@quixoticgeek Oh this, so much this. It took me forever to figure out that the only ability that ultimately counts in a hierarchy is to get other people to do things for you; and the only knowledge that counts is how to achieve this.

I always thought that being able to make stuff and understand stuff is what really counts, and these are still my personal priorities. But over the years, I have realized that in terms of worldly success, these are more like being tall (if male) and good looking, i.e. good to have up to a point (though not in excess), but far, far from essential. Given how the current timeline is reinforcing this point over and over again, I should have caught on a bit faster, really.

Some people seem to be aware of this from a very early age; these people are generally very different from me... I have always been somewhat hierarchy-blind, maybe out of an inflated sense of my own importance 🤷 Not autistic AFAICT, just generally anxious and socially awkward (#murderbot mon amour).

"(It was actually nice to see it. Do I have to do an emotion check for that? Floating river = not terrible to see.)"

Organic tissue likes water 💙

#PlatformDecay #Murderbot #Books2026

"I recognized the tags and heading. It was my own (Murderbot 2.0’s own) hack-your-governor-module annotated code bundle. One or more of the B-E units I had given the code to on Hell Plague Planet must have passed it on. (Except this wasn’t a B-E unit. The code must be spreading, I guess. At least on this stupid torus.)"

Fuck yes.

#PlatformDecay #Murderbot #Books2026

"But what gave the age away were the engraved numbers stretching across the plates next to the various hatch accesses in the dock area. They had been put there for human pilots, before bot-pilots and the feed were common, as a failsafe for automated approach beacons. The numbers were in three different—number systems? Languages—"

I'm not sure why I love ancient tech like this. But I do. 😍

#PlatformDecay #Murderbot #Books2026