System Collapse Quotes

“Yeah, I'll just code a patch to stop feeling anxiety, wow, why didn't I think of that earlier. (That was sarcasm, I have too much organic neural tissue for that to work.) (Of course I've already tried it.)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“You’re stalling, ART-drone said. I am not. I can stand here and be useless without any ulterior motives, thanks.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Did I understand how it processed its emotions? No. But I don’t understand how I process my emotions, either.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“So the next time I get optimistic about something, I want one of you to punch me in the face.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“I felt HostileSecUnit1 go into shutdown mode. It wasn’t dead, it was just catastrophically damaged. (I know, who isn’t?)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“I lack a sense of proportional response. I don't advise engaging with me on any level.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“But since the thing that happened I don't think I've had an emotion that wasn't the visual equivalent of a wet blanket crumpled on the floor.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Even before I hacked my governor module, I was upset when my coworkers shot me. I wasn’t surprised, but I was upset.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“It should be reassuring that humans don’t get what other humans are thinking, either, but it just highlights how fucked up human neural tissue can be.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“were part of the argument/discussion—call it the argucussion”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“I could have asked what “or worse” meant in this context but there was only so much I could take and I thought I’d hit my limit about, I don’t know, four years ago.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Humans are great at imagining stuff. That’s why their media is so good.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Ratthi sent me a glyph of a Preservation party sparkler exploding. I didn’t say anything. (I know I get pissed off when humans don’t acknowledge my work, but why is too much acknowledgment also upsetting? Sentience sucks.)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“I’d watched a lot of humans watch or read all kinds of media, so I knew that when they didn’t talk and didn’t move much except to eat crunchy things out of bags, it was a good sign.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“humans have a bad habit of assuming that if they know a thing, all the other humans in the vicinity know it, too. Either that or they believe none of the other humans know anything that they don’t know. It’s either one or the other and both are potentially catastrophic and really fucking annoying.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“I said, “Have you done something that you feel you should be threatened for?”
Yes, I knew it was a mistake, I knew it instantly, just not instantly enough to shut my fucking mouth. Seriously, I’m coding at least a two-second delay right now.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“He got the vehicle started again and we proceeded down the stupid tunnel, into the stupid danger.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“I know, I said. And I did know, and now I was having an emotion. Like a big overwhelming emotion. It felt bad but good, a weird combination of happy and sad and relieved, like something had been stuck and it wasn’t stuck anymore.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“ART-drone said, Your attempts at emotional manipulation need work. But your point is taken.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Iris was already out of the danger zone, walking backward so she could watch. “Be safe, SecUnit,” she said. I don’t know how to respond when humans say that. It was always my job to get hurt.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“The explorer had replied something to the effect that they didn’t mean to be intimidating and was the widdle academic transport crew scared, but in corporate speak, and ART had replied, It’s so easy for ships to disappear out here.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Bad things may not be more statistically possible but it sure seems like they are.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“I am not meant to function without multiple simultaneous inputs. If this was what being a human was like, it sucked massively.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“(For however many corporate standard years, all I got from humans was “Run in there now no matter how likely you are to get blown to tiny pieces when a quiet tactical approach has a higher percentage of success” and now it’s “Oh no we’re fine, we can hang out in this objectively terrifying immediately hazardous situation for however long.”) (I’m just saying that it would be nice for the humans to give me a realistic situation report for once.) (Dr. Bharadwaj says even good change is stressful.)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“(I asked because the humans would bug me for the information; I was as indifferent to human gender as it was possible to be without being unconscious.)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“It wasn’t dead, it was just catastrophically damaged. (I know, who isn’t?)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“It’s fine. I’ll notify you immediately if I encounter any not-dead humans.” I was trying to lighten the mood but that one absolutely did not stick its landing.”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“(Let’s face it, actual solid physical or visual evidence will often not change human minds.)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Sentience sucks.)”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse

“Even good change is stressful.

-Dr. Baradwaj”
― Martha Wells, System Collapse