Artificial Condition

Itself a work of science fiction, Artificial Condition displays a keen awareness of the relationship between fiction and real life. Several of the story’s characters—Murderbot, ART, and Tapan—compulsively watch television serials. The novella expands this relationship to include its own readership. The narrative’s intermingling of fiction and reality suggests that stories, including The Murderbot Diaries, have value in people’s lives whether they are aware of it or not.

Murderbot is obsessed with human-created fictional media to the point that it spends every moment it can tuned into serials, especially its favorite: Sanctuary Moon. Artificial Condition begins and ends with Murderbot downloading hours of these programs to pass the time during its interstellar journeys.

For Murderbot, these shows serve two purposes. First, they provide an escape from the hardships of everyday life. Murderbot is in hiding, isolated, and facing a universe that is regularly described as hostile and intimidating, especially for non-humans. Murderbot appears to benefit psychologically from mentally escaping these hardships through the fictional serials. This need for escape is why Murderbot appreciates Worldhoppers for being “very unrealistic and inaccurate” (27). The further the stories are from real life, the better escape they provide. This escapism appears to work for