So does the punishment fit the crime. Ok so lets look at a summary of what happened:
The Crime
- The Quarians invent Geth 1900 CE to be used as labourers and tools of war. The quarians kept their programming as limited as that of any VI.nothing close to an AI, remaining mindful of the Citadel Councils laws against artificial intelligence. But as the quarians gradually modified the geth to do more complex tasks, developing a sophisticated neural network, these changes altered the geth to such an extent that they became sentient. The geth were designed as VI's as advanced as possible while remaining on-sentient.The Geth becoming sentient was neither planned nor intentional.
- One day, a geth unit began asking its overseer questions about the nature of its existence. According to Legion while this was not the first time a geth unit had asked if it had a soul, it was the first time doing so had caused fear. Regardless, the quarians felt as though they had made a terrible mistake.
- Panicked, the quarian government ordered an immediate shutdown of all geth, hoping to strike the first blow, but they had underestimated the power of the neural network and how intelligent the geth had become.Their servants defended themselves, resulting in a war that cost billions of quarian lives and drove them from their homeworld.
The Punishment
- The Citadel Council refused aid to the Quarians during the Morning War. This resulted in the Quarians fleeing their homeworld
- Soon after, the Council stripped the quarians of their embassy, effectively cutting the quarians out of Citadel politics as a punishment for their actions.
The Consequences
- The Quarians do not have a planet to call their own, and as a result are forced to wander the galaxy in the migrant feet
- Quarian population now stands at approx 17 million people with restrictions place on birth rates to preserve
resources
- As a consequence of living aboard the flotilla the Quarian immune system has been shot to pieces. They are permanently sentanced to living within their enviro suits
- Quarians are treated like second class citizens by the rest of the galaxy, viewed as vagrants and scavangers
- The Geth did not repopulate the now barren Quarian worlds, instead choosing to exist in the computer hubs
aboard massive space stations and extract needed resources from asteroids.
The Verdict (in my own opinion)
Personally I think the Councils actions have been unbelievably harsh. Yes the Quarians made an error of judgement as a people, but they paid dearly for it with millions of Quarians losing their lives. The Quarian race has been reduced to a mere 17 million peoplem, to put that in context that is less then 1/3 the population of the United Kingdom or less then half the population of California
By refusing the Quarians aid, billions were killed. The Quarians were forced to flee a planet that the Geth do not even use. Council intervention could have resulted in the Geth being moved to Space stations elsewhere in the Galaxy and the Quarians keeping their planet. Their refusal resulted in a bloody war, the near genecide of a race, and the Quarian people sentanced to wander the stars in space suits. What a miserable existence to impose on people.
Now many will argue that the Quarians brought all this on themselves by creating the Geth and then subsequently attacking them. I think thats harsh. Believing that the majority of the Geth were not sentient they
attempted to shut down the machines to correct their mistake. They failed.
Regardless of the merit or lack of there of of their decision, the current day Quarian race should not be held accountable for it. You cannot condemn a race for a single mistake surely?
It would appear the council are intent on doing so
Poll
social.bioware.com/1639775/polls/12139/
Modifié par Major Truth, 29 octobre 2010 - 12:12 .
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