129 réponses à ce sujet

[Valmar]

I agree. However, I can't help considering the implications of what this all means. Besides the primary purpose of finding a solution to the endless cycle of conflict, what motive do the Reapers have for selecting what they consider the "best" species? What are they looking for? Is this their version of evolution, an accident, something unforeseen in their design; or this this part of their attempt at finding the solution?

 

Maybe the were studying organics specifically to see who would be best to replace the keepers or collectors.
 

 

I hate what Leviathan brings to the universe. It makes the universe seem smaller. In the past we were led to believe Reapers were these beings that were above just being part of the known galaxy but Leviathan reduces them to a race that hasn't even gone extinct within the current organics' timeline.

 

Billions of years... smaller.... hm.

 

 

I'm not even sure if finding a permanent solution is really in the reapers interest (unspecified headcanon). Speeding up organic spreading throughout the galaxy via mass relays can imo only serve 2 purposes.:

• more people to harvest and create more troops and Reapers with it (aka reproduction)
• hinder incentives to research/build own (better) FTL drives and connected technologies. This goes with the assumption that these technologies would/could somehow harm or hinder the Reapers actions.

 

 

Can it not just be for the sake of efficiency like they say? Look up time-dilation and factor in the only reason it doesn't effect anyone is because our technology is based off the reaper's. That can give you a lot of implications, Im sure, as to why its so much more efficient now.

 

 

 

 

The endings seems to suggest that the Catalyst has some sort of control over them (or that Shepard helped regain that control), but I don't think that this is total, or that the catalyst is some analogy to a 'Reaper-consensus'.

 

BTW, happy new year, everyone!

 

It embodies the collective consciousness of all reapers. That is a pretty fair analogy, imo.

 

Happy new year~

[Rusted Cage]

The endings seems to suggest that the Catalyst has some sort of control over them (or that Shepard helped regain that control), but I don't think that this is total, or that the catalyst is some analogy to a 'Reaper-consensus'.

 

BTW, happy new year, everyone!

Could this be the answer? That they are selecting species which has traits they have not encountered before in order to assimilate them into the collective unconsciousness, thereby strengthening the Catalyst? This is like a massive scale version of Liara's "conventional wisdom" explanation of asari reproduction.

 

Happy new year folks!

[Fixers0]

One of the key writing failures behind the Reapers' motivations is that the narrative expects to believe that gruesomely melting people down into grey liquid and storing them in the interior of a dreadnought jellyfish counts as saving them. Mind you, said dreadnoughts acts as frontline warships and some of them are going to be destroyed, further damaging this whole idea. Also, don't come up with the "essence of a species" rubbish from ME2, because that was so laughably bad even the writers decided not bring it up again.

[Valmar]

One of the key writing failures behind the Reapers' motivations is that the narrative expects to believe that gruesomely melting people down into grey liquid and storing them in the interior of a dreadnought jellyfish counts as saving them. Mind you, said dreadnoughts acts as frontline warships and some of them are going to be destroyed, further damaging this whole idea. Also, don't come up with the "essence of a species" rubbish from ME2, because that was so laughably bad even the writers decided not bring it up again.

 

Well the narrative does support itself on this in ME2 and ME3. It isn't like only the ending brought it up. Read the wiki on it sometime, its pretty interesting. Also look at the prothean wiki for extra insight. The reaper perspective is not entirely unfounded.

[Comrade Wakizashi]

I don't really see how the Reapers' motivations are much cause for debate, since it is explained over and over again that they wish to harvest and "preserve" organic spacefaring species every cycle to ensure the continued existance of their genetic material, and that they do so out of the idea that every organic species will ultimately be wiped out by their synthetic creations if the Reapers do not intervene.

Their logic is obviously flawed, but makes sense from their point of view, if you take into account the situation at the time of the Reapers' creation.

[Fixers0]

Well the narrative does support itself on this in ME2 and ME3. It isn't like only the ending brought it up. Read the wiki on it sometime, its pretty interesting. Also look at the prothean wiki for extra insight. The reaper perspective is not entirely unfounded.

 

Still the narrative failed to convince me how in the heck murdering people by turning them into grey goo counts as saving them.

 

I'm certain any contempary human scientist would agree that melting down every human on the planet into grey liquid would be a death sentence for the human race. 

[Valmar]

 

I'm certain any contempary human scientist would agree that melting down every human on the planet into grey liquid would be a death sentence for the human race. 

 

It's such a good thing this is a fictional universe with fictional rules. Scifi, to be specific.

 

Anyway, in the Mass Effect universe its revealed to us that your experiences, knowledge, memories.. all of these things are genetic markers. They can be saved and stored on technology. The protheans did it and the reapers use this principle rather exclusively.

 

"Dialogue was removed from Mass Effect 2 that details the Reaper harvesting process. EDI states that the captive humans were being reduced to their basic components by being dissected down to the atomic level. The data from the process could then be uploaded into a Reaper's neural network, thus storing the knowledge and essence of the individual that was liquefied in the process. Harbinger indicates that being turned into a Reaper is a form of rebirth. In reference to the fight with the Human-Reaper, Harbinger also states that Shepard is the one "wasting lives."^"

 

"A Reaper is essentially "billions of organic minds, uploaded and conjoined within immortal machine bodies.""

 

Both of those are from ME2.

 

ME3 added in Javik and the information that protheans could transfer complex ideas just by touch. They could store memories, knowledge and experience into pieces of mechanical hardware and share it with others.

 

Hell, even ME1 hinted at this idea in a few ways. First the rachni queen that has all the memory and knowledge of past queens as its passed down genetically and the thorian devoured bodies to get their knowledge, essentially.

 

"Queens also carry the genetic memory of their mothers, causing them to effectively be born with the collective knowledge of the previous hive."

 

"When the Protheans arrived and began building the metropolis that would eventually cover Feros, the curious Thorian studied them, likely made several of them into its thralls, and even absorbed them after they died, allowing them to become a part of its expanding consciousness. From the Protheans, the Thorian's mind gradually absorbed the knowledge that would form the Cipher. "

 

This type of stuff has been in the Mass Effect universe since the first game. You don't have to understand how it works to accept that its true in the Mass Effect universe. It doesn't matter how many scientists in the real world go "nu uh!" It's a fictional universe with its own set of rules. If you can't suspend you belief to accept that memory, experience and knowledge in this universe are all genetic and can be passed down you're not only ignoring a lot of the lore but you're also robbing yourself from the experience. It's also a bit strange to draw a line here when the entire premise of the game has using space magic powers like biotics and flying ships faster than light across the galaxy. It's only fiction.

[themikefest]

Their motivation? Oil or in this case with organics, goo.

 

The reaper has so many moving parts that the goo keeps those parts from causing damage just like having oil in the engine for your car. There is a giant goo(oil) pump to send the goo(oil) through the many hoses to all locations within the reaper to make those parts function without taking  damage.  Take away the goo, the reaper would have major damage and become useless. Using oil only lasts so long, so they have to use organic goo that is more durable and lasts a very. very, very.........................very long time.

[Alamar2078]

@Valmar:  You're almost certainly right that the lore supports your position but honestly "genetic memory" is a very weak possibility to enable this type of technology.  Just like most folks wouldn't suspend disbelief for 1+1 == 3 I can't blame someone familiar with biology / psychology balking at genetic memory [at least as it applies to the totality of the human experience] as THE tech to enable the uploading of the totality of human experience.

 

On the other hand if the reapers effectively dissect you on the QUANTUM level and they know what makes a species "tick" then uploading your consciousness / experiences / memories may be feasible using technologies we are not aware of.  This may be one time where NOT explaining the mechanism would work better.

[b4ld5h3ph4rd]

I would rather have the reapers be a physical manifestation of the dark part of a celestial mind that has developed a gigantic disorder similar to intrusive thoughts and schizophrenia in humans. The reapers were once a helpful coping mechanism in sorting out the good and bad in organics and their collective thoughts. Then the celestial mind collapsed and all that was left were the reapers, who are now black and white thinkers.

 

Sorry, my idea is kinda vague and bigger than my vocabulary.

[Obadiah]

For me, the big hole in the current explanation of the Reapers and their invasion is the hellish nature of it. It seems like it was designed to inflict horror and suffering upon the races of the galaxy and force a reaction. Why? On a long enough timeline it was doomed to fail eventually. A better approach would have been to wipe out the races without them even knowing they were under attack - virus, subtle changes to the DNA what caused them to destroy themselves, etc.

So, I think a better explanation would have been that the Reaper Invasion was some kind of mass test on civilizations to see if they were "worthy" to progress past this stage of development; the rationale being some past historic development that lead the Reapers to believe this was necessary for the "good" of the galaxy. This wouldn't have required any kind of prediction on their part, just some notion that we can't risk continued organic development because of event X that happened the last 20 times organics developed past this point.

Our hero Shepard of course would reject this as utterly ridiculous, and blow them all to hell.

[Valmar]

@Valmar:  You're almost certainly right that the lore supports your position but honestly "genetic memory" is a very weak possibility to enable this type of technology.  Just like most folks wouldn't suspend disbelief for 1+1 == 3 I can't blame someone familiar with biology / psychology balking at genetic memory [at least as it applies to the totality of the human experience] as THE tech to enable the uploading of the totality of human experience.

 

Weak perhaps, but still there. I'm not really sure why you think it only 'almost' supports it - again we see instances of it going all the way back to the first game. We just didn't pay it much mind in the first game because it wasn't that huge of a deal as it later becomes in ME2 and ME3. Which is the only argument I'm making about it, really. I don't know how plausible the notion is in a real-world perspective. I'm not a scientist and even if I was I doubt we really understand enough about biology and our brains in general to really know absolutely what is possible and what isn't. Science is always revealing to us how ignorant we were about notions we thought were absolutely true.

We're not even sure what causes consciousness.

 

Who knows, maybe one day we'll unlock the secrets and be able to upload our minds to a computer or something... which btw is ALSO a thing in Mass Effect's universe. The 'virtual aliens' are able to remove their consciousness from their physical bodies (not copy, not clone, actually remove) and place it into a computer - then upload themselves into the bodies of others. They've literally figured out how to turn our bodies in essentially just transportation devices for our spirit or soul or however you want to view it. They can jump from one to another, proving that whatever makes us 'us' is independent from the actual body - at least in the Mass Effect universe. 

 

For just one more thing you MIGHT be able to toss in the 'genetic memory' batch is the Asari themselves with their mind melding. Sharing memories, retrieving memories, searching through genetic heritages... It's minor stuff compared to the protheans, reapers and thorian, sure, but its something.

 

I imagine someone who is deeply involved in this field would take offense to the fictional elements the game brings up with genetics and memory, sure. In the same way some scientists would probably scoff at FTL travel with element zero or biotic space powers. Though, again, my point was simply that in the fictional universe of Mass Effect all of these things are true. FTL travel is a thing, element zero is a thing, biotics are a thing, genetic memory is a thing. Is it all hogwash in the real world and real universe we currently reside in? Currently, yeah. Is that relevant? I say no, it isn't. It's a fictional universe... with FTL travel, space magic, alien species, ancient immortal billion year old machines and even older organics... I could go on but I think you get my point. The entire trilogy, indeed the very series that is Mass Effect asks us to suspend belief and take a step into its fictional universe. Those who cannot remove their feet from reality are robbed of the fictional experience and would likely have great issue with any sci-fi medium.

[Comrade Wakizashi]

I'm not denying that the Reaper mindset is flawed. Heck, it's absolutely flawed. But it does make sense from the point of view they were created to have. The Reapers believe that organic life would be completely annihilited by synthetic life. As in completely eradicated and lost for all time. In their thinking, turning organics into goo is better than annihilating them completely, since at least it "saves" their genetic material for eternity. Of course this logic is flawed. But then again Reapers aren't big on individual intellect or out-of-the-box thinking.

[Dale]

In my humble opinion, the phrase "reaper motivations" is non-sequitur.

 

Regardless of their sophistication, they are programmed machines.   “reaper motivations” is like asking a Chevy the purpose of a Ford  (ie: asking a person the purpose of another person). 

 

Instead, we need to look at the prime mover of the thought – that is; going back to the manufacturer’s purpose.   Organic Leviathan created catalyst which created reaper.   BTY-if the phrase “the created will always rebel against it’s creator” is correct, then catalyst and reaper should have wiped each other out millions of years ago.

 

Back on subject:   If I recall the dialogue with Shep with Leviathan – it went something like this (correct me if I’m wrong):

 

Leviathan:  we subjugated organics to SERVICE us (slavery). 

 

Then as organics evolved – this “advancement” was a threat to Leviathan’s slave base.   This isn’t rocket science:   you can imagine an advanced race telling Leviathan that “today you’re a grease spot”.  

 

As the dialogue continued with Shep & Leviathan, it said “so we created an entity to solve this problem”  (catalyst) which double crossed them so Leviathan remains in hiding (fact).  As many forum readers have pointed out – “Leviathan ain’t too smart” by creating a NON-organic to solve an organic "problem".

 

What I find curious about the “so intelligent reapers” is their waiting 50,000 years.   They’ve done this countless times.     If I were a reaper (with better than sawdust for brains), I would harvest every 40,000 years – not wait until the “organics” evolve sufficiently to give me a bloody nose every harvest (Javik's story).   If a galactic harvest produces ONE reaper -- then the loss of just ONE reaper is significant.

 

Leviathan’s greed & dominance of lesser races finally catches up with them.   Our world history has a similar story of those who made vast fortunes in the salve trade.    Not so much of a mystery.   Leviathan’s message:

 

“we want OUR salvation thru YOUR destruction”.

[Vazgen]

"The created will always rebel against their creators" refers to synthetics created by organics. As the Catalyst tells Shepard, there are fundamental differences between synthetic and organic life and it causes the conflict. Not the creation of synthetics per se, but the lack of understanding between synthetics and organics is the cause for the conflict.

 

Regarding Reaper losses we've conversed with Valmar about that via PM system. We agreed on that Reapers store the harvested data in one central database (the Citadel) and thus can afford sustaining losses. Though it becomes a simple data, not enough to count as "preserved" species. What one should consider though, is that the original goal of the Catalyst is to solve the organic vs synthetic conflict. Losses are unfortunate and are actually viewed as a waste of life (according to the cut dialogue) by the Reapers but as long as organic life continues to exist and the conflict is solved, it'll readily accept that.

[Valmar]

 

Regardless of their sophistication, they are programmed machines.   “reaper motivations” is like asking a Chevy the purpose of a Ford  (ie: asking a person the purpose of another person). 

 

 

This is a very common misconception, likely due to Shepard being very dense about it throughout the trilogy no matter how many times he is told otherwise.

 

Shepard: Reaper's are machines, why do they need humans at all?

EDI: Incorrect. Reapers are sapient constructs. A hybrid of organic and inorganic material.

 

Legion: Legion: Transcended flesh. Billions of organic minds, uploaded and conjoined within immortal machine bones. "Each a nation."

 

Wiki: "This paste will then be used in the construction of a newborn Reaper, with the victims' minds being preserved to form the Reaper's gestalt consciousness."

 

The reaper's are not machines nor are they AI. The catalyst is, however.

 

 

Leviathan:  we subjugated organics to SERVICE us (slavery). 

 

Then as organics evolved – this “advancement” was a threat to Leviathan’s slave base.   This isn’t rocket science:   you can imagine an advanced race telling Leviathan that “today you’re a grease spot”.  

 

As the dialogue continued with Shep & Leviathan, it said “so we created an entity to solve this problem”  (catalyst) which double crossed them so Leviathan remains in hiding (fact).  As many forum readers have pointed out – “Leviathan ain’t too smart” by creating a NON-organic to solve an organic "problem".

 

A big flaw the Leviathan's made, imo, was lack of specifics. You see, in truth, in reality, that didn't care about preserving life at all, least of all synthetics. Screw the machines. They only cared that their precious meat tools were being killed off. They want their tribute, they need their thralls. The issue came from conflict with the meat and the metal. They created an AI with a mandate to preserve life. What they REALLY wanted was for it to ensure the survival of their pawns, it wasn't very specific. Coincidental isn't it  that an AI considers AI life. But thats besides the point.

 

You really think Leviathan cared about preserving life just to preserve it? No. What they really cared about was preserving THRALLS to work for them. They didn't put the catalyst's objective in the proper context, wasn't specific enough about what their intended purpose for it was.

 

They wanted it, their perfect, far more advanced and 'better' (because they themselves are so perfect) machine to figure out a way to ensure the lesser beings can get along with their creations. Those primitive, insignificant fools stumble around and make something dangerous without knowing how to control it. Surely the Apex organic god-race Leviathan can school them on how its done. Hubris bites hard.

 

 

What I find curious about the “so intelligent reapers” is their waiting 50,000 years.   They’ve done this countless times.     If I were a reaper (with better than sawdust for brains), I would harvest every 40,000 years – not wait until the “organics” evolve sufficiently to give me a bloody nose every harvest (Javik's story).   If a galactic harvest produces ONE reaper -- then the loss of just ONE reaper is significant.

 

 

They do it, supposedly, because they wish for the race to first reach its 'apex'. Cut that down by 10,000 years and, frankly, we're all still very much primitive. Easier for  the reapers, yes, but it wouldn't do well for their goal of letting us reach apex. Why they care about us being at the apex, who knows. Maybe they're just merciful like that. Or maybe it has to do with the way reaper's work. If a reaper is a billion organic minds linked together then, well, even a billion caveman minds isn't going to result in Einstein. Perhaps the reason is to ensure that those they preserve are worthy of being preserved, the best that the species can achieve, rather than bumbling idiots. 10k years is a LOT of time to progress.

 

A harvest does not produce one reaper. Only one species is made into a capital ship. The other races are still made into reapers. There are different types of reaper ships. ALL advanced life is harvested - organic and synthetic. Also its possible that the reapers that are destroyed still survive on in the catalyst. The catalyst is said to house the collective consciousnesses of all reapers. Vazgen touches on this in his reply.

[Autoola]

The problem with saving memories by turning organics into goo is that you can´t store memories from dead people. I have no problem with Javik "smelling" Grunt in the Normandy or Liara extracting datas out of Sheps brain. Like Dumbledores pensieve or telepathie in general. But I still believe that you can´t get informations of a liquefied person. If Javik ever touches a black pudding, he won´t get informations about the pigs (I guess). And if it´s possible to store the essence of all species in a ship/reaper/greybox/whatever, why not simply doing it without melting down the species alive? There´s no reason to be so cruel. I know they have to die ("harvesting all advanced life"), but I guess there are many ways to do it without spreading fear and desperation all over the galaxy.

I like their motivation given to me in Mass Effect 1. Sovy: "You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it." A superior race kills a inferior race just because they can. Answering the questions "Where did you come from? Who built you?" with "We have no beginning...." was so cool. Don´t need more information. Or at least I would like to have no information rather than the informations I have now.

 

[Valmar]

The problem with saving memories by turning organics into goo is that you can´t store memories from dead people. I have no problem with Javik "smelling" Grunt in the Normandy or Liara extracting datas out of Sheps brain. Like Dumbledores pensieve or telepathie in general. But I still believe that you can´t get informations of a liquefied person. If Javik ever touches a black pudding, he won´t get informations about the pigs (I guess). And if it´s possible to store the essence of all species in a ship/reaper/greybox/whatever, why not simply doing it without melting down the species alive? There´s no reason to be so cruel. I know they have to die ("harvesting all advanced life"), but I guess there are many ways to do it without spreading fear and desperation all over the galaxy.

 

You can in the Mass Effect universe, though. Its a genetic marker, that doesn't mean they have to be kept alive. They probably keep them alive only to ensure better shelf-life.

 

Also the thorian was able to do it with the dead protheans it ate. So clearly its possible in the MEVerse.

[Obadiah]

I think the liquefying/goo-ing thing was supposed to be a destructive analysis where the organic material is re-used in the Reaper. My hypothesis is the material is intrinsic to building a Reaper core in the image of harvested race.

The Reapers harvest Synthetics as well. Since Synthetics don't have DNA, the Reapers must be storing something else.

[Valmar]

The Reapers harvest Synthetics as well. Since Synthetics don't have DNA, the Reapers must be storing something else.

 

Something else for the synthetics, at least. The vast majority of reapers are created from organics though. We shouldn't overlook all the lore about that just because the synthetics don't fit the mold of what we know. It just means we don't know how they go about preserving them.

 

Really, preserving synthetics should be easier. They're just software.

[Obadiah]

Valmar, Umm... how am I overlooking the lore? The paragraph right before the sentence you quoted does say that the Reapers use the organic material. That sentence you quoted was just to indicate that there is evidence of something else being used as well.

[JasonShepard]

Regarding genetic memory in Mass Effect. First I want to establish 3 things:

 

1) Does the in-game lore support the idea?

Yes. Most definitely. As Valmar points out, between the Rachni, Javik, and the 'essence' discussions during the ME2 and ME3 endgames, genetic memory fits.

 

2) Was it the writers' intention that genetic memory be 'true' in the Mass Effect universe?

Again - almost certainly. Everything in the Javik conversations just screams 'genetic memory'. I believe he even uses the phrase 'genetic markers in your DNA' when referring to Shepard's past experiences.

 

3) Do I like it?

Not even remotely. As Alamar2078 notes, genetic memory sticks out like a sore thumb. We know, in the modern era, in the real world, what DNA does and what it doesn't do. Carrying memories is definitely in the 'doesn't do' column. Memories are encoded as patterns within the brain, not as variations in DNA. The DNA in your cells is (barring mutations) the same throughout your body, and throughout your life. Different cells might activate different genes in your DNA, but that's only because different cells do different things (your kidney cells don't need to read the DNA about your hair folicles, for example).

 

This leaves myself, and anyone else who dislikes the concept, at an impasse. Mass Effect presents genetic memory as factual, when we know it isn't. This is the sort of thing that can break suspension of disbelief.

 

(For the record, I let the Assassin's Creed series get away with it because they present it as a key part of the universe very early on. Also, in the AC-verse, there are massive conspiracies everywhere, so who's to say that my modern understanding of DNA isn't a lie? There's no indication of such conspiracies in the ME-verse, and genetic memory only really became a major thing later in the series.

Similarly, I'm okay with the Rachni having genetic memory because, well, they're alien. We have no idea how their biology works. They seem to have evolved natural QECs too...)

 

I personally handle the genetic memory by fanon-ing my way around it (which probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that knows me on these forums). And hey, since this is a 'provide your own theories' thread:

 

I imagine the Reapers assimilate minds by physically installing entire nervous systems into Reaper shells and networking them together. EDI and Shepard were wrong in their on-the-spot analysis of the Collector base (they weren't exactly there to take notes...). The orange goo was human nervous systems in a suspension fluid.

References to genetic destiny from Harbinger are merely about how humans are compatible with the Reaper-ification process, where Protheans apparently weren't. When the Reapers refer to a species' essence, they're referring to the sum total of that species' knowledge - gained by harvesting the nervous systems. (The Reapers are interested in that knowledge both as a way of preserving the species, and as a part of their search for a solution to their 'problem'.)

 

Javik? He's a soldier. He doesn't understand his own biology, and he's just wrong about how his 'sixth sense' works. Speaking of that sixth sense - it's far too advanced to have evolved naturally. Like the Protheans engineering the Asari, I think the Inusannon probably engineered the Protheans, giving them some sort of forensic analysis sense. This introduces a nice irony to the Protheans - they place evolution on such a high pedestal, but one of their greatest gifts didn't even come from it...

[Obadiah]

Eh... the way I looked at the game's lore, it was pushing the idea of a chemical component to memory (like DNA, or just actual DNA) in addition to our current modern understanding (neurons?), that could be read and stored. Seeing as we don't have a complete understanding of memory as yet (um, unless we do?), its not that far fetched.

[JasonShepard]

My understanding is that we have a very good knowledge about how DNA works. There are still gaps in that knowledge - which genes do what, how exactly you get from a genetic code to a fully formed liver (we've grown kidneys though!), some questions about mutation and encoding - but we know the function. We have the big picture. And if you're using terms like 'genetic markers', you're referring to DNA. That's where genes are. At least in Earth based life. (We'll probably have to invent an entirely different terminology when we encounter alien life, since it may not even have DNA.)

 

Memories - no, we don't have such a good understanding. The big picture is a lot more vague. That said, memory is definitely in the brain. We've seen neurons lighting up when people think about different events. And it's definitely a pattern encoded within the brain - for similar events, the sets of neurons that light up will overlap. (Two memories involving the same lorry will have the same bunch of neurons, for example.)

 

Is there a chemical aspect to memory? Possibly. The brain does have chemicals. I would personally guess not (chemistry usually takes place over the short term, whereas memory is life-long.) But you could potentially refer to chemicals as a factor in memory. But without dissecting the brain, or using advanced imaging techniques, you really shouldn't be able to detect them. Touching a person's skin really shouldn't give you any information about chemicals in the brain.

 

***

 

By the way, to be specific with a quote, in reference to Shepard querying how Javik can sense the Commander's confidence level (first Normandy conversation, at about 5:30) Javik says:

"All life provides clues for those who can read them. It is in your cells, your DNA. Experience is a biological marker."

(Having checked, I don't think the exact term 'genetic marker' ever turns up - I'm pretty sure this is the quote I was thinking of.)

 

DNA shouldn't even be being mentioned in this context. It won't have any clues towards Shepard's confidence, or any of the memories that Javik reads from the Commander. Experience sort of does get recorded into DNA - but only in the longterm (human genetics suggest a population bottleneck at some point in our past, but that's only by comparing DNA across the population). DNA does admittedly provide clues to the environment in which we evolved, but again, that's longterm. Individual experience is a biological marker, but it's not in our cells, it's in how those cells are arranged.

 

Later, in the same conversation, Javik refers to "imparting experience through touch. The chemistry of life." Chemistry of life - sure, but as I've said, you're not going to get specific details about my life experiences from any of the chemistry on my skin. Maybe a few clues to my diet and general health at best.

[Valmar]

Valmar, Umm... how am I overlooking the lore? The paragraph right before the sentence you quoted does say that the Reapers use the organic material. That sentence you quoted was just to indicate that there is evidence of something else being used as well.

 

You're suggesting that because the geth have no DNA then the reapers must not be relying on the genetic material to preserve the species. While this is sound, it only applies to synthetics. The lore all points to them preserving organics using that organic paste.

 

"Once in the pods, the victims are dissolved into a raw genetic "paste" for ease of transport. This paste will then be used in the construction of a newborn Reaper, with the victims' minds being preserved to form the Reaper's gestalt consciousness. "

 

There could be something else to it, yes. Though all the lore favors it being the genes, the dna. Just because this method of preservation doesn't apply to the geth doesn't rule out that it applies to the organics.

 

 

 

 

By the way, to be specific with a quote, in reference to Shepard querying how Javik can sense the Commander's confidence level (first Normandy conversation, at about 5:30) Javik says:

"All life provides clues for those who can read them. It is in your cells, your DNA. Experience is a biological marker."

(Having checked, I don't think the exact term 'genetic marker' ever turns up - I'm pretty sure this is the quote I was thinking of.)

 

Well, he does say he can sense that Miranda had an unnatural genetic structure. He also says he senses great strength in Grunt's genes. That might be where you're remembering it from.

 

Also, just to toss in another bit of prothean info for context:

"Later we developed technology to harness our ability. Information could be stored in certain objects through touch. Memory has it own bio-marker, its own chemistry. As does knowledge and skills. The beacons could remember these things."

 

Reaper's are just a more extreme version of this concept.