Corpse Run 592: Wouldn’t it be nice?
Ok, so I more or less done with Fallout 4. After sucking it up I forced myself through one of the options for the game’s finale and immediately started playing New Vegas instead.
All of the Fallout 4 factions… they’re all doing the wrong thing in one way or another. To avoid giving too much away, I won’t say exactly what the factions do or think, but more or less everyone makes the same mistake:
Thinking that they are absolutely, 100% correct all the time with no room for error.
Regarding the “robots are people” folks… well, I just don’t agree with them at all. Sure, some of the robots in the game have human characteristics and part of me wants to sympathize with them, but I can’t forget the fact that they are still robots and for all of their “intelligence” it’s really just sophisticated programming.
…but it’s not like I can’t feel for robots in other media. Say Claptrap in the Borderlands series, I like him and treat him like a human… but that’s a world where the supernatural exists so I’m willing to suspend my disbelief. In Fallout, there is no supernatural element, so robots are just robots.
Think like the robots in Interstellar… you can talk with them, have laughs with them, even feel a real friendship with them, but in the end they’re just tools and everyone understands that, even the robots.
…and it’s not like I can’t feel emotion for things that aren’t biologically real either. I can read a book and feel for a character, relate to them, etc, but at the end of the day I know that, say, Harry Potter isn’t a real person, he’s an idea.
So yeah… Fallout 4 “robots are people” people, don’t drag the rest of the class down with you.
Finally, paying off the superbowl bet:
Firstly, the supernatural exist in the Fallout universe. There are ghosts and stuff… not important.
For the real world you are right. Any machine that think like a human or just seem to think like a human would be created to mimic or simulate humans by design. In one case would be a very convincing toy, in the other it would be a real simulated person.
The synths are machines created by an advance secret society to infiltrate communities pretending to be humans. In a more realistic scenario there is no way those creatures would have real emotions. But the Fallout universe isn’t realistic, there are many cases that show how the absurd ways their computers work, and of course, how human like the robots are. Most of the machines with more than three lines show some human characteristic that doesn’t fit a robot, like wanting something, fearing death, arguing their programming…
So in this case robots are people… and it doesn’t matters. Why should anyone protect a “specie” of infiltrators in a world soo uncivilized most people welcome strangers with bullets?
Not only that, but it’s shown that machine sapience (human-like cognitive reasoning ability) is independent of sentience (emotion). John Henry Eden was more intelligent than 90% of humans, but he wasn’t an artificial intelligence, at least by pre-war standards. On the other hand, you have two robot companions in 4 (Codsworth and Curie) that have desires independent of their programming, and are capable of at least simulating emotion to a degree where you can’t tell the difference. And, in that regard, is there any difference between a human mind and an artificial intelligence if both are capable of the same emotions and reasoning?
Just curious, have you ever heard of or played The Fall, by Over the Moon?
It has a very interesting take on robots and their own ideas of themselves. Good characters and voice jobs too.
Outside from religious reasons, there are no real argument as of why an extremely advanced A.I. couldn’t be considered equal to a human mind. Their minds are limited by their programing, yes, but so are ours, both from our DNA and our experiences. Emotions and sensations too are nothing but responses towards stimuli, and therefore could also be programmed into an A.I., at the result would be no different from ours.
Yeah, have to agree with the factions in FO4. They aren’t the greatest in any ideology (Except the Minutemen for the most part) but, for the Railroad, I do see where they are coming from. But, you are right. Synths in Fallout are just Robots.
****SPOILER TAG JUST IN CASE**** If The Institute kept developing the Synths AI instead of just copying memories over, then yes. They could be seen as more then machine. Gen 3 was almost perfect. Almost. The one thing it was lacking was AI. The Institute to my understanding has been around 150 years or more since the Great War. But they really only started making the Gen 3 model. That is why I don’t understand the Railroad that well. If they were truly making a difference, then STOP THE GOD DAMN KIDNAPPINGS INSTEAD! That’s basically what it boils down to. The 2 Arts random event shows it a bit better but from what I’ve seen, it’s a common event, more so within the inner limits of Boston. ****SPOILER OVER**** The 2 Arts random event shows it a bit better but from what I’ve seen, it’s a common event, more so within the inner limits of Boston.
If I’m Director of the Institute, General of the Minutemen, and can curbstomp Elder Maxson through a Brotherhood-Litany rite of challenge to become the elder if he won’t listen to reason…
…I should have the ability to tell them all to start playing nice *right the hell now.*
I don’t want to sound nitpicky or anything,but Shaun/Father’s hair is gray,not blue.However,I can’t blame you since almost every colour in the institute is white and it makes his hair look blueish.You were thinking of Rick and Morty,weren’t you?
For a moment I thought you were about to drink the whole bottle. Still must have tasted horrible!
No supernatural elements? you obviously haven’t played enough fallout then. there are several things, even in this game, that alluded to the supernatural throughout the series. There is this one sidequest that brings you deep into a dig in 4 that…well. you’d have to see yourself. in 3 there was that cthulu mansion..not to mention several aliens, ghosts, etc etc etc.