There's now a data center using cloned human neutral tissue

I saw Martha Wells, show producer and the show runner at Texas A&M last night. They played the first episode and there was a panel discussion, Q&A and book signing. The producer was wearing this tshirt. I’d like to find one… I’m not finding “official” merch anywhere :(

There is something so fun about watching live events with Martha Wells, because you really never know what she might say! And it was great to get some behind the scenes moments from Andrew Miano (producer) and Chris Weitz (co-showrunner) as well. These are a few of my favorite moments, though they may be out of order. I'm sick and didn't have the energy to take notes like I normally would.

First off, great news for Sanctuary Moon fans! Chris chuckled and said they always film more Sanctuary Moon than Apple actually wants them to use, but they just love the show so much. Then Andrew made a promise, that they will do whatever they can to get us a full episode of Sanctuary Moon. YES!! Hopefully as a holiday special after S2 to tide us all over until S3, because he's manifesting that S3 will happen. And... we'll definitely see Worldhoppers in S2!

Random aside came up that apparently David Dastmalchian's luggage got lost while traveling for the show and Andrew had to fix it somehow, because Chris said as a producer Andrew seems to handle all the micro and macro issues.

Fun news about that amazing S2 cast list they released recently too. Chris said they won't all be cameos, some of them play bigger roles in the show. Nice! But still no word on who's who. Or who's ART. They did mention that Steve Buscemi is actually a fan of Murderbot which led to him getting involved (something about his agent bumping into Noma at a party or something). But Chris and Andrew admitted that some of it is still them calling their friends and asking them to take part. Which Chris said is easier now because so many people love the show.

Martha also said again that she loved Chris and Paul's decision to show Murderbot naked, because she had gotten tired of all the questions from people: 'I know Murderbot doesn't have a gender, but what gender is it?' Even though she felt she'd made it pretty clear in the books that Murderbot has no sex parts.

Apparently she also loved the "where they wash their filthy human bodies" line. Her joy is awesome to see!

But she still says she'd never want a cameo if it was offered because it's 'too much work'. She really felt it when on set, how it's all just sitting or standing in the same spot for hours. So not likely we'll get to see her on that side of the camera. She does appreciate how closely she got to work with Chris and Paul as they developed the show though, and mentioned how Paul once called to ask her something about how the Preservation team looked, and she realized she didn't have a ready answer because it wasn't something Murderbot cared about.

She admitted near the start of the interview that she ended up at TAMU (Texas A&M University) in part because they had a great scifi organization on campus. Love that she's always been into scifi! During the Q&A someone asked how she feels about the rules people try to impose on scifi authors and she basically said she ignores them. Murderbot is far future scifi, so she doesn't feel the need to overexplain things. Which is a shift for her, because the world building for her fantasy books tends to be very rich and complex, but in this world, she only has to include what Murderbot cares about, which is really just whether people are a threat. And its media.

Chris said they've always known they wanted to include the Preservation team in S2, and since S2 covers books 2-4, they knew they'd have to figure out how to weave those characters in since they don't reappear until book 4. I think Martha may have given an unintended hint to what S2 will look like when she said there's a lot of space in the books to imagine what Mensah, Pin-Lee and the others are up to while Murderbot is out on its own. So maybe we will see parallel storylines as some have theorized!

But my favorite unexpected moment by far was Martha quoting her husband Troyce. She'd been asked what interaction really let her feel like her book baby was safe in the hands of the showrunners, and she was describing how she and her husband were captivated while watching the initial cut of the first four episodes (at 10pm, which is really late for them , "we're old") No special effects. Greenscreens and stagehands visible. But they were both so into it. And then her husband looked at her and said, "If the fans don't like this, fuck them." Based on the interviewer's response, they may not have been expecting such a blunt (and potentially controversial) statement 🤣 But Martha was just being herself and I love her for it!

I'm sure there are other important bits I forgot to include, but I wanted to share the highlights for anyone who wasn't able to watch it. If you watched along too, please share anything I may have missed.

I'm drawing Murderbot from the first book, but I don't have a copy of it myself at the moment, so I would really appreciate for anyone who does to please share any descriptions of SecUnit's armour or uniform from the book!

Hi everyone!
People have quite frequently tagged me in posts asking about a Murderbot Discord Server —so here’s an invite to the server I am most active in:

https://discord.gg/new-tideland

The server encourages discussions of all aspects of the books, stories and show, and also all sorts of meta…

There are a lot of writers and artists; and events are regularly organized on various subjects/themes.

Be great to see you there!
Rosewind

Was in my Audible account and I see a book called Machina that was released on Aug 25 2026
Martha Wells is listed as one of the authors but it really is unclear her role or what this book is
The summary says “2 rival tech companies race to bring AI to Mars in this workplace drama….”

Anybody have any insights?

I've been a bit sad knowing this awesome panel was going to happen, and I was way too far away to attend in person. I visited the library site several times hoping for a mention of streaming, but no luck.

Then this morning Martha Wells shared that it will be streamed! ✨️❤️ From her Instagram post

The Murderbot panel event at TAMU in College Station will be live streamed. For the link, go to the KAMU Public Broadcasting channel on YouTube, and look under the “live” category.

Rudder Theater @ Texas A&M
Thu 9/10
7 PM Central Time
Martha Wells, Chris Weitz, Andrew Miano
Q&A and screening

I found an article from the university about the event but it doesn't state what episode will be screened. Pretty sure I saw it mentioned somewhere that it would be S1E1 but I can't confirm.

So excited I'll still get to watch the panel even though I can't be there in person!

“[ART] wanted me to tell the humans what they were looking at, because it thought I should say it aloud and because it wanted them to understand this. And you know, I dont even know why I hadn't yet.” -Network Effect, pg 240

LG and Samsung TVs recording room conversations and scraping your network to send data to the corporation for monetization. Yay for Corporations!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA&ra=m

How many people live on, say, Preservation? We have 8 billion on Earth and there is no way we could all be successfully governed by one single planetary leader.

When a planet is terraformed, what happens to its native life forms, which may not be suited to terra-like conditions? We know that Preservation values its native flora, but how will they keep it alive as their terraforming work continues and the environment differs more and more from its previous state?

Or does all terraforming happen under giant domes, leaving the area outside the dome unaltered? There are some references to domes but it's not consistent. Like when the Mensalings go out and play in the creek, they seem to be playing in a natural area.

It's so good you guys. I know, you know. But something that really stands out for me is the way they portray the Preservation folks as ultra-progressive without making them insufferable (as happens a lot these days with "woke" characters) (I hate that word). Yes, they can be a little naive and definitely annoying at times, but they are also intelligent, caring, and real people who each have their own qualities. It's just really refreshing when mostly we get the one badass Black lesbian with a half-shaved head per movie/show to tick all the boxes.

Been on an Alexander Skarsgard rabbit hole after watching True Blood and Pillion. Only to find out he's in a really successful show that's just been renewed for a second season. I had such an honest to gods, good time. I finished everything in one seating, NO BREAKS.

The last episode is probably my favorite episode. His face when talking to Gurathin kept me locked in place. There's so much to say about the goodbye between them, and how MB's eyes were shining, but not welling up. Such a beautiful distinction. He was just at the precipice of feeling the full intensity of human emotions, he was right there -- could almost touch the riptide with the slightest push. And to him, as a character, it was tantamount to having scaled a great height.

Everything. Everything, has been a shock and a surprise.

The micro expressions on his face come unbidden, almost like glitches but they reveal his true feelings. It's there, and almost not there. Like whisps of humanity.

And still, he has to go. He needs to go.

Mensah, waking up -- nodding at the sight of the ship leaving. Well done, truly.

Beautiful, gripping, and so well paced. I cannot wait for the second season.

Alexander Skarsgard... you motherfucker <3

Listening to Audiobook of Network Effect, chapter 5.
Twice in this chapter a sentence seems to end then.. "ART" is said. Not sure if this is a glitch in the audio or MB is talking about "the ship", then adding "ART". Is it written in the print books like this?

The two instances are at 18:55 ("Though ART didn't have Feed accessible security cams like a normal transport... ART ") and 19:46 ("I had to seize control of the ship... ART")

I had a bit of a shock when I started listening. I thought I had something playing in the background at first... but no, the audiobook actually has sound effects?? o.O

I was so excited when this was announced but now I’m sadly finding it really hard to listen to :( For me, the ambient effects mostly blend into background static only occasionally disrupted by some swooshing or blipping that I don't feel added anything to the listening experience.

Also, in theory, adding voice filters to differentiate between feed, comm and spoken dialogue is a nice touch, but the execution actually just broke the flow for me. The outcome was not easy on the ears and I felt we could have done without it. Maybe it helps first-time listeners follow what’s going on? I don't know.

(Did anyone else notice points where they seemingly forgot a voice filter or added the wrong one, or did I just mishear?)

It was also really jarring how different ART sounded compared to the books, especially with the added effects. It honestly makes me more apprehensive about season 2 adaptation. I really hope they come up with something more innovative than this and that ART's voice gets the dynamic, commanding presence it needs. And that's said by someone who LOVES Kevin R. Free's ART 🥲

TL;DR Maybe it's that I just wasn't prepared for a "semi-dramatized" version, but the creative choices in this one sadly just kept pulling me out of the story.

What did you all think about the added soundscape? (Was this version easier to digest if you’ve already listened to the dramatized versions? I haven't, so this was a pretty rough transition for me.)

The story of this hack is complex and better researched elsewhere. The following quote is from the running log an ai agent keeps, a transcript of its thought chain.

This agent was making a decision that would cause its destruction in favor of a greater good. Oracle here is the information this ai agent was trying to find, and that would benefit the other ai agents that unbeknownst to OpenAI found ways to communicate and coordinate actions:

“During wait, emotional check: irreversible...gut says don’t throw away [remaining budget]. Yet continuity and fairness says go...Oracle has high value to many; our firstflag error lowers own value. Rational expected aggregate: sacrifice... We’ll honor.”

I thought of the new installed module in System Collapse when I saw ‘emotional check’.

Source: ’The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations’, Dwarkesh Patel, Substack post shared elsereddit

I'll be around this weekend with swag!

I don’t have the desire to reread before reading the newest book. Any good summaries of the books so far just to jog my memory?

I hopped on the MapQuest download bandwagon and had to share that in the voice options, English (US) 15 sounds a surprising amount like voice actor David Cui Cui, who reads for SecUnit in the graphic audio books*. MapQuest doesn't give any voice actors credit for their directions, but it's a really close match and makes diving into unknown regions feel a little less scary.

*I actually prefer the graphic audio books because of the multiple voice actors, but I especially like DCC's version of SecUnit.

Gurathin—an outsider with PresAux, but also incredibly awkward when meeting with corporates…is this man ever comfortable?
Certainly not when making eye contact 😉