I mean, come on, they're so far ahead in technology that they've learned to develop personal robots who can not only serve and carry out orders without question, are able to fit into society unnoticed. I don't see why the BoS despise synths.

I don't understand how the Railroad want to 'help' Synths as if they're people... because at the end of the day, they're robots - they were created in a laboratory and they're composed of metal. Did the Institute really want to help the Commonwealth? Did they wish to take over it and rule for themselves?

I really feel as if, provided the Institute didn't send robots into communities to pass as real humans, but instead told people which ones were robots, they could really make a difference to the world. Why were they considered evil?

not that far in the story but i have my doubts considering the synth from FO3 who gave you a plasma rifle and was pretty cool. I suspect people in the diamond city are just your typical pitchfork wielding villagers. But Piper is supposed to be your companion. She seems just as ignorant as the rest of them. If synths aren't evil why do people disappear just to be replaced unless no ones being replaced at all it's just paranoia but then why have synths attacked me on multiple occasions. I've got a collection of institute laser pistols to prove it. Of course the makers may just be war mongers. I think that covenant faction really wanted to convince me their torture was jesus biscuits and so does the US maybe thats bathesdas bent too and the new normal. maybe the slightly racist overtones of no synths here is supposed to convince you that synths and your daily enemies really are evil and it's not all some grey morals misunderstanding.

Mindset and viewpoint really.

My guess is the BOS see robots trying to be/pass as human as an abomination- technology being taken too far with a great potential to overthrow humanity.

I think the fear is that people have disappeared and possibly replaced by a Synth lookalike. Your neighbor? Replaced by a robot look-a-like. What happened to the original? Probably dead.

I know I wouldn't be too fond of the institute if there was a chance I'd get replaced by a doppleganger in the dead of night and dragged off to god knows what.

What i meant to add was 1. are people really disappearing or did that guy just shoot his real brother in the head. and 2. who's to say what constitutes life. If they have free will, think, experience and are alive then they are sentient/ have consciousness. The technical definition of alive is to move, eat and reproduce. it may just be to eat and reproduce. Maybe grow can be traded for move as plants dont 'move' but grow and grow in the direction of sunlight. Valentine seems to have free will and conciousness.

Not that far into the story,.. but if I saw a robot trying to pass as me I would be as upset as the people in the game.. WTF man??

Shadow organisation that created killing machines, organises kidnappings, murdering and replacing humans with exact copies.......yeah hard to see why anyone wouldn't consider them evil.

With all things there are exceptions to to the rule. Nick and Harkness, for example-- do mechanical men dream of mechanical sheep? No easy answer to that.

In Star Wars, there are droids who attain a form of sentience and free will when their heuristic processor is not routinely cleaned up, leading to the development of personalities, opinions, and acting outside of their owners orders. I suppose the same thing can be applied here to Fallout 4's Synths. Maybe they are alive, but not as we are. A different kind of alive.

Its not paranoia at all.......went to Goodneighbor and saw the Watch gun down a guy. They said his friends noticed him acting weird so they were called in to whack him. And wouldn't you know it but he really was a synth, found that out when I looted the corpse. The problem Diamond City has is the leaders are in denial and Piperisnt really helping.

The girl means well because at one point in her life, being the vocal loud mouth worked out well for her. However, when you're dealing with the Institute killing people and replacing them...Her methods just stir the pot without leaving anything to build a solution. Sure, okay, Piper, we know they're out there doing the thing. Now what? Be vigilant and wary and untrusting of our neighbors?

They also never said he was ever not a synth. "His friends," I watched others gun down the guy in diamond city and looted his corpse but got no confirmation he was or wasn't a synth. That one was supposedly someones brother. the synth you saw could have just been a victim of these pitchfork waving villagers who attack anyone who is not like them. He lived there fine for many years and is killed when they find the shameful secret. IDK but doesn't seem cut and dry without proof they are taking people.

they "enslave" conscious and sentient robots

Randomly i ran into a guy that was at gun point by another guy. They both looked the same, and had the same name. I killed the guy witht the gun as it was a institution pistol. That seems a little fishy to me.

are the 3rd gen synths actually robots/machines or are they made up of biological bodies?

because that might make me question the moral values of the institute

So some of the more advanced synths are like replicants from Blade Runner? Unlike the obviously robotic synths that you see in the wastes.

The institute seems to be unconcerned about moral or ethical considerations. I haven't met anyone from the institute yet though so I don't know what they are like.

that's the impression i've got so far, but i'm not sure. glad to see i'm not the only one making connections to blade runner, haha.

1. Well, Paladin Danse explains the Brotherhood of Steel consider the Synths to be self-replicating robots and basically are here to destroy them because they foresee Synths pulling the whole Skynet and Matrix thing. They believe Synths are more dangerous than the Atomic Bomb because they are capable of rebelling against their Creators and possess free will--which means that they will exterminate humanity when their numbers exceed humanity.

....

Kind of a leap in logic there but the Brotherhood believes the two races can't coexist and are trying to prevent the Quarian situation.

2. The Railroad is full of Synths, people who are married to Synths, people who are best friends with Synths, and people who just think Synths are indistinguishable from humans. They reject the human/robot distinction. Hence, why the Railroad doesn't have a Gray and Gray Morality view of the Institute. As far as they're concerned, Synths are people and the Institute is Paradise Falls.

Pure unmitigated evil.

Given you can romance a Synth, considering them not people is kind of off.

3. As for the Institute being evil, they also use their robots to engage in Terrorism. There was a smaller version of NCR in the Commowealth called the Commonwealth of Allied Settlements which the Institute used their sleeper agents to destroy. They also kidnap people to engage in experimentation.

From what little talk I've had with her that is probably the case, but she is clearly agitating for turning the mob against the Mayor...tbh she is so heavy handed about it I doubt he is a synth, just incompetant. I imagine I'll find out eventutally.

The one I saw in DC was a guy accusing his brother or some such of being a synth....the guards shot him before he could kill the guy, who was remarkably calm about things. I checked his inventory, he did not have a synth component on him like the guy in Goodneighbor did. Everything they say about Goodneighbor is that they are a pretty tight community and it gets noticed quickly when people start acting unlike themselves.

The more I think about this, the more I suspect that the mysterious paymaster of Talon Co is probably the Institute,...trying to keep the Cw destabilized to keep the Brotherhood out of their hair. Apparantly that has failed.

Me too...though both were armed with pipe guns I believe. Super Mutants spawned in before I could make a decision then they started fighting.....the loser did not have a synth component and the winner was eeriy calm about the whole thing.

Piper is just trying to get people to rage against the Status Quo.

The only people working against the Institute now are the Railroad.

And they're kind of myopic.

Both side have their own valid point of view.

On institute side:
* they believe that the world can be fix and back to pre-war situation with science. And that is their aim. But to do this they need work force and they use synth to do it. On their points of view they are not suppose to have free view in AI and it is just some malfunction within their programming logic

On railroad side:
* they consider AI with freewill is not malfunction and they can think and have emotion like human so they should be treat as one. To make it easier to understand just think they are like vegetarian that consider all animal can feel pain and should not be eaten like you won't want to be eaten by animal

On BoS side:
* they think advanced technology shouldn't exist because it is the advanced technology destroy the world in the first place. They think scientist are just playing with fire and don't realize how dangerous they are doing and they may one day destroy the world the second time. In a way they also correct as it can potentially lead to situation like The Terminator movie or Mass Effect's Geth that they can possible take over the world

There is no right or wrong on all side beside I guess

They're more like well intentioned extremists I gather. My only beef with them is that Father tells you synths aren't sentient and that the Institute is the best hope for humanity, but he doesn't actually explain [censored]. Why are they the best hope ? What are their plans and why are those plans the best thing to do ? Will carrying them out be so beneficial that it justifies exterminating the Railroad and completely destroying a chapter of the BoS ? How are synths not fully sentient ? Explain how their minds work and how their consciousness is somehow not genuine.

The other factions may be flawed too but at least they tell why they want what they're asking of me done. They're wrong but they share their justifications.

I think it's more a case of, "There is an objectively right answer" but the game doesn't say which is it.

If the Institute is right, the Railroad is silly like those hippies at the Co-Op with "Professor Goodfeels."

Misguided weirdos.

If the Railroad is right, the Institute is Paradise Falls with rayguns.

One is right and there is no "middle ground."

But which is right is up to the player to decide.

In my end, I think Nick Valentine has a soul.

A soul made a silicon but a soul nonetheless.

i take it that you can't refuse dealing with the railroad and the bos if you want to stay with the institute?

I get the impression Shaun is an enormous hypocrite and liar. As the Director, all he's done is stir up [censored] in the Commonwealth and keep the Wastelanders divided and under the Institute's thumb.

The Institute could do so much more but they haven't done anything but ruin lives under him.

The Institute might make the world a better place but it won't be under him.

Every faction wants the other factions dead except the Minutemen.

The Institute wants the Railroad and BoS gone.

The Railroad wants the BoS and Institute gone.

The Brotherhood wants the Institute gone and will exterminate the Railroad ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT YOU.

(Which is like, Damn)

The Minutemen can wipe out the Institute OR the BoS or BOTH. They can also ally with the Railroad.

uhh that svcks. didn't expect anything else though.