I mean long term. Their raison d'etre. I think we've been told they're often used for slave labour but that doesn't make a lot of sense. I imagine making bots that look and think and feel like a person does is expensive as [censored] so they'd have to work a lot of years just to chip off the cost of their creation. But maybe their immortal so it balances out? Still, seems kinda weird when you can just buy slaves for much cheaper and have them breed. Plus! If they're supposed to be slaves why make them look all fancy like?

So what's the Institute's game here? Are they creating these androids and sending them off to infiltrate powerful organizations and then eventually take over the world in a single, flawless coup MWAHAHAHAHAHA? Are they just zany, harmless scientists having agendaless fun in their clubhouse (dayum but wouldn't that be refreshing?)? Are they actually working for the Enclave (jesus [censored] no)? Or maybe the Brotherhood (jesus [censored] no-er).

Personally, I think androids serve the same purpose as plainclothes police officers. They blend in with the public, and then do their thing when they need to. From what we've learned, The Institute separates itself from the wastes of the Boston area. They probably use their more advanced synths as spies, to keep tabs on what's going on in the surrounding area. When synths decide to live as free-willed humans, they send other androids like Harkness, a member of the 'Synth Retention Bureau', to retrieve them.

To ask an Android what their Raison D'etre, or Reason for Being if you will, is some serious "Do Electric Men dream of Electric Sheep?" stuff.

Do you think they do?

That's deep man.

Watch the Star Trek Next Generation episode "The Measure Of A Man". The Institute is Commander Maddox, pre-epiphany. Data is Harkness/A3-21 and the other runners.

Whats the reason for vaults?

Naj, but i hope we get a good story.
Spies. H+ type of stuff. Essentially a biomechanical cure for ghoulification?
Could the institute be warped out like the enclave?
Scientists working on believable androids for the pan american war effort, who in complete nerd/psychic break fashion continued on with their work, while the outside burned and raged?

They could be used for assassination, eliminate the designated target, then the handler could remotely wipe their memory.

I could say six-bots but well slaves are still cheaper, dangerous work? But why make them all flash and human like, it does not make any real sense other then that they can, it’s a bit like mobile phones most people don’t use all the functions but they still line up for the latest model and still not use all the functions.

Simple reason human hubris........

They give a bunch of eggheads a way to produce an armed force that listens to everything they do.

That's probably the most immediate reason.

MIT is filled with brilliant scientist, but they aren't soldiers.

You can either start training a force in house, or, if you have the technology, why not build one that you know can be trusted since you programmed it.

Watch Star Trek Next Generation. Data is a prime example of why we would nake androids, because they be badasses, that's why!

Because apple could not get the job done.

In serious note:

- they don't sleep.

-can't feel pain.

-they can be programmed to do jobs other robots can't do

-they are more human and more easily accepted rather than flying dalek with circlesaw.

-they are benchmark for our creativity. A walking database for future smart people.

- Android is everything we are not.

If one of those androids says he'll be back I will lose my [censored]!

This.

But I think there's also another reason (greed is the root of large scale ambition) and that's the perfect human body.

I'd rather put my brain inside an A3-21-like supersynth than a robobrain or Think Tank.

It's safe to assume that MIT holds robotics in high regards (they changed the world, I mean Codsworth is a result of MIT) and developed an almost religious passion for that field of research.

Lets also not forget House went to The Institute, which probably only further fueld thier passion into robotics after he became the robot god so to speak in making Rob-co.

I'd assume that they were invented pre-war and used as a sort of super soldier. MIT made them back in the day. Maybe some models were actually made to be six bots. If someone actually could buy a totally life like android that looked like a porm star, did what ever you wanted and never ran off with your neighbor with half your stuff, they'd sell like hotcakes.

After the bombs fell the Institute started to make them again for protection and what not. Maybe at some point they became self aware and that is when all the problems started?

In general I am pretty skeptical of Bethesda and its way of handling fallout but the android thing to date has been fine and I'd expect that it will be a high point of fallout 4.

Absolutely.

I wonder whether The Institute admires House, belittles him, or largely ignores him. Which also begs the question of how much they value history in general.

I think a better question is what exactly they want to do overall.

They've had access to super advanced technology for the past 200 years, and they have an army of soldiers who are immune to radiation and can survive having chunks blown out of them.

If conquering the wasteland was a goal, they could easily control every square inch of Boston.

The only reason to make them indistinguishable from humans is that you want them able to pass for human for some reason. Whether that is to enable them to act as spies, or to make it easier for humans accept them as authority figures or otherwise relate to them, I couldn't say.

To die. [Guns 75]

I find the notion of androids that are visually and audibly human in this world confusing. You have a whole range of robots that look and sound fairly technologically primitive but then you've got robots that the game world thinks are truly humans. Is The Institute responsible for all these robots or just the droids? If they hoard the technology to make human-like bots it makes sense that there is such a difference between an android and a securitron for example, but I find the contrast of robotic technology in the Fallout world a little jarring when comparing the products. Maybe I'm missing something lore-wise?

All the other robots were made before the war.

The institute survived the war and has been working on making more advanced robots for 200 years straight. They have had two centuries to blow all other robots out of the water with their advanced designs.

Because they can.

Androids just seem to be a natural progression of robotic technology.