![]() ![]() ![]() To be fair, the Mass Effect series up until ME3’s endings never clearly rejects the idea of the “spark of life” or “vital essence,” but I always got the feeling that it did. My gripe probably has more to do with my rejection of elan vital than the internal consistency of the Mass Effect space magic. ![]() It is a literal synthesis of the bodies of extant intelligences, organic and synthetic. It is clearly shown that Synthesis is not a symbolic synthesizing of interests by way of merging systems of thought and value. That would be all well and good if every being wasn’t literally rippling like a glittery circuitboard. I guess you could aruge that Synthesis is about aligning the values problem in the heads of all the living sapients, synthetic and organic, so that they will never make misaligned intelligences in the future. Synthesis is totally off-the-wall with respect to everything Shepard should know. Granted, it is fantastical, but it is within the limits previously established in the game. With Control and Destroy, there is a mechanism laid out for how they would work. The overall implication is that organics and synthetics will understand each other because they will become each other, but weren’t they all just a kind of machine to begin with? What is this sudden uniformity of experience by platform? It would make more sense to say organic nervous systems were re-wired, but even plants get the machine essence infusion, as we see from the ending cutscene. For another thing, code and DNA aren’t fully analogous. The Geth can be cooperative, more so than their organic creators. There is no special sauce in organics that synthetics can’t attain, which means an AI can be fully sapient and become a real person. The Krogan have values that pose a threat to the rest of the galaxy. How can “organic essence” be distributed and worked into machines? How can machine essence be incorporated into all organic beings? For one thing, these “essences” are not uniform among organics or AIs. It wouldn’t preclude the possibility of developing new AI– will it be impossible to make new machines after the Synthesis? If not, then won’t they just run into the same problem eventually given enough time? At least they won’t have the Reapers trying to kill every advanced organic indiscriminately over it, so it’s a better choice for Shepard than the status quo, but how could the starchild think that this is a lasting solution to the problem it was created to solve?Ģ. The starchild suggests that this is a new possibility that has simply never been available until now, but it WILL solve the values alignment problem.ġ. The game begs you to choose the Synthesis option, both through the starchild’s exhortations and the fact that no one but you has to die to achieve it (EDI and the Geth can live). ![]() Then, with sufficient Galactic Readiness, you get the Synthesis option. you can send the order to Destroy them and the Citadel and the Mass Relays, which makes sense because they are all part of the same network (although he claims this would destroy all advanced technology, too). You have passed the test, and now you can control the Reapers instead of him, or 2. So when you get to the starchild, he presents two options: 1. It even made sense to view the Citadel as controlling the Reapers in retrospect. When we find out the Catalyst is the Citadel, it makes sense because we already know that Citadel and the Reapers are intimately connected. Throughout the game we are learning about the Crucible and that it’s a massive source of energy that can, with the Catalyst, be precision-directed against the Reapers. You may ask, “Aren’t they all pretty fantastical?” Yes, but Control and Destroy are consistent with the space magic that we’ve been learning about up until the game’s climax. But the Synthesis ending makes no sense on any level. I think this is all happening in Shepard’s head anyway (“Indoctrination Theory”). I am not bothered (at least not as much as the rest of the fans) by the superficial resemblance between all the different endings. ![]()
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