Reel Rundown: The very human parts of robots come alive in ‘Murderbot’
Imagine for a moment that your Alexa – or Siri or whatever artificial intelligence you might be using – was sentient. Which meant that it not only understands what you want but also judges you as it decides whether to comply.
That, folks, could be the future that we humans may well face when interacting with the devices we carry in our pockets and purses.
It certainly is the case of the humans featured in the science fiction series written by Hugo Award-winnovella “All Systems Red,” we now have “Murderbot,” the 10-episode series streaming on Apple TV+ created by the writing and producing brothers Chris and Paul Weitz.
The series, of course, revolves around something that is far bigger than your typical AI device. It is, instead, a human-size security robot designed to protect humans engaging in what might sometimes be perilous operations.
In the case of this particular robot (played by Alexander Skarsgärd), its assignment requires it to protect a team of scientists. Hailing from an independent planetary entity called the Preservation Alliance, the team has embarked on a mission to explore a planet rich in potential resources.
Yet, too, it’s a planet that boasts all kinds of peril, both from huge creatures that burrow under its surface and from other teams intent on profiting from those same potential resources.
Fortunate for the Preservation Alliance members, SecUnit – which is how they refer to it – is no ordinary security bot. For one thing, it’s a rogue player who doesn’t have to follow the commands of its “clients.” This is because it has found a way to hack into its own system and remove a device that its corporate owner had installed there to control its actions.
For another, SecUnit – which self-identifies as Murderbot – is addicted to watching media, particularly a sci-fi soap opera called “Sanctuary Moon.” Doing so not only entertains it, but the show helps it understand what it thinks motivates human behavior. This becomes a problem when those emotions, as they tend to be, are represented in a near-cartoonish manner.
Part of what both Wells in her writing (and the Weitz brothers include in their series) are comically recreated snippets of the soap opera that SecUnit watches. Featured in them are the likes of actors John Cho, Clark Gregg and former “30 Rock” cast member Jack McBrayer.
To say SecUnit itself “feels” something, though, is a misnomer. Though it is at least part organic, it is resistant to feelings in much the same way that humans on the autism spectrum are. Even making eye contact with humans is something it will avoid as much as it can.
Doing so, though, isn’t always possible. The team that hails from Planetary Alliance is described at one point as a bunch of “space hippies.” They work by consensus, and once they realize that there is a sentient, if limited, being underneath their security unit’s armor, they begin to develop feelings for it.
This is especially true for the team leader, Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), though it’s not for the team’s mistrustful “augmented human” Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). Their wrangling, as well as the communal interplay between the team as a whole, is part of the series’ charm even as the team and SecUnit face danger both from alien monsters and corporate-based intrigue.
The main appeal of “Murderbot,” though, is the notion that a robot, even one with self-awareness, could develop a sense of self that feels authentic – at least in one specific way.
As SecUnit itself says, “All I really wanted to do was to be left alone to watch my shows.”
What could be more human than that?