A sentient being make of another substance in a form we may or may not understand.

What they made of isn't the key factor, the key factor is self awareness.
Steel and electrical wires are just like our muscles and nerve system, it's just that our technology isn't advance enough to create a complete replicate of human using metal, something like John in Terminator Genisys.

From my point of view, it does.

If they replicate every leader of every faction, replacing them with their robot.
Then there will be no war, peace can at last be found in Fallout Universe, should they choose it.

What they are doing now is just experimenting, looking for bugs, so that they can improve to the point where it's much harder to be exposed.

Or translated simply,

"OUR GOAL IS WORLD DOMINATION THROUGH SCIENCE! BWHAHAHAHAHA!"

Basically, there's a lot going on with the BOS and its motives.

There's the usual "thump these bastards who have technology equal to us" which worked out BADLY for the BOS in California.

But Elder Maxson isn't phrasing it quite that way because a lot of his soldiers are Wastelanders.

He's phrasing it as, "We must stop these evil killbots from killing us all! Which they will do! Because REASONS!"

lol, you really answer him?
Ask him to Google, he will have his answer.

Please, before you make yourself look stupid, go do a 5 min research first, have some backing that the question you post isn't an answer that can easily found.
A tip, type "human composition" in google to get your answer if you aren't smart enough to come up with the appropriate term to search for.

eh i disagree. i still don't believe machines have feelings, i belive that they're just able to replicate them in a realistic manner. soz. and don't be rude, it hurts my feelings.

it's not even a question of right or wrong, these are existential questions no one can really answer until we experience them.

I think since this is all fictional, the real question is.

"Does our Sole Survivor believe Nick and Currie are people or very-very well designed machines?"

"Does the latter preclude them having any rights."

There's also the fact you could side with the Institute believing you can reform it ala Elder Lyons.

After all, if the Institute is destroyed--doesn't that doom the Synths?

Basicly 3rd gen synths are biological bodies enhanced with cybernetics.

Which when you think about it, is all sorts of [censored] up as their biological components all come from Shaun.

Which means ALL of the Synths are the SS' grandchildren.

Which means Shaun has enslaved his own descendants.

Wait what? Oh dear God...so my character had been killing her Synthetic grandchildren unknowingly?! What of Nick Valentine? Is he technically Sole Survivor's grandchild as well? And Harkness from Fallout 3? He's her grandkid too since his biological components would've had to come from Shaun?

That's it, I know what faction she'll join: The Railroad. She may not know it now, but she'll be saving her synth grandchildren.

Anyone who joins the institute is a [censored]. How do you feel betraying your wife and yourself!? They also kidnapped your son after prying him from your wifes hands after killing her. No self respect... Can't even call yourself a man after you do that.

Nick seems to be made of rubber so no but all of the Generation Threes? Yep!

Kind of puts the game in a new light.

Actually:

I wonder what he thinks when he realizes the whole cloning thing means all the 3rd-generations are his kids/grandkids too.

But this is a good game for making it so that every section is realistic.

shawn

Oh I think that too, I say VI because Codsworth seems too detached from reality to be fully aware, if he's an actual AI then he's gone quite insane. On the other hand Currie says she feels emotions immediately after being put into a synth body, so maybe the spark of consciousness was there but she needed superior hardware to run it.

Currie's quest indicates that she doesn't possess inspiration and can only process data as a Mister Handy (Mrs. Handy?) while as a Synth, she possesses inspiration and emotions like grief.

Doctor Amara also said something which stunned me when I did the quest a few hours ago.

She stated that Synth brains are biological but have cybernetic interfaces.

....

Well, that settled any questions for me.

Ok, sorry.

Anyway, as with programming to robot, we believe we have souls.

A complete replicate of ourselves using materials we have on hand is a step towards learning what are we i suppose.
We try to use metals we can lay our hands on, and create a new being. Started simple, and improvise slowly.
We now can replicate an acceptable body, and a barely acceptable programming.
What if one day we can make devices that the robot can detect it's own damage, just like we feel pain when our cells dies.
If we manage to program all our basic instinct into program, does it mean that we managed to create a soul(non-fiction) with something we understand(fiction)? Isn't that what progress is science all about? To understand what we don't in the universe?

I think no matter the being is man-make or not, as long as it can proves that it does have self awareness, they do deserve the basic respect we should give to another. Treating them as free labor or exploit to an end, will not end well.

Given the progress rate of our science advance these days, i think Humans creating another race is no longer a dream. About as far as Wright brothers' inventing airplanes.

If Codsworth is truly an AI, it's not surprising he gone a bit out of mind after 200 year of almost complete isolation.

If you choose dialogue of what's wrong with you instead of agreeing to prepare a meal for you, the frustration of waxing floor in nuclear contaminated area, polishing of rusty car, the need to fulfill his purpose, somewhat hints that he did progress to more than just a VI.

honestly i had to think hard about it. but i really do think the institute provides less to the people of the common wealth altogether and in my opinion has a far more disastrous future if left alive.

BoS: are racist, yes, very militaristic but look at the current state of the common wealth. super mutants running ravage, feral s in every building, raiders roaming the hills. i think a little bit of cleansing is bit necessary for the sake of the commonwealth civilians.

The institute: Yes, after meeting them they have good intentions, yet what they are scientists without boundary. what was vault-tec? the same thing. what if their new hyper intelligent model synths rise up against their human masters? then the institute fades to synth, they can mass produce themselves and eradicate the human race. because if EVERYTHING about a synth is human, includeing thought process, then so is greed and bigotry. why add another problem to the wasteland?

Railroad: i dunno, i killed them all on accident. my bad, mis-interpretation, couldn't load a save so the knowledge i have of them dies with it.

They kidnap people without their consent, kill those who find out about them, USE THE FEV ON PEOPLE! look at synths as salves....

yeah, at BEST they are neutral leaning toward evil, but likely evil.

Machines are not alive, people.

if they can think like us, if they know they exist, if they are self-aware, that is the DEFINITION OF ALIVE, OF SENTIENCE.

this is non-negotiable, this is the literal definition.

If you pass a charisma check, the guy at gunpoint will admit to being with the institute, thinking you are too.

Regardless, perhaps the institute isn't exactly evil but they are certainly perverse.

The caveat about the Institute is that Shaun is aware how much he's screwed up and wants you as a non-scientist leader to provide them some hard-nosed leadership and outsider's perspective.

So you could change everything.

But as we see with Elder Lyons, change is hard.