WARNING: STORY SPOILERS UP UNTIL THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL

Look away now if you haven't at least begun "The Battle of Bunker Hill". I have only reached that point myself and don't want to know any details beyond this quest. Story spoilers up until the battle are welcome, but none after, please.

I was having real difficulty deciding which faction I should side with for this battle, and ultimately for the rest of the game. But I think I have come to a conclusion as to why the Institute are the best choice, from a moral point of view.

For starters, I find the Brotherhood a little arrogant and entitled as it is, and their worldview is pretty close-minded. "Cleansing" the world of mutants is understandable but I'm still not sure I agree with this idea that all synths must be destroyed, even the peaceful ones. I think at one point Elder Maxson equates the rise of synth technology and the Institute to the nuclear war in terms of the potential harm it would create for mankind. I don't agree with that, because as long as synths and their creation are in the right hands, they could represent an extremely positive future for mankind. If they were programmed to be far more productive and also compassionate, it could only mean good. I understand the Brotherhood claim that the Institute are taking away "humanity" and what it means to be a human being, but is that such a bad thing? Humans are a great detriment to the world, particularly in the Fallout universe where they destroy it, so why not replace our species with near perfect, peaceful synths? In terms of the greater good, think about how much suffering mankind causes in the world. Not just to itself, but to millions of other life forms. At the hands of humans, the animal kingdom is subject to extreme suffering in the Fallout universe, with most species and habitats wiped off the face of the Earth.

Saving the prosperity of life forms from the greed and destructive nature of mankind seems to me to be the greater good in this situation. A counter-argument could be that human life is more important than animal life, but I would still argue that the world would be a better place without mankind, or at least without the current, very problematic and selfish version of mankind.

I'm not entirely sure of the Institute's plan, though. Is it to replace all of mankind with "superior" synths, without the synths knowing they are robots, or just to develop synths to do our work for us and coexist? If it is to replace mankind with synths, I've gotta say I'm probably on board with that. Even if it means plotting the death of my own species, which may seem weird to some, I still think it would ultimately be for the greater good. The ultimate goal would be to create enough synths with the most peaceful worldview possible, as subjective as that may be, and then to remove human involvement. In other words, to eventually destroy the Institute and those responsible for controlling the synth population, so as to remove the easily tempted desire for power and manipulation that the human element brings the risk of. Create these synths to the best of our ability and then let them roam free. I realise this probably goes beyond the options on offer at the end of the game (remember, I don't want anything spoiled past the Bunker Hill quest anyway), but I'm talking in purely theoretical terms.

Back to the point of losing our "humanity" by replacing our species with synths, does it even matter if nobody knows they are a synth? We could all be synths, or involved in some kind of simulation, right now, as we browse this video game forum. Yet it makes no difference to our lives, nor to the universe as a whole. Trying not to stray too far from the game here, but if we take a particularly cold approach, and go along with hard determinism, assuming that free will is an illusion and that humans are effectively "machines" anyway, does it make any difference whatsoever if we are literally replaced by machines?

This post has gone well beyond what Bethesda probably intended for us to consider, and gets a bit philosophical in places, when really Fallout 4 is just a video game, but I guess I just have too much time to spare. Thoughts? Agree or disagree? I'd love you to convince me to change my mind if you strongly disagree. Please remember not to post any story spoilers beyond The Battle of Bunker Hill.

Before any replies can be made to this thread, I highly suggest you finish the main story first. Only then can you make a better choice on who you should support.