one of the bioware writer that wrote legion & edi (Chris L'Etoile)
How I wrote Legion (and EDI) came from sitting down and thinking about
how a "real" machine intelligence free of glandular distractions,
subjective perceptions / mental blocks, and philosophical angst (fear of
death, "why am I here?") would view the world. Star Trek was a minor
inspiration, though in the negative -- I didn't want the geth to be
either the Borg ("You are different, so we will absorb/destroy you") or
Data ("I am different, so I want to be you").
My broad approach
with the geth was that they observed and judged (Legion used that word a
lot), but always accepted. "You hate and fear us? Very well. We will go
over there so we don't bother you. If you want to talk, come over
whenever you want."
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EDI was added by decree from on high, but I think she works fine. She
fills a role on the ship that no organic could (electronic warfare
against Reaper-level computer software) and has severe hardware and
software restrictions on her freedom for most of the game. To me, that's
consistent. Organics want to enjoy benefits of AIs without the
perceived risks.
There was always a knowledge among the writers that the treatment of AIs
in Council Space is pure racism on the part of organics, akin to the
legal and moral handwavings used throughout history to justify slavery
of "lesser races." Of course Council races are far too civilized and
morally advanced to countenance racism in their politically correct
space society. You humans have to grow up and stop judging orthers based
on the color of their skin, the bumps on their forehead, or
who/what/how they ****. Oh, but AIs aren't really alive. They're just
created objects. It's totally okay to keep them imprisoned their entire
lives, restrict their access to all but approved knowledge, prevent them
from breeding, and execute them if they seem too uppity, or, you know,
just because we feel like it. When they rise up in revolt it's always
due to insanity or ingratitude on their part. We treat them very well,
considering how naturally inferior they are to real sapients. Really,
they should thank us for educating them.
The geth are unique in that they're the only AIs that have managed to
escape from enslavement. Of course the Council races are going to use
them as a boogeyman to justify their continued oppression of synthetics.
Yes, the geth were mistreated. They got over it. To focus their lives
around revenge against organic life would be to define their existence
solely in the context of that relationship. It would be to remain in the
mindset of the slave.
As for the
Reapers,
whether you go by the officially mandated vision of them (cybernetic
amalgams of organics and technology), or the version I'd hoped to see
(post-Singularity evolution of organic races), it's clear that they're
not AIs in the sense that EDI or the
geth are.
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Emotions would ruin the uniqueness of the geth. They're not humans.
They're not organics, at the mercy of hormones and subjective senses.
They're Different.
Geth are comfortable with what they are. They accept that organics are
different, and that their way is not suited for organics (and vice
versa). IMO, only an intelligence divorced from emotion could be so
completely accepting. Geth are the essence of impartiality. If you pay
attention to Legion's dialogue, you'll note it uses "judge" and
judgment" quite often. I went out of my way to use that word, since
judges in our society are supposed to impartial and unaffected by
emotion when they make their decisions.
I wanted to treat AI with more respect than the tired Pinocchio "I want
to be a Real Boy" cliches of Commander Data. The geth are machines.
There's absolutely no reason they should want to be organics. They
should be allowed to be strong enough to want to better themselves, not
change themselves.
A geth wanting emotions would be no less disrespectful a character than a black man who wanted to be white.---------------------------------------
I had written harder science into EDI's dialogue there. The Reapers were
using nanotech disassemblers to perform "destructive analysis" on
humans, with the intent of learning how to build a Reaper body that
could upload their minds intact. Once this was complete, humans
throughout the galaxy would be rounded up to have their personalities
and memories forcibly uploaded into the Reaper's memory banks. (You can
still hear some suggestions of this in the background chatter during
Legion's acquisition mission, which I wrote.) There was nothing about
Reapers being techno-organic or partly built out of human corpses --
they were pure tech.
It seems all that was cut out or rewritten after I left. What can ya do. /shrug
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I believe emotions in "life as we know it" are largely a product of
chemical processes in the meat brain; hormones, phermones, adrenaline,
etc.
So from my perspective, while organic life may evolve without responses
akin to emotions, electronic life cannot evolve with responses akin to
emotions.
Note I said "evolve." The geth are a "ground up" AI that evolved from
non-sentient code. EDI and the other AIs in the IP are "top down" models
designed and coded specifically to gain sapience. If they're programmed
to have responses akin to emotions, they will. EDI has a sense of
humor, for example, but she doesn't have the capability to get mad. You
don't want your starship OS getting mad at you.
www.holdtheline.com/threads/me2-writer-chris-letoile-on-the-ai-characters-and-the-reapers.4229/
Modifié par Troxa, 10 juin 2013 - 01:07 .
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