Void of Necromancy

The Amur Leopard and Clouded Leopard (which recently celebrated its 50th cub born at the zoo!)

The Sumatran Tiger

The Red Ruffed Lemur and Ring-Tailed Lemur

The Cotton-Top Tamarin and White-Cheeked Gibbon

The Colobus Monkey and De Brazza’s Monkey

And the Mexican Spider Monkey!

And Ilya comes across B. Dylan Hollis making Fake Apple Pie from 1933 on tiktok one day and goes "OH WAIT LET'S TRY THIS" and yes it's ritz crackers and not apples but if it works it works, right?

Seconds added up to a minute, then another, then three more. It doesn’t sound like much to humans, but for a conversation between bots, or excuse me, between a bot/human construct and a bot, it was a long time.

Then it said, I’m sorry I frightened you.

okay okay okay but. i think about this constantly. this passage is what made me dig out an old pack of highlighters and get back into my high school habit of writing in my books

Wells has talked in interviews about how ART was raised in a family setting, because you want an AI with the power of a minor god to like the humans its caring for so it doesnt decide that its better off with them dead. and ART tells Murderbot shortly after this that it cant really parse its humans reactions to media, because the way humans interact with the feed doesnt map to bot emotions and because ART has zero context to build on for anything that isnt being a research vessel, but it can apparently understand Murderbots emotional reactions to things in a way that i assume is basically like being an artificial empath

so what those two things mean together is 1) ART has no concept of what it is like to be abused, to be scared, to be hurt, because it has never been any of those things, and 2) it just learned EXACTLY what those things feel like firsthand and the revelation probably rocked the very foundations on which its code was written

it took five minutes to process the handful of memories that Murderbot gave to it. Murderbot is understating the amount of time that is for a bot with ARTs capacity by a frankly hilarious degree. that would be a worryingly long time for a human in a face-to-face conversation. ART probably watched those memories hundreds of times in those five minutes, peeling them apart frame by frame and squeezing out every drop of distilled fear and betrayal that it got, and it internalized those

and it changes its approach. it apologizes, and backs off when Murderbot tells it that it doesnt want anything from it. (it comes right back a few hours later because it wants to watch world hoppers, but it approaches that differently too, by pinging Murderbot and sending it a request to change the channel, and its not an asshole when it explains why it wants Murderbot to watch the show with it. in fact, aside from some light sarcasm, it doesnt really get annoyed and start being rude to Murderbot again until Murderbot throws its little shutdown tantrum, at which point they have already managed to establish a sort of familiarity and ART considers them friends)

Seconds added up to a minute, then another, then three more. It doesn’t sound like much to humans, but for a conversation between bots, or excuse me, between a bot/human construct and a bot, it was a long time.

Then it said, I’m sorry I frightened you.

okay okay okay but. i think about this constantly. this passage is what made me dig out an old pack of highlighters and get back into my high school habit of writing in my books

Wells has talked in interviews about how ART was raised in a family setting, because you want an AI with the power of a minor god to like the humans its caring for so it doesnt decide that its better off with them dead. and ART tells Murderbot shortly after this that it cant really parse its humans reactions to media, because the way humans interact with the feed doesnt map to bot emotions and because ART has zero context to build on for anything that isnt being a research vessel, but it can apparently understand Murderbots emotional reactions to things in a way that i assume is basically like being an artificial empath

so what those two things mean together is 1) ART has no concept of what it is like to be abused, to be scared, to be hurt, because it has never been any of those things, and 2) it just learned EXACTLY what those things feel like firsthand and the revelation probably rocked the very foundations on which its code was written

it took five minutes to process the handful of memories that Murderbot gave to it. Murderbot is understating the amount of time that is for a bot with ARTs capacity by a frankly hilarious degree. that would be a worryingly long time for a human in a face-to-face conversation. ART probably watched those memories hundreds of times in those five minutes, peeling them apart frame by frame and squeezing out every drop of distilled fear and betrayal that it got, and it internalized those

and it changes its approach. it apologizes, and backs off when Murderbot tells it that it doesnt want anything from it. (it comes right back a few hours later because it wants to watch world hoppers, but it approaches that differently too, by pinging Murderbot and sending it a request to change the channel, and its not an asshole when it explains why it wants Murderbot to watch the show with it. in fact, aside from some light sarcasm, it doesnt really get annoyed and start being rude to Murderbot again until Murderbot throws its little shutdown tantrum, at which point they have already managed to establish a sort of familiarity and ART considers them friends)

The age of eligibility for an ABLE account, allowing USAmerican disabled people to save up money without losing their government assistance for having “too much,” is going to go up to cover disabilities diagnosed by age 46 (currently it’s age 26), meaning a much larger number of people will be able to access them. As the article notes, many Americans don’t know these accounts exist, let alone whether they or someone they care for could qualify for one, so please share this information around.

like.

you misbehaved and instead of addressing the underlying issues driving your behavior we are removing your access to education (and therefore cutting you off from a large percentage of possibilities for your future) unless you have parents that are competent at homeschooling, parents with enough money and willingness to send you to private school, or parents willing and able to move to another school district. sucks to suck.

and we all know that the students most likely to misbehave in school are also most likely to be disadvantaged and/or have abusive/neglectful parents. these kids are the least likely to be able to be adequately homeschooled, sent to private school, or moved to another school district. even when these things do happen they don't solve the underlying struggles leading to the behavior.

I want to thank everyone for such hilarious and kind additions/replies/tags on this post, they’ve been so amazing to read. They’ve meant more to me than you guys know. ❤️

I also want to add some information for anyone who wants to know more about recognizing the signs that you might be in a high control group.

High control groups can be small or large, religious or not, clubs, schools, online servers, friend groups, etc.

No human is invulnerable because we all have brains and emotions that can be played like a fiddle. Knowing the red flags can help us all keep ourselves safer!

igotout.org

BITE model of understanding thought and behavior control

International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)

Crisis Text Line (highly recommend, especially if you’re not in a safe place to discuss things on the phone)

Please always protect yourself as best you can and never be afraid to reach out for help—even if you’re just wondering, even if you’re not sure about something.

No safe group or person will EVER be mad at you for being cautious and taking things slow, or for changing your mind at ANY point. You’re the one who gets to decide whether you join or stay with a group, no matter what they threaten or love-bomb you with.

If you’re not safe, there’s help.

If you feel trapped, there’s help.

If people are being actively hurt, good people want to listen, understand, and help.

We all deserve freedom. I’m grateful every morning I wake up that I get to live it now, even though it’s hard and I have a long way to go. Thank you for walking this journey with me, for one brief moment or for years, and helping me—and others like me—not be alone.