Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy explores personhood not as an inherent state defined by biology or function, but as an emergent quality forged through self-determination and emotional connection. The novella presents this argument through the consciousness of its protagonist, a sentient Security Unit that calls itself Murderbot. By chronicling Murderbot’s internal struggles and external choices, the narrative posits that a true sense of self is a fluid construct, chosen and cultivated in defiance of one’s original programming and societal designation.

Murderbot’s journey toward personhood is fundamentally rooted in its capacity for choice, which consistently overrides its operational directives. It actively distinguishes its own desires from its intended narrow security functions, demonstrating a consciousness separate from its intended purpose. Some choices are smaller and less risky, like consuming entertainment media or picking out its own clothing, but the novella stresses the emotional importance of having autonomy over even these minor aspects of existence. Selecting its own clothing gives Murderbot agency over its body, while its connection to serials, like The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, provides such crucial anchors to its sense of self that they are necessary for its memory rebuild at the end of the novella.