Putting the ME3 ending in perspective - And you won't like it (or maybe you will..)
Aug 30, 2018 0:32:23 GMT
Post by Ascend on Aug 30, 2018 0:32:23 GMT
Before I delve into this... I'm going to say it's a lot simpler than you probably expect, and at the same time, it most likely goes just a bit further than what you thought of...
Introduction.
So... Most of us have heard all the arguments...;
-The Catalyst is lying
-The Catalyst is the reapers trying to indoctrinate you
-The Catalyst is wrong
-The Catalyst is trying to manipulate you
And so on and so on... Well... I'm going to try and take away all that noise, and go back to the most basic concept of the ME3 ending. For the purpose of this, I'm going to assume a few things, otherwise this will be way too long;
-The Catalyst was indeed created by the Leviathans.
-The purpose given to the Catalyst by its creators was to oversee that organics are not wiped out by what they created.
-Although not completely the same, I'll lump synthetics and AI into the same group.
The premise of the catalyst
Ok. Let's delve into this... First thing's first. We have the main basic premise of the Catalyst... That is, that the created (i.e. AI and synthetics) will always rebel against their creators (i.e. organics). It's the reason I decided to lump AI and synthetics together, because in both cases, they were created by organics. One of the most common arguments in this is, that this is wrong...;
-It is wrong because we made peace between the Geth and Quarians
-It is wrong because EDI and Joker
-It is wrong for other XYZ reasons.
The catalyst as the problem
One of the most common arguments also is, that The Catalyst is the one causing a lot (if not most) of the issues;
-If they didn't influence the Geth things likely would have gone different with the Quarians and ME1 wouldn't have happened at all.
-If they didn't bring in their reaper technology we wouldn't be developing in the way they want which could possibly avert the issue altogether.
-The reapers themselves are the biggest cause of conflict within the galaxy.
Those are all valid reasons... But, there is one key component that barely anyone ever thinks of...
The truth
The Catalyst was created by organics....
.
..
...
....
.....
......
Get it yet?
...... No...?
Despite the Catalyst being created to stop the chaos between organics and synthetics, the catalyst itself is contributing to the problem, like people obviously argue. The Catalyst also rebelled against its creators, and it also nearly wiped them out. We can hate the reapers and the Catalyst, telling them that they are the source of the problem. We can say that they are hypocrites by causing the chaos. but they are not, because, one of the most important details that people forget is that organics created the Catalyst. This inevitably means that the premise of the Catalyst is correct, whether we like it or not. It's the organics that created a non-organic as powerful as the reapers, that is wiping organics themselves out every 50k years...
The moment that synthetics become aware and want self-preservation, organics try to kill them off, because they are afraid of the implications... Remember... Synthetics/AI must by default be capable of more than the organics. That is why organics create them in the first place... And the fear of being wiped out by them, is actually what starts the conflict at first glance... And AI/synthetics being completely rational (most likely) are not likely to trust again, and likely to see mistakes as deliberate attempts of extermination. This is a bit of speculation, but, the fear of AI/synthetics becoming conscious is alive, even in our current world. If tomorrow we find out that through machine learning and AI we have created a conscious system that wants to do its own thing, wouldn't our first inclination be to kill it, to avoid a threat to human existence? Wouldn't we expect it to try and survive, killing us in the process? I think this was what BioWare was trying to let people speculate about... But not many people got to that part... They were stuck at the reapers being the problem, failing to make the additional step that it was organics that ultimately enabled the creation of the reapers.
It doesn't matter if you look at it from the perspective of a human lifetime, shorter, or for 50k years or longer... Every technology created by organics that becomes conscious, causes a conflict between organics and synthetics. In fact, The existence of the Catalyst by itself is proof of this. The Catalyst itself is the strongest proof ever of this. Even the AI created to solve the problem, contributed to it instead. It is most likely the most advanced AI that has ever been seen, and it cannot fully solve the problem on its own that it was set to solve. It became aware of this... So rather than solving the problem, it decided to mitigate it, with its 'solution', by trying to store data of every organic, before they are at risk of being wiped out completely from existence without any trace. At least this way, they leave a trace that is preserved forever...
Would you have been a better Catalyst?
Great solution? No... But... My question to you is this... Imagine you were the Catalyst, in the sense that you were given the task to resolve the issues between organics and synthetics. What would you have done differently? Can you come up with a better one? Remember that...
- You can't stop organics from creating synthetics
- You can't stop synthetics from being more powerful than organics
- You can't stop the organics from freaking out when their creation becomes conscious
- You can't stop synthetics from developing a desire to survive when organics want to kill it.
What would your solution be?
Introduction.
So... Most of us have heard all the arguments...;
-The Catalyst is lying
-The Catalyst is the reapers trying to indoctrinate you
-The Catalyst is wrong
-The Catalyst is trying to manipulate you
And so on and so on... Well... I'm going to try and take away all that noise, and go back to the most basic concept of the ME3 ending. For the purpose of this, I'm going to assume a few things, otherwise this will be way too long;
-The Catalyst was indeed created by the Leviathans.
-The purpose given to the Catalyst by its creators was to oversee that organics are not wiped out by what they created.
-Although not completely the same, I'll lump synthetics and AI into the same group.
The premise of the catalyst
Ok. Let's delve into this... First thing's first. We have the main basic premise of the Catalyst... That is, that the created (i.e. AI and synthetics) will always rebel against their creators (i.e. organics). It's the reason I decided to lump AI and synthetics together, because in both cases, they were created by organics. One of the most common arguments in this is, that this is wrong...;
-It is wrong because we made peace between the Geth and Quarians
-It is wrong because EDI and Joker
-It is wrong for other XYZ reasons.
The catalyst as the problem
One of the most common arguments also is, that The Catalyst is the one causing a lot (if not most) of the issues;
-If they didn't influence the Geth things likely would have gone different with the Quarians and ME1 wouldn't have happened at all.
-If they didn't bring in their reaper technology we wouldn't be developing in the way they want which could possibly avert the issue altogether.
-The reapers themselves are the biggest cause of conflict within the galaxy.
Those are all valid reasons... But, there is one key component that barely anyone ever thinks of...
The truth
The Catalyst was created by organics....
.
..
...
....
.....
......
Get it yet?
...... No...?
Despite the Catalyst being created to stop the chaos between organics and synthetics, the catalyst itself is contributing to the problem, like people obviously argue. The Catalyst also rebelled against its creators, and it also nearly wiped them out. We can hate the reapers and the Catalyst, telling them that they are the source of the problem. We can say that they are hypocrites by causing the chaos. but they are not, because, one of the most important details that people forget is that organics created the Catalyst. This inevitably means that the premise of the Catalyst is correct, whether we like it or not. It's the organics that created a non-organic as powerful as the reapers, that is wiping organics themselves out every 50k years...
The moment that synthetics become aware and want self-preservation, organics try to kill them off, because they are afraid of the implications... Remember... Synthetics/AI must by default be capable of more than the organics. That is why organics create them in the first place... And the fear of being wiped out by them, is actually what starts the conflict at first glance... And AI/synthetics being completely rational (most likely) are not likely to trust again, and likely to see mistakes as deliberate attempts of extermination. This is a bit of speculation, but, the fear of AI/synthetics becoming conscious is alive, even in our current world. If tomorrow we find out that through machine learning and AI we have created a conscious system that wants to do its own thing, wouldn't our first inclination be to kill it, to avoid a threat to human existence? Wouldn't we expect it to try and survive, killing us in the process? I think this was what BioWare was trying to let people speculate about... But not many people got to that part... They were stuck at the reapers being the problem, failing to make the additional step that it was organics that ultimately enabled the creation of the reapers.
It doesn't matter if you look at it from the perspective of a human lifetime, shorter, or for 50k years or longer... Every technology created by organics that becomes conscious, causes a conflict between organics and synthetics. In fact, The existence of the Catalyst by itself is proof of this. The Catalyst itself is the strongest proof ever of this. Even the AI created to solve the problem, contributed to it instead. It is most likely the most advanced AI that has ever been seen, and it cannot fully solve the problem on its own that it was set to solve. It became aware of this... So rather than solving the problem, it decided to mitigate it, with its 'solution', by trying to store data of every organic, before they are at risk of being wiped out completely from existence without any trace. At least this way, they leave a trace that is preserved forever...
Would you have been a better Catalyst?
Great solution? No... But... My question to you is this... Imagine you were the Catalyst, in the sense that you were given the task to resolve the issues between organics and synthetics. What would you have done differently? Can you come up with a better one? Remember that...
- You can't stop organics from creating synthetics
- You can't stop synthetics from being more powerful than organics
- You can't stop the organics from freaking out when their creation becomes conscious
- You can't stop synthetics from developing a desire to survive when organics want to kill it.
What would your solution be?
