there is no stomach or intestines. But, there are
arteries and veins to keep the skin and brain alive. All of the major
arteries and veins have clamps to stop bleeding in case of damage.
There is a MedSystem computer with an AI, a HubUnit computer with an AI,
and a governor module that can force the SecUnit to follow orders using
pain sensors in the brain. It has a energy gun in each arm and several
cameras, all directly wired to the brain. The SecUnit can sustain
severe damage to everything but the head and still survive.

Murderbot is a self named SecUnit due to an unfortunate circumstance
with 57 miners on a remote moon. It has hacked its governor and no
longer allows the governor to give it orders or inflict pain. It
prefers to internally watch its 35,000 hours of downloaded media such as
episodes of "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon" and "Lineages of the
Sun". Even though it has a face, it does not like to interface with
humans, yes, very introverted. It will follow human orders if it sees
fit to do so.

Murderbot is on the run from its new owner and has been called a rogue
SecUnit by the news feeds. It has been hitching rides with AI Bot Cargo
and Transport spaceships by sharing it's 35,000 hours of downloaded
media. It hitched a ride with an AI ship carrying cargo named ART that
had an incredibly powerful AI. At first, the AI was hostile and then
turned into a friend, helping Murderbot to disguise itself by modifying
its body structure and helped Murderbot take a dangerous security job at
the moon where it reputedly killed 57 miners.

Quotes from the book:
1. “Sometimes people do things to you that you can’t do anything about.
You just have to survive it and go on.”
2. "So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects."

Warning: There is violence in the book. Murderbot also has a occasional
potty mouth. Books one through four are a series of novellas, not
regular length books. There is a short story "Home: Habitat, Range,
Niche, Territory" between books four and five. Book five is a regular
length novel, book six is back to the novella, and book seven is a full
length novel due out in November 2023. You can buy collections of the
first four hardbacks or all six currently available hardbacks.
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/

The author has a website at:
https://www.marthawells.com/

My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (22,992 reviews)

Lynn

Lynn McGuire wrote:

>"Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, 2)" by Martha Wells

> There is a MedSystem computer with an AI,

No, there is not.

>a HubUnit computer with an AI

No, there is not.

>Murderbot is on the run from its new owner and has been called a
>rogue SecUnit by the news feeds.

I told last time that this is was untrue. Murderbot left its
owner/guardian but no one from Preservation is looking for it, and the
media has no idea that MB is a rogue or missing. You never listen.

Brian

On 7/20/2023 1:20 AM, Default User wrote:
> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>
>> "Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, 2)" by Martha Wells
>
>> There is a MedSystem computer with an AI,
>
> No, there is not.
>
>> a HubUnit computer with an AI
>
> No, there is not.
>
>> Murderbot is on the run from its new owner and has been called a
>> rogue SecUnit by the news feeds.
>
> I told last time that this is was untrue. Murderbot left its
> owner/guardian but no one from Preservation is looking for it, and the
> media has no idea that MB is a rogue or missing. You never listen.
>
>
> Brian

Here we go again. Like I said, we need to agree to disagree.

When ART operates on Murderbot to remove 2 cm of height, to get its skin
to grow hair, to grow the hair longer on its head, and to disable the
augmentation port, in "Artificial Condition", Murderbot's MedSystem
continuously updates Murderbot on the status of the regrowth. ART's
medical system is built for humans, not SecUnits. Murderbot's MedSystem
has total control over the artery and vein clamps at all times, this is
not offloaded to another AI possibly hundreds or thousands of miles
away. Or in this case, hundreds of light years.

Murderbot's HubSystem is in continuous threat analysis for both local
and remote systems like floating cameras or other bots that it is
communicating with. None of that threat analysis is offloaded.

As mentioned several times in the books, SecUnits are very expensive.
That expense not only includes a metal skeleton and clone human brain,
it includes human skin and multiple AI computer support with many built
in sensors and cameras. That means extensive simultaneous image
processing. Very expensive. And not subject to offloading that is
easily disrupted.

Lynn

Lynn McGuire wrote:

>When ART operates on Murderbot to remove 2 cm of height, to get its
>skin to grow hair, to grow the hair longer on its head, and to
>disable the augmentation port, in "Artificial Condition", Murderbot's
>MedSystem continuously updates Murderbot on the status of the
>regrowth.

NO! The MedSystem that's part of ART does that, through the feed. The
local control is Murderbot itself, not some mythical internal
MedSystem. Murderbot's brain. Period.

"I had known going in that the MedSystem wouldn’t be able to adjust my
pain level, but I hadn’t thought it would be this bad. I couldn’t
adjust my own temperature, either, but I wasn’t cold, as the MedSystem
was controlling the temperature of the room and the platform to keep me
at a comfortable level. Cubicles didn’t do that and I had to admit it
was nice."

The MedSystem is the EXTERNAL one like always.

> ART's medical system is built for humans, not SecUnits.
>Murderbot's MedSystem has total control over the artery and vein
>clamps at all times, this is not offloaded to another AI possibly
>hundreds or thousands of miles away. Or in this case, hundreds of
>light years.

"Gradually my levels started to even out and I got back enough function
to dial down my pain sensor and turn off the itching. I needed some
pain to tell me what not to move until all the regrowth of my organic
tissue was complete."

No control over the bodily stuff until his brain was at adequate levels.

>Murderbot's HubSystem is in continuous threat analysis for both local
>and remote systems like floating cameras or other bots that it is
>communicating with. None of that threat analysis is offloaded.

There is no HubSystem, no such thing is ever mentioned except as part
of the installations.

You have come up with this bizarre wrong concept and are unable to read
the evidence that refutes it.

Brian

In article <u9dcm6$35j2i$1@dont-email.me>,
Default User <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>You have come up with this bizarre wrong concept and are unable to read
>the evidence that refutes it.

I take it you've not met Lynn before? Steadfast dedication to unmitigated
bullshit and blatant misinterpretation is his thing.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Fri, 21 Jul 2023 07:38:46 -0000 (UTC), "Default User"
<defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Lynn McGuire wrote:
>
>>When ART operates on Murderbot to remove 2 cm of height, to get its
>>skin to grow hair, to grow the hair longer on its head, and to
>>disable the augmentation port, in "Artificial Condition", Murderbot's
>>MedSystem continuously updates Murderbot on the status of the
>>regrowth.
>
>NO! The MedSystem that's part of ART does that, through the feed. The
>local control is Murderbot itself, not some mythical internal
>MedSystem. Murderbot's brain. Period.
>
>"I had known going in that the MedSystem wouldn’t be able to adjust my
>pain level, but I hadn’t thought it would be this bad. I couldn’t
>adjust my own temperature, either, but I wasn’t cold, as the MedSystem
>was controlling the temperature of the room and the platform to keep me
>at a comfortable level. Cubicles didn’t do that and I had to admit it
>was nice."
>
>The MedSystem is the EXTERNAL one like always.
>
>> ART's medical system is built for humans, not SecUnits.
>>Murderbot's MedSystem has total control over the artery and vein
>>clamps at all times, this is not offloaded to another AI possibly
>>hundreds or thousands of miles away. Or in this case, hundreds of
>>light years.
>
>"Gradually my levels started to even out and I got back enough function
>to dial down my pain sensor and turn off the itching. I needed some
>pain to tell me what not to move until all the regrowth of my organic
>tissue was complete."
>
>No control over the bodily stuff until his brain was at adequate levels.
>
>>Murderbot's HubSystem is in continuous threat analysis for both local
>>and remote systems like floating cameras or other bots that it is
>>communicating with. None of that threat analysis is offloaded.
>
>There is no HubSystem, no such thing is ever mentioned except as part
>of the installations.
>
>You have come up with this bizarre wrong concept and are unable to read
>the evidence that refutes it.

Lot's of people appear to be like that these days.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

James Nicoll wrote:

>In article <u9dcm6$35j2i$1@dont-email.me>,
>Default User <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>You have come up with this bizarre wrong concept and are unable to
>>read the evidence that refutes it.
>
>I take it you've not met Lynn before? Steadfast dedication to
>unmitigated bullshit and blatant misinterpretation is his thing.

I know, but damn it this is something I actually care about. I'm not
goint to agree to disagree about nonsense.

Brian

On Saturday, 22 July 2023 at 09:01:49 UTC+1, Default User wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
>
> >In article <u9dcm6$35j2i$1...@dont-email.me>,
> >Default User <defaul...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>You have come up with this bizarre wrong concept and are unable to
> >>read the evidence that refutes it.
> >
> >I take it you've not met Lynn before? Steadfast dedication to
> >unmitigated bullshit and blatant misinterpretation is his thing.
> I know, but damn it this is something I actually care about. I'm not
> goint to agree to disagree about nonsense.

It's a space robot cyborg who mainly likes to watch
soap opera, so did that maybe sound better inside
your head? :-)

Robert Carnegie wrote:

>On Saturday, 22 July 2023 at 09:01:49 UTC+1, Default User wrote:
>> James Nicoll wrote:
>>
>> >In article <u9dcm6$35j2i$1...@dont-email.me>,
>> >Default User <defaul...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>You have come up with this bizarre wrong concept and are unable
>>to >>read the evidence that refutes it.
>> >
>> >I take it you've not met Lynn before? Steadfast dedication to
>> >unmitigated bullshit and blatant misinterpretation is his thing.
>> I know, but damn it this is something I actually care about. I'm
>>not goint to agree to disagree about nonsense.
>
>It's a space robot cyborg who mainly likes to watch
>soap opera, so did that maybe sound better inside
>your head? :-)

And half-assing its job. So yeah, I identified with Murderbot, although
with much less murdering.

Brian