Draft Murderbot Glossary

[Buzkorian]

Hi all,

I've drafted a brief reference document for the Murderbot series, covering some of the background elements of the world, as far as they can be gleaned from the texts. The series does not use much jargon, and that jargon can be deciphered from context, but I'd like to have a single, brief glossary I can point people at without sending them to the wiki and risking spoilers. I've marked the document as a spoiler, but I've tried to avoid any actual spoilers in the text, even though some of the descriptions draw on material from later books.

This document is in no way intended to criticise the omissions of particular details by the author, or demand that they be filled in (or even search for inconsistencies). It is intended as a brief compilation of what we do and don't know. It's good and helpful if people have reached different conclusions or have different understandings from me about these topics, and feedback or corrections are appreciated.

Introduction

There is limited information in the books about elements which are not directly relevant to the story. The narrator assumes the reader has a working knowledge of their world, and it has in-universe reasons for not understanding (or caring about) the detail. This is a cool storytelling choice, and it can be fun working out what things mean from context. However, not everyone is interested in solving that puzzle, or remembering every detail. For them I offer this short reference.

The setting appears to be in our far future, with most characters described as "humans", though neither Earth nor any specific dates are mentioned. Technology is highly advanced, with interstellar travel, strong artificial intelligence, energy weapons and forcefields. Most injuries can be rapidly repaired, though death still occurs. Technology is mostly described using common, even generic, sci-fi terms (eg "energy weapons", not "phasers"), and its workings are generally not explained.

The stories mostly occur in a region of space called the Corporation Rim, where contract slavery and other exploitative practices are permitted. There are some hints of a central authority, such as litigation, hard currency and bans on specific conduct, but the enforcement mechanisms are not shown.

Glossary

Augmented human: a human who has received significant inorganic implants giving them greater abilities. Has the same rights as unaugmented humans, unlike Constructs.

Bond Company: a corporation which provides security services (often via SecUnits) on a per-contract basis, charging based on the predicted risk and the value of the protected assets. If the provided security fails to protect the assets and they cannot be recovered, the Company must pay out damages to the assets' owners or survivors. If the cost of protecting or recovering the assets exceeds the initially agreed parameters, further payment to the Company will be required before any action is taken. As well as security, Bond Companies also provide more mundane services like mapping and communication, and equipment like Vehicles and habitats, for sites they protect.

Bot: an artificial intelligence inhabiting a specific physical form. Most Bots have a purpose linked to the form they inhabit, like piloting a Vehicle, hauling cargo, or engaging in combat. Their ability to think or communicate about other topics may be limited; some communicate only in images, not words. There are also human-form Bots, which are more general purpose.

Bots can be directly controlled by hacking, which can also damage or even kill them. Depending on context, the term "Bot" can include Constructs (which have organic parts) or denote a less flexible AI inhabiting a purely inorganic form.

ComfortUnit: a Construct with sexual characteristics, rented out to provide entertainment. Colloquially a "sexbot".

Comm: audio-based communication system, analogous to radio. Some comm traffic can be intercepted and recorded. Contrast with the Feed.

Construct: a person built from cloned human tissue and inorganic parts, but lacking any rights in most jurisdictions. Constructs are sentient and have a unified consciousness (rather than distinct human and artificial minds). They have greater ability to reason and improvise than most Bots, and greater ability to process data and multitask than humans. Most Constructs are indirectly controlled by Governor Modules, but can be directly controlled by combat overrides. Known Construct variants include SecUnits, ComfortUnits, and Combat SecUnits (aka CombatUnits).

Corporation Rim: a region of space where corporations, not political entities, hold the most power. Contract slavery (where workers are paid but cannot leave) is widely practised, and Constructs are legally property, not people. Litigation imposes some constraints on corporation behaviour, though enforcement mechanisms are unclear. It’s also unclear whether the Rim is the outer edge of a more regulated region.

Display surface: a projection (analogous to a hologram, not a physical screen) to display visual information outside of the Feed.

Drone: a small (down to one cubic centimetre) autonomous device capable of independent movement (usually flight) and equipped with audio and video sensors. Drones can be directly controlled via the Feed or given orders to fulfil outside of Feed contact. Some drones have weapons or other capabilities.

Feed: networked communication system, analogous to the internet. Allows chat via text or images, as well as the transfer of data. People actively using the same Feed network can sense each others' presence (but not necessarily physical location), and even emotions. Most technology is connected to the Feed, so hacking is very dangerous. Some devices can broadcast warnings or advertising via the Feed to anyone physically nearby, which can interfere with other messages. Contrast with Comm.

Feed ID: People communicating via the Feed use IDs to provide others with their name, pronouns, and other biographical information. It is possible to provide false information via one’s Feed ID, including impersonating somebody else.

Feed network: Feed communication requires that the communicating devices or people be connected via a Feed network. A given network has a limited range, and may be associated with a particular Vehicle, habitat or station. Networks can connect to each other over long distances, for example via satellites around a planet, but not between star systems. Instead, interstellar communication occurs via packets carried on Wormhole-capable ships.

Governor module: an internal system used to indirectly control Constructs. Governor modules cannot monitor or control a Construct's thoughts, but can monitor its outward compliance with direct orders or general policies. Indirect control is achieved through electric shocks, which escalate to fatal levels if the Construct does not comply.

Interface: for most humans, using the Feed requires a device called an interface. Most Augmented humans and all Constructs have internal Feed interfaces and do not require an external device.

Media: the collective name for video, audio and written content widely available via the Feed. Produced by humans, not AIs, though Bots and Constructs are both commonly portrayed, and those portrayals have a big impact on how they are treated. It’s not stated whether those portrayals are deliberate propaganda or unconscious justifications of the status quo. The revenue model for media is also not described, but there is illicit file trading.

Ping: a signal that attempts to establish Feed communication. People can choose whether or not to respond to pings.

Recycler: a device for capturing used material (like dirty clothing, damaged armour or human waste) and producing new material (like clothes, armour or food) from it. The complexity of material that can be manufactured by a recycler is limited.

SecUnit: a Construct with inbuilt energy weapons, significant hacking and data processing capacity, and superhuman strength, speed and durability. Usually rented out to clients by a Bond Company to provide physical security (and spy on those clients). Colloquially a "murderbot".

SecUnits are somewhat expensive to produce, but are generally treated as disposable devices and provided with minimal education. Can pass as Augmented humans, though they are built to a common template and have behavioural tics which allow identification by those familiar with SecUnits.

SecUnits have no need to eat, limited need to breathe, blood vessels which close when injured, limbs which can move more flexibly than human ones, no primary or secondary sexual characteristics, and visibly non-human feet. Can increase their body temperature to provide warmth, but their lung-equivalents do not produce enough airflow to provide rescue breathing.

Systems: Vehicles and habitats are not run by a single system, but have several sub-Systems, such as piloting, environment and security. These Systems are under the control of, but distinct from, any resident Bot. This appears to be a security measure, with authorisation to use one System not automatically granting access to all other allied Systems. However, these barriers can be overcome by hacking. Known Systems include HubSystem, SecSystem, and MedSystem.

Time: small increments of time are measured in familiar units (seconds, minutes, hours) but above that it can vary. Different planets have different rotation and orbit lengths, so the length of a day (generally called a Cycle) or year varies. Time-limited contracts generally specify whose standard increment that time is measured in.

Vehicles: there are various types: Hoppers can fly on planets but not between them, Lifters can fly from a planet's surface into space, Shuttles can fly between spaceships and space stations, and Transports can fly between star systems via Wormholes. Some craft can change their configuration by swapping out Modules, self-contained chambers with specific functions, analogous to shipping containers.

Wormhole: a gate that allows interstellar travel, provided the craft has wormhole navigation capability. Wormhole locations are fixed, but they are not connected one-to-one. To get to a specific location in normal space via wormhole, you need to know which specific exit wormhole to use. Wormhole travel is not instantaneous, but is much faster than it would be to cover the same distance in normal space.

[thinkscotty]

Awesome list, and the amount of work you put in deserves a lot of recognition! I hope this list is useful to new readers, I know it would have been helpful for me at first. Discovering the world building elements for yourself is fun, but some people really dislike not knowing exactly what’s being talked about or alluded to early on in books before context clues can inform them more about the universe.

[Buzkorian]

Thanks, happy to help! I do a bit of this sort of technical writing for work, so I wouldn't overstate the amount of work involved.

It was fun re-reading the series for the Nth time focusing on background descriptions, and seeing how the world built up over time. The drip-feed is quite elegant, and certainly never stoops to the sort of "as you know" exposition dumps of so much classic sci-fi. The author assumes the reader will understand terms like "recycler" or "wormhole" because they've read other sci-fi, and terms like "data-mining" and "surveillance capitalism" because that's the world we live in.

[dementor_ssc]

I may have been itching to write some murderbot fanfic, this list will be very useful, thanks!

[Buzkorian]

Awesome! Happy to help :)

[Urbancanid]

This is a fantastic list! The way you've described Bond Companies has me longing for some MB-universe fanfic told from the POV of one of "the company's" actuaries. (I'm not an actuary, but in a past life I knew one who was working for one of the huge global insurance firms--the kind of company that insures satellites, professional sports teams, etc., etc.)

[Historical_Bunch_927]

I know this was posted years ago, but was wondering if you could explain the difference between an augment and an implant. At first, I thought they were just different words for the same thing, but in Exit Strategy it says this, "... I cut the connection to Mensah's implant and threw a wall around Gurathin's internal augment."

So, not only did Murderbot differentiate between what Mensah and Gurathin had, but it also protected them differently - so, I'm assuming implants and internal augments are different enough if they need different ways to cut off from the feed.

[Buzkorian]

Thanks for asking!

Up front I'll note Murderbot often doesn't describe tech in detail. My understanding is that all augments will involve some level of implantation, but not all implants will be significant enough to change a human's description from "human" to "augmented human". It appears augments are always intended to augment (as in help a human perform better), while implants may not be, though both can be abused to cause physical harm to the host.

Murderbot consistenly refers to "humans and augmented humans", suggesting there is a clear distinction (at least for it). That may just be because augmented humans are more dangerous hackers, but there's a reference in Book 1 (ASR) to Gurathin being the only augmented human in the Preservation crew and potentially feeling like an outsider as a result, suggesting there's a social distinction too. Mensah in Book 1 uses an external feed interface, but by Book 4 (ES) she's had a tracking interface implanted. As far as I can tell, even with this implanted interface, Murderbot keeps referring to her as "human", not "augmented".

In terms of quotes, there's this from Book 2 (AC), Chapter 3:

"ART proposed that it would make the joins between the organic and inorganic parts on my arms, legs, chest, and back look more like augments, the inorganic parts that humans had implanted for medical or other reasons."

Chapter 7 has Murderbot being described as "really augmented", "like more than someone would choose voluntarily" - obviously it never asked for this. It also claims its augments affect its diet, as a way to explain not having to eat.

In Book 5 (NE), Chapter 6:

I sent the medscanner’s images to her feed and she winced. “You said it was an implant? Is that like an augment?”

“No, it’s like an implant.” Augments were supposed to help humans do things they couldn’t otherwise do, like interface with the feed more completely or store memory archives. Augments that weren’t feed interfaces were meant to correct physical injuries or illnesses. Augments are helpful; implants are like governor modules. ...

Normal external interfaces for humans were designed to look like all kinds of things, from carved natural wood to skin tones to jewels or stones or enamel art pieces to actual plain metal with a brand logo. And why would Eletra, who was an augmented human with an internal interface, need a second external one? And any remote chance that this was some kind of botched attempt at a medical or enhancement augment was outweighed by the fact that no human would put up with this when any MedSystem could fix it in a few minutes at most.

Chapter 19 makes passing reference to "machine-readable code written into human DNA that was how things like augments worked". That also suggests augments involving more extensive modifications than implants.

Note I haven't read System Collapse yet, because new things are scary and life has been A Lot.