Network Effect - Tumblr Posts
“If the ship speaks, why didn’t it come here in person?”
Perihelion’s drone: You don’t want to meet me in person.
1985 cover art by Vincent Di Fate for “The Moment of Eclipse,” by Brian W. Aldiss
So there’s drink all over my desk now, thanks.
Look at their happy family
Finding friends who understand your buffer phrases, who know your Tapbacks/emojis/gifs/memes (and other mostly wordless “pinging” feed communications) are an expression of presence, affection, and investment, friends who not only get you but know your whole deal and yet like you anyway: yeah.
It knows they’re not going to abandon it, and that’s why it’s ready to give anything it’s got for them.
.
(Technically paraphrasing from System Collapse at the end there, but I genuinely can’t see how this is a spoiler in any way.)
Murderbot's buffer and autism coding
Various and sundry spoilers
One thing I absolutely love in this series is Murderbot's buffer. When it's too busy and distracted, Murderbot's programming takes over and it delivers canned phrases that may or may not communicate what it wants to communicate, and this is so fucking relatable
(Personal autism paragraph) I've actually used this series to explain to my wife what happens when I try to answer a complex-for-me question in conversational "real time", and why I get frustrated about things that I've cheerfully agreed to. (I don't know wtf is going on and I need to answer in NT time frame! Quick, be super agreeable!) (Currently trying to learn the new buffer phrases "let me think about that" and "give me a minute")
Back to Murderbot God I love this detail so much. It's partly just for comedy, but it's also dead serious, like so much of this series. It's about being programmed and how that programming takes over. "This unit is at minimal functionality and it is recommended that you discard it." Murderbot has been treated like a thing and that's so ingrained in its systems by now that sometimes it's just going to come out its mouth, like it doesn't want to be abandoned, but that's how it's lived for so long. ARGH
Also I love love love in Network Effect where Overse knows about the buffer and what it means and interprets it for Thiago. She knows what that tone of voice is (it's a canned response) she knows why it happens (it's from when Murderbot was enslaved) and she knows what it means ("it's too busy to talk"). I love Murderbot's friends so much I totally understand why it keeps risking horrible fates for them.
three went through it
assorted mb + amena (+ ART) doodles
Note to hostiles: running away is probably your best option.
"There is a lot about what is going on here that I don't understand. But I am participating anyway." -Three in Network Effect by Martha Wells.
Is me trying to be social.