Multitudes of posters insert theories and their own longings into these discussions, but there's no basis for any of it, and the institute just doesn't make any sense, from start to finish. Bethesda you dropped the ball here.

1. Why replace people who already exist with synths. You can't possibly really care if you are the mayor of a freakin baseball field. And that is your top position above ground. Plotwise, it creates the big bad boogeyman, but there's no clear reason for it ever given, ever questioned, and you can't confront Father about it. That's a big problem.

2. Where are all the mutants coming from? I read the terminals and it mentions disposing of them. Not releasing them. And even if you were, why? They complain about how horrible the surface is.... well supermutants are one of a few key reasons. Based on the small FEV lab, I find it hard to believe that this is the true source of all the mutants, but the question remains, what was Father trying to accomplish by the constant tests?

3. Totally contradictory logic towards synths. The institute puts synths above ground, mass produces them, talks to them, etc. But then deny that they have any sort of personhood, free will, or self. Never did anyone at the institute have to provide a reason why these programmed machines constantly were trying to get freedom and escape. I would think programming them to believe they aren't really alive would be rudimentary, and prevent any BS like this. The BoS actually feels the same way. So why make robots that can't be told apart from humans if these robots don't have real minds? The insitute would HAVE TO come to the same conclusion as the BoS, that they are dooming humanity and the world to eventually be a soulless husk filled with algorithms rather than thoughts. So their central activity runs completely contrary to how they think about their own creations.

I love how after the end, the minutemen constantly say things like "I don't know why the institute didn't just stay underground/leave us alone." Yeah dude, NO ONE KNOWS. Cause it was badly written.

I love this game btw, 11/10 for me, because bethesda games aren't on the same scoring scale as other games (except maybe bioware games), But the more I think about what kind of questions I had and how none of it made sense at the end, the more irritating it gets.

1. It's explained in-game that they replace people with synths for various reasons.

A. In the case of the mayor of Diamond City, they replaced him to stir up anti-ghoul sentiment, and to get the ghouls thrown out of Diamond City, to divide the people so they can't possibly unite against The Institute. They also use him to monitor potential threats in the region.

B. In the case of Mr. Warwick, they replaced him in order to carry out various tests on the surface, such as testing out specially grown crops to see how they fare, since he ran the farm with the best land in The Commonwealth.

2.

A. From The Institute. All the terminals only speak of the RECENT test subjects, not all the ones they ever made. Remember, they hastily closed the FEV labs since Virgil tried to destroy everything and escaped.

B. Because its easier to simply release them then it would be to kill them and burn the bodies and all that.

C. The game is scaled down heavily. Obviously, theres not just 10 bedrooms in The Institute, and all the divisions aren't just single rooms as we see in-game. The FEV labs would be much larger, like everything else would.

D. The same thing The Institute was trying to accomplish with FEV before they picked up Shaun, to perfect FEV and create a race of super humans that are far better then normal humans in every way, Same thing The Master was trying to do.

3. Because The Institute are scientists, not philosophers. They seek to expand the borders of technology without asking if it SHOULD be expanded that way. Big MT. had the same problem. Also, the human synths serve the purpose of surface infiltrators, and a perfect workforce that doesn't need to eat, sleep ,recharge, and has complex AI nearing human intellect that allows them to adapt to any work situation that may arise with minimal oversight. they are the perfect tools to serve mankind forever.

Because the institute is secretly run by synths. You have robots... that don't know they're robots... and think they're better than robots... making other robots. And super mutants. Because reasons.

I'm not convinced that Bethesda will ever blow my mind with an awesome game plot, it's just not in the cards for them.

No they don't make cents because they are nonprofit and don't trade with the surface silly so of course they don't make any cents or dollars either.


Back on topic: they replace people to spy on the Railroad and to find new sources of electric power to use.