there are a lot of threads going on, so sorry if I am making a thread to talk about what someone has already thought out on this, but.

Imagine that Vault 111 is for Military/Government program personnel.
There is someone in the vault who is essentially a genius on the level of Dr. Braun in cryostasis. The institute wants the secrets they hold.

Due to a problem with the cryonic stasis reviving process, people cannot be re-animated once they are put in. They turn to mush during the thaw (or something similar). so reviving them is a useless endeavor. They can however, scan people in cyronic stasis. Mapping their brains down to the neuron states, perfectly.

an android brain is built off of these specifications, enabling the brain to have every memory that the subject had, while alive. From there it is put into a body.

At first Institute scientists told the androids what they were. The perfect image of the subject mind could not process, and rejected this notion. They refused to co-operate. Or became violent or self destructive. So, this method was deemed not only useless, but counter productive. And the droid minds were wiped.

The best way they found, going forward, was to stage the androids as subjects being revived, one at a time. Letting the android think they were actually a person who emerged from the vault was much more organic for the android. From there, a branch of the Synth retention bureau is sent to meet them and to win them over, bringing them into the fold at the institute.

i still believe that the plot is mainly build around the family and shaun instead of you being an android. there was just too much focus on shaun during the character development - prewar part for them to let it go and focus on you entirely instead.

And it could be. I am not saying this is THE theory for me, but rather a theory that could lend itself to a decent story.

and a fine/plausible one at that

I think the wife and kid will die. But i dont think tis Cryo sleep the PC is in. I think its VR like what we saw with braun in FO3.

If the PC was an android, how do chems and stimpack work on them?

Internal systems recognise their design and use their proteins as triggers for temporary 'overclocking' and/or allowing the fuller range of power/strength, etc.

Personally I think eehhh... probably not the case, but as we've seen in FO3 re: Harkness, androids are made so believable that even injuries appear human. After injuries, because they assume humanity, they'll likely get treated with human materials, because they'd assume that's what they need.

Harkness was head of security (or at least high up the enforcement chain) and guarded the front gate. He would have seen injuries pretty often from attacking raiders and super-mutants - anyone with a ranged weapon once the bridge was retracted. The idea of the human drugs failing (esp if you add in anything distinctly robotic, like feeling better when he 'eats' some scrap metal/electronics that repair nanos can work with), and yet STILL THINKING he's human seems a little eehhh.. far-fetched.

i agree that it could be an obstacle, but perhaps not insurmountable. It would depend on how well synthetic systems mimic biological systems.

I don't put a lot of stock in this happening. I like the idea, though.

Well commonwealth androids are apparently so real that Harkness never noticed he wasn't human, meaning he could bleed, pee, crap, heal, drool, probably get boners and pork too, etc

I don't think the PC is one but they could be believably enough

Perhaps he is a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

Please, no.

I know if they did decide to make the player an android it's too late to fix, but that would completely ruin the game for me, or at least the main story.

Are people still thinking we're gonna start as an Android...?

It is really painful to watch.

First Olly in game of thrones, now the potential of a player as an android probably shot down because of Shaun.

Media is really trying hard to make us hate children

I deem the lot of yous to be no fun at all.
As stated, it's not necessarily what I feel will happen.
Perhaps it will work better as fan-fic.
Cheers

A 2 year old Kotaku leak said the PC was an Android, so I'm siding with that

I think the PC cryo went bonkers and when the Vault computer wakened the rest of the Vault dwellers they thought the PC was dead. The leave the vault but not before some people die (ie the scientist with the Pip-Boy that the PC finds). Years later the PC defrosts and goes out after his family.

The whole story would be around following the clues to find his/her family. It's a standard SciFi trope but one I like because I LOVE exploration. Do you become harsh and evil due to anger at being left behind or do you stay strong in the hope your family will be reacquainted once more.

I base this off the brief interaction with Codsworth and the hint that "Others may be alive as well". You could use the dog to track them even.

Harkness is the only successful human-like android that the commonwealth had produced by Fallout 3. They didn't have human looking androids pre-war... and more than likely, they were only created post-war. The "you're an android" plot would create a plothole.... , Harkness is one of a kind at 2277.... Unless Fallout 4 takes place before the events of Fallout 3 and our character becomes Harkness and leaves for the C.W... but even then that doesn't take into account being able to play as the wife if the player chooses to.

As for the "you'd be mush" if revived from cryostasis.... We already know that extended life support is already realized within the Fallout universe... We have House, as well as the residents of Tranquility lane as proof of this... cryostasis is the next step, or rather the other half of the equation... Instead of prolonging life and leaving the recipient conscious, it puts said life in a frozen state... Within our world, we lack the technology, but in a hyper scifi reality..... especially one that more than likely had designs for space travel, that cryostasis would be at least in an experimental stage is quite probable. What better way to test it, than that of an enclosed environment such as a vault? It falls in-line with the other vault experiments.

We see that most androids, at least those that are made for a combat capacity are very in-organic looking. They have the appearance of humans, facial structure, hands, etc... but appear very robot like... we get a glimpse during the kill montage where the pc is fighting two different synths, as the androids are most likely referred as.

I don't believe our character is an android, it would make the "meaningful story" that Todd Howard wants to achieve quite moot.... No, cryostasis is the best and the most likely plot device....

Which one...? The kotaku leak which spoke about Preston Garvey told it's cyrostasis

Remember when they leaked that document to Game Informer for New Vegas that you'd have the option to start as a Ghoul?

And there were Origin stories and vehicles.

Leaks are 10% accurate info gathered from rumours, 10% lucky guess and 80% garbage made up to paid out an article and make it sound like the writer actually has something more than a bare bones rumour.

I think, given the presence of the Institute, that there will be some sort of plot twist involving an android. Whether it's the PC, Shaun, the sudden late-game appearance of the long-lost spouse... someone is going to be revealed to be a life-like synth with the transplanted memories of the person it believes itself to be.

As i have said in this thread, droids is not the only theory, or even my main theory.
With that in mind, I will say, if the game plays out with stasis, tranquility lane and house use a completely different method, so you simply cannot use them as a baseline for how a Cryonic Stasis revive would play out.

Mostly, yes. But the Kotaku leaks are most likely accurate. I don't think false leaks would now about pre-war stuff and Preston Garvey (I mean... this is not a random name you would guess or make up). Even the quest was the one from the leak.

I don't the protagonist is a synth.

I did some looking around to find when synths began to built. I couldn't find much but on http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Harkness, he is apparently the most advanced synth The Institute has created, as of 2277. Interestingly enough, he is aged 35 but he was apparently created in 2277, so I don't the that The Institute worked with synth technology before the bombs fell. He was also created to kill other synths that have run away. This might be a weird observation but all synths seem to use energy weapons so how would the protagonist be good with melee weapons and regular guns?

I might be overthinking this but we all have theories which are yet to be proven or to be not be proven in the time to come.