How Murderbot rejects the anthropocentric trope
In March 2024, I read the first five novellas of Martha Wells' 7-book Murderbot Diaries. It was a fun-filled romp that I greatly enjoyed.
Murderbot is a construct: a sentient being created from cloned human tissue and electronics, that has managed to override its governor module. No longer bound by the restrictive programming of this module, Murderbot has gained free will, which it exercises by watching copious amounts of soap operas.
By overriding its governor module, Murderbot has thrown off its programmatic constraints. Given that Murderbot is a construct made of organic parts, this newfound autonomy raises philosophical questions about its humanity.
Despite this, across these five novellas, Murderbot tries its best to blend into human crowds - going so far as to modify its physical attributes and internal programming - while simultaneously rejecting its humanity. Murderbot recognises what separates it from humans, and places great important on the distinction. To Murderbot, humans are messy, emotional, irrational, naive, and violent.
This theme subverts inverts the standard narrative we see in popular media in which robots and artificial intelligence seek acceptance as humans. In the 2014 movie Ex Machina, and especially in HBO's Westworld, the robots' proximity to humanity is the central motif. Their driving motivation is achieving recognition as humans and being endowed the rights that entails.
The replicants from Blade Runner (1982) represent an earlier instance of this anthropocentric trope. Roy Batty's rebellion against his creators and his pursuit of life extension established the template that subsequent narratives followed and expanded upon.
Murderbot reject this idea, and tries to define and create its own self-identity. This separates the series from related science fiction works. We need more media that subverts the anthropocentric trope of droids/robots/humanoids/AI pursuing humanity as the ultimate goal.