Yeah, like Harkness getting reset to factory settings and having his entire "life" erased.

These things are machines, not people, and their memories are artificial.

There is more to being human than being able to smile. Much more.

Let me put it to you this way, do you want to be ruled by AI? The Institute is just arrogant enough to take that step. I mean why not? They are already replacing certain humans with synths. The already think life above ground is worthless. Why not just take over and run things? With an army of synths that they control at their side.

Now the RR. You say synths have feelings, fine. Which means they also have pride. And greed. And ambition. A synth is faster, stronger and smarter then your average human. It's a small step to godhood from there.

If the RR (assuming it was run by humans - which I have my doubts) kept an eye on the synths they "saved"; if they had some sort of off switch to deal with trouble - I wouldn't mind so much. But they don't. They are just as arrogant as the Institute. Worse, because the Institute at least sees the risks. They choose to ignore them. The RR thinks a washing machine deserves rights; be damned the consequences.

Both are far greater risks then the BoS.

Exactly.

The Brotherhood of Steel are refreshingly unsentimental about this, I think, or I thought they didn't care whether Synths felt or not until Elder Maxson's quest to kill Paladin Danse.

Apparently, they do think Synths don't feel or think as humans do.

Which is another justification for their destruction of them.

People can have their memories erased too in Fallout.

Does that mean anything at all?

Harkness' life is in the people he loves and cares for.

Not scrubbing toilets in the Institute.

But can they have them installed? Aside from some Manchurian Candidate or what-ever can an average human-being be given a trigger word that makes them shut down or act as robots for the will of others? No. Can every synth? Yes.

Artificial sentience is just wrong, regardless of whether it is truly sentient or not, and detracts from the value of human life. They're unnatural aberrations that we can never truly be able to comprehend and should just be done away with for our own safety. As a person I am quite invested in my personal safety and that of what and who is important to me over such hand-wringing over synths. If they turn out to have been actually alive, [censored] happens.

Eh, humans in Fallout svck.

What? What do you even meant with "Exactly"? I talked about several things in the post you quoted.

Even if they are self aware their self awareness could be compromised. What if they could think for themselves, but someone could remotely manipulate their opinion?

Or someone enters a secret code that causes them to kill everyone.

Exactly.

Dare i bring up the spiritual side of the argument; does a synth have a soul? Are they alive under the eyes of any god?

Is any of that relevant? That can be done in Fallout to regular humans.

What the personally is engineered to be friendly, smart, brave and honest. Such a synths might position of influence obtain and someone with his access codes turn him into a puppet by altering his opinion.

Batman said it best.

"Could it be he had a soul, Alfred? A soul of silicon but a soul, nonetheless."

If Batman thinks they might, I'll trust him.

I'd say altering a Synth's memories and personality is a monstrous violation and shooting the person who does such is justice.

Then again, I shot the Raider Synth rather than let the Institute have him.

Mindwipes=evil.

It's the most screwed up thing about the Railroad. Look what it did to poor Paladin Danse.

No, I can't just tell any human "authorization code: P1ssword123" and make him obey my command.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mesmetron

This argues you can.

BTW, you guys rock.

You've inspired me to do a "The Moral Ambiguity of Fallout 4" essay for my blog.

It's almost done.

How do you know that he is altering a sentient personality? You admitted that you just assume that they are sentient, in order to be on the safe side. You sentence someone to death without having being sure that what he is doing wrong.

A synth is a machine. If I want to reprogram it to wash my floors... so be it.

Actually, I'd reprogram all synths to be love slaves. Set up shop in Goodneighbor and rank in the caps. (I'm laying out plans for a mod)

The Wastelands is in sore need of love slaves. I'm willing to bet, the raiders wouldn't be so aggressive if they got it more.

Well, this thread turned into another debate over synth sentience... which is an interesting issue, sure, but I'd say it's irrelevant in regard to BoS motivations, since I personally believe BoS would still pursue the goal of synth eradication even if synths were somehow proven to be sentient. To the BoS, they'd still be manufactured technology, impossible to truly control by anyone but the Institute, and as such would merit extermination.

Synths can be the weapons of a new war. Synths could spy on us, become assassins at night, subvert governments and turn people against each other without knowing.

Eh, I don't, but if I'm not then mind-wiping a guy to be a toilet slave is something I couldn't get behind.

I think this is actually why Good and Evil Karma are gone from the game.

We couldn't have this discussion if wiping Synths was Evil Karma or no karma whatsoever.

And i agree with them. I'm not debating their sentience. In my view, they are abominations. Period.

But I'd still like to try and reprogram a few.

The Brotherhood of Steel is kind of upfront about their fears.

They think Synths will be better than humanity.

And that Synths will destroy humans.

It's fairly direct and I wish they'd stuck with it instead of Synthetic Sentience.

It's like humans being afraid of Mutants in X-men.

But, you don't know if he/it is a guy or whether he/it has a mind. And that is the only crucial point.

I do disagree with the BoS about destroying the synths. I'd perfer to reprogram them to serve us.

I think the risk that they subvert society is quite low when they work as six bots.