80 réponses à ce sujet

[Vazgen]

 

Essence (n): attribute or set of attributes that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is. In the context of the story, It's literary mumbo-jumbo and just vague enough to be molded into whatever the writer's felt like making it. Except it's never actually referred to as anything metaphysical like 'knowledge' or 'memories'. 

 

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT 'ESSENCE' MEANS. Carbon, being a required element in organic material, absolutely constitutes "essence". "Essence" in-context wouldn't just refer to carbon though, since the Reapers explicitly harvest sentient beings. "Essence" would include every other element in the body, from oxygen to nitrogen to methane to hydrogen, among others.

 

Whether or not they're interested is entirely not the point, because that's what they do.

 

There's no indication whatsoever that the Reapers are selective of anything besides their "are they advanced enough?" criterion. Occam's razor would suggest that the husks are made because if the Reapers want to harvest, simply nuking the planet from orbit would be a pretty f**king poor way to go about it, and since they have no means of simply manufacturing ground troops, they must convert the local populace. 

 

Besides, if the Reapers cared at all about "preserving" people, they wouldn't create more husks than they needed to, because the person>husk conversion process destroys or otherwise alters the base components of the body (fluids are drained out, bones are broken, and the body is physically morphed to suit whatever the function of the husk variant is). They do it because they HAVE TO, not because of some made-up selection process.

 

It's entire idiotic thought experiment goes against its programming, and I've explained why.

 

Legitimately not sure if you're f**king with me with this statement or if you're an idiot.

 

Why is it that I can actually explain my case when you and the other guy are apparently only capable of "no, you're wrong" or "you don't understand (a personal favorite of mine)? The latter is especially funny, because if I'm capable of discussing it on a fundamental level like this, then I must obviously understand it to be able to talk about it. Saying "you don't understand" just shows that you have no idea how that word works, and that you have nothing to back up your claims. It's creationist logic.

First, I'd like you to stop putting words in my mouth. I never said "you do not understand", as far as I can tell we were having an intelligent conversation which you just interrupted by questioning my intelligence. I'm not sure if it's even worth to continue this discussion with you but we can do that if you manage to stay civil in the future.

Second, I give you codex entry on harvesting (I'll underline the parts I referenced in my earlier post for convenience):

Harvesting

Even with all the Reapers' power, harvesting every sapient species in an entire galaxy can take decades or even centuries. The most time-consuming part of the process is gathering DNA from the population. To accelerate the effort, the Reapers follow a consistent procedure.

 

Victims who cooperate, surrender, or are captured by husks are sorted into camps. It is believed the husks possess receptors that allow them to analyze a victim's DNA through sight, smell, or touch. Victims that meet their standards are herded from the camps into processor ships. Those the husks deem insufficient are either turned into husks themselves or indoctrinated to serve as slave labor. The Reapers use this last option to give their victims false hope -- many captives who would otherwise fight back become docile when they see members of their own kind obey and survive.

 

The processor ships reduce victims to a transportable liquid. Like in a slaughterhouse, the ships' design prevents victims from seeing or hearing what happens elsewhere so that they do not panic. The victims are ushered into locking pods, then rent apart and dissolved into paste that is flushed to storage vats.

 

The rate of killing is phenomenal. Intelligence estimates suggest there are more than 400 processor ships on Earth, killing approximately 1.86 million humans per day. In combination with battlefield deaths, disease, and famine, this pace will result in the complete depopulation of Earth within a decade. As the husks and indoctrinated slaves build more slaughtering facilities, the kill rate can only increase.

 

Next, the Catalyst tries to prevent the destruction of all organic life by synthetics. It can't cause the destruction of all organic life because it goes against its programming. 

 

Regarding essence, Mass Effect universe has introduced Thorian - who was able to accumulate "the cultural knowledge of a Prothean: the archetypes, biological instincts, and common experiences universal to the race" by watching, studying and consuming Protheans. It has also introduced Javik who claimed that "experience is a biological marker, as is knowledge and skill", "it's in your cells, your DNA". 

[dreamgazer]

Essence (n): attribute or set of attributes that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is. In the context of the story, It's literary mumbo-jumbo and just vague enough to be molded into whatever the writer's felt like making it. Except it's never actually referred to as anything metaphysical like 'knowledge' or 'memories'.

"The Cipher is the very essence of being a Prothean. It cannot be described or explained. It would be like describing color to a creature without eyes. To understand, you much have access to endemic ancestral memory. A view point spanning thousands of Prothean generations. I sense this ancestral memory, the Cipher, when I melded with the Thorian. Our identities emerged, our minds entertwined. Such knowledge can’t be taught, it simply exists."

That's what the MEU operates around when it refers to the "essence" of a species: ancestral memory.

[GalacticWolf5]

It's directive is to prevent conflict between organic and synthetics, so the Catalyst takes the least logical course of action that is entirely paradoxical to its directive.

 

It's purpose is to make lasting peace between Organics and Synthetics (which I've said before is not possible, unless Synthesis happens). The Catalyst does not take ''the least logical'' course of action and is not ''paradoxical''. It's doing what it was built to do. It can't destroy the Synthetics and just let the Organics live, it was built to find a way to keep both alive and in peace. It has to do it. Harvesting and preserving civilizations in Reaper form is the only solution it has for now. By harvesting them, it preserves their knowledge and memories. The harvest cycles will continue until the best solution is found.

 

The Catalyst's ultimate decision is TO KILL civilizations it deems sufficiently advanced. How is it not clear that, by inciting conflict between itself (a synthetic being) by proxy and the organics it's harvesting, that it's fulfilling the very thing it's supposed to stop? In this regard, the intent of the Catalyst becomes entirely irrelevant, since its actions are in direct contradiction to its modus operandi.

 

The Catalyst's current solution is to preserve civilizations in Reaper form. From the Catalyst's view, he's not evil and he's not killing them. The Reapers have no interest in war. Like they've said many time ''There is only the harvest''.

 

Harvesting on a cycle is also incredibly inefficient. If the Catalyst wanted to prevent conflict between synthetics and organics, why not just keep the organics from being able to create synthetics? Why does it and the Reapers leave behind the mass relays in a deliberate attempt to advance the technologies of organics who, in the Catalyst's words, will inevitably war with technology? Seems a bit backwards to me.

 

The cycles are efficient. It can't keep Organics from creating Synthetics because it was built to find peace between both. It has to find a solution. Leaving the Mass Relays/Citadel makes organics develop the way the Reapers want them to, because the galaxy is one big experiment. The Catalyst is still trying to find the better solution.

 

Finally, the Catalyst never clarifies exactly what qualifies as synthetic 'life'.

 

Synthetics are Artificial Intelligence. Self-aware computing system and all that. You already know that if you actually paid attention to the series.

 

'At any cost' implies that it's willing to take ANY action to achieve its goals. Given what we've seen, it directly contradicts its goals as part of its solution. The entire premise of ME3 shows this, that organics will fight to the bitter end to preserve themselves. How the Catalyst was unable to comprehend this is astounding.

 

You fail to understand the Catalyst. It has to find a solution to keep both Organics and Synthetics alive and in peace.

 

Which makes about as much sense as a creationist claiming "well, Jonah really WAS eaten by a giant fish!" Assume you just killed somebody and they've gone through full brain death. Neurons in the brain are entirely incapable of transmitting, containing, or receiving signals or impulses due to what is called as the all-or-nothing principle, which states that when neurons in the brain respond, they either respond fully or not at all. As seen in ME2, people are ground into paste to build Reapers, which KILLS the people involved. The moment their brain becomes scrambled eggs, their neurons die and any information contained in their brain is lost. This single factor alone makes it entirely impossible for ANYTHING of the harvested species to be stored in the Reapers, let alone 'knowledge and memories'.

 

This is a fictional universe. In the Mass Effect universe, DNA contains memories, knowledge and etc. If you paid attention to the series, you would know that.

[Andrew Lucas]

It's a full-on contradiction in ME, because the major AIs in the series (EDI and the geth) are benevolent and don't want to harm anybody. The geth in particular are willing to cooperate with the quarians, but the quarians are stupid and kickstart a war they can't possibly win on their own. EDI is an active ally of Shepard and has no ulterior motives.

But that happened on Shepard's cycle, right? There were countless before, were conflicts happened between synthetics and organics as Javik stated. And conflict is meant to exist, independent of who is the one to blame, solving such issues depends of the person, in this case, Shepard. The Quarians would've died if Shepard hadn't interfered, Geth would've killed them, and possibly the rest of the organics if they interfered as well. Isn't the objective of the Reapers to stop that from happening in a more radical way that will preserve the younger races? To later exterminate them since the cycle always repeats? That's what I currently recall. Feel free to state your points.

[o Ventus]

But that happened on Shepard's cycle, right? There were countless before, were conflicts happened between synthetics and organics as Javik stated. And conflict is meant to exist, independent of who is the one to blame, solving such issues depends of the person, in this case, Shepard. The Quarians would've died if Shepard hadn't interfered, Geth would've killed them, and possibly the rest of the organics if they interfered as well. Isn't the objective of the Reapers to stop that from happening in a more radical way that will preserve the younger races? To later exterminate them since the cycle always repeats? That's what I currently recall. Feel free to state your points.

There's conflict, but organics were never in danger of being wiped out by synthetics. Javik himself mentions that his people were winning their war against the big synthetic baddie in their cycle, but the Reapers showed up and f**ked everything up. The geth have no interest in fighting anybody and are happy to live with the quarians. EDI actively helps out Shepard.

 

There's always going to be conflict, but the conflict, if what we're shown is any indication, is a minor threat at best, and only a threat to the people behaving like a**holes to the AI (surprise, when you threaten and begin to kill a group of people, they fight back). The quarians are a special case. Literally the only quarian we meet who is in favor of the war is Gerrel (and as it turns out, Gerrel is a bit of a retard in other places too, if Hackett's words mean anything). Xen only cares insofar as she gets to test her weapons. Raan, Koris, and the civilian fleet (the heavy majority of the entire flotilla) all oppose the war because they know it's stupid and hopeless. An AI, if left to their own devices, will simply use the knowledge they've gained from their own experience with organics. I.E. EDI learns morals and the value of 'good' if you respond to her questions with paragon dialogues.

 

So while conflict may be inevitable (as is the case when any intelligent group comes into contact with another at some point), there's going to be peace as well (also for far longer than conflict, realistically). The term 'cycle' implies that the events of this current cycle are identical to the last, or at least similar in nature. If this is the case, then it would stand to reason that there are historical examples of species in previous cycles coexisting fairly well with AI and synthetics like the geth/quarians after making peace, or EDI. Unfortunately, we don't learn much of anything at all about the previous cycles.

[Googlesaurus]

It's purpose is to make lasting peace between Organics and Synthetics (which I've said before is not possible, unless Synthesis happens). The Catalyst does not take ''the least logical'' course of action and is not ''paradoxical''. It's doing what it was built to do. It can't destroy the Synthetics and just let the Organics live, it was built to find a way to keep both alive and in peace. It has to do it. Harvesting and preserving civilizations in Reaper form is the only solution it has for now. By harvesting them, it preserves their knowledge and memories. The harvest cycles will continue until the best solution is found.

 

Preserving knowledge and memories is not equivalent to preserving life. Every individual that has been harvested over the eons is dead; the process may catalog their memories and knowledge, but that is not the same thing. Separate from the structural unity of Reaper design, a processed person lacks every possible qualification for life. And there is no evidence that they can be reverted from slushie form back into their original states. 

 

This is a fictional universe. In the Mass Effect universe, DNA contains memories, knowledge and etc. If you paid attention to the series, you would know that.

 

For a fictional universe, internal logic must be consistent if statements like this are to be taken seriously. The fact is "DNA contains non-physical phenomena" is only used to resolve certain plot points within the series: access to the Mu relay, an supplemental explanation for the Reaper cycle, the operation of Prothean beacons. Since all species technically have this property, the revelation should have had as much impact on galactic history as the mass effect phenomena itself. It should have been a motif in galactic life from ME1. But instead of being a natural consequence of a baseline assumption, it functions as an exotic hand-waving mechanism. 

[GalacticWolf5]

Preserving knowledge and memories is not equivalent to preserving life. Every individual that has been harvested over the eons is dead; the process may catalog their memories and knowledge, but that is not the same thing. Separate from the structural unity of Reaper design, a processed person lacks every possible qualification for life.

 

Like Legion has said, Reapers are ''billions of organic minds, uploaded and conjoined within immortal machine bodies."

 

Looks like I'll have to explain how Reapers are made again. Organics are dissolved into a raw genetic "paste". This paste is then used in the construction of a new Reaper, with the victims' minds preserved to form the Reaper's gestalt consciousness. Is that clear enough for you? Those people are still alive. Let's say your mind is transfered to another body, are you still alive? Answer is yes.

 

And there is no evidence that they can be reverted from slushie form back into their original states.

 

I never said that... I don't know where you're coming from with this.

[Googlesaurus]

Like Legion has said, Reapers are ''billions of organic minds, uploaded and conjoined within immortal machine bodies."

 

Looks like I'll have to explain how Reapers are made again. Organics are dissolved into a raw genetic "paste". This paste is then used in the construction of a new Reaper, with the victims' minds preserved to form the Reaper's gestalt consciousness. Is that clear enough for you? Those people are still alive. Let's say your mind is transferred to another body, are you still alive? Answer is yes.

 

Liara: "Wow, I'm glad I didn't touch that fuzzy human. My allergies would've acted up if she got her fur all over me."

 

You: "What are you talking about Liara? Human beings don't have fur."

 

Liara: "Come on, Shepard. We both know that's bull. 98% of the human population mutated into furry trolls due to phenomena X at time Y. People like you, born without a gorilla's hide, are a rarity. "

 

You: "Uh,..I've neither seen nor heard about this. Are you sure that Prothean field on Therum didn't mess with your mind?"

 

Liara: "The Alliance 

 

Liara: "That's the funny point. You possess a weird psychometric field. Whenever you get within 5000 meters of a regular furry person, they start retching and have to run away."

 

You: "That can't be right. That kind of mass genetic alteration would be perhaps the greatest change in human history. There must be records of it. All the other races in the galaxy must know about it. It must have somehow diffused into the grand cultural consciousness. Hell, after we discovered element zero, mass effect fields became an integral part of all aspects of human life. Why haven't I hear a single hint of this from anyone I've met in the last two decades?" 

 

Liara: "Ah, I forgot to mention. At some unspecified point in time the Alliance and the Council teamed up to brainwash the entire human race. Thanks to the wonders of pseudo-indoctrination, they only see each other as normal, pink-skinned individuals now. All non-humans are simply too embarrassed to bring it up in conversation." 

 

You: "You know, I trust you and all but this is unbelievable. Everything you say explains why I haven't noticed, yet it all sounds too perfect. How has a cataclysmic change of this magnitude had no impact on galactic history until you conveniently brought it up? This doesn't match up with everything I've seen and heard during my entire life." 

 

Liara: "Well, I'm sorry if you don't believe me. Since I'm a canonical character, if I say something and believe it to be true, it must be true."

 

In short, certain ME characters state that DNA stores memories, knowledge, etc. in order to explain away certain plot points that wouldn't make sense otherwise. It must be a magical coincidence that no one in the ME universe has ever stumbled upon or suspected this truth during the 50,000 years after the Reaper invasion. Such a discovery would have fundamentally changed the technological, cultural, and economic paradigms of whichever species. Despite the fact that the study of genetics is several orders of magnitude further along than current research, not a single hint of this has ever come to light. Apparently Salarian scientists can almost sterile an entire species with gene manipulation, but they couldn't figure out that further unknown amounts of data are contained by those genes. Somehow the asari can literally transfer thoughts through melding but they never figured this part of their biology out. Somehow no experiments by any species with lesser animals, which all inherently possess DNA, ever led them to this conclusion either. No one ever suspected that the mind can survive the dissolution of the body. During all those millennia, evidence only pointed to conscious thought being an emergent property of the brain. 

 

But since some characters mention it at disparate points, it doesn't matter if the universe created by the writing staff contradicts those claims.

 

I never said that... I don't know where you're coming from with this.

 

If the lives of individual organisms were preserved, then they can returned to their original state. This would qualify as "saving organics". If the process cannot be reversed, then the Reapers are not "saving organics". This is basic biology. If I burn all your memories and knowledge on a CD ROM and shoot you in the head, you're not alive because the CD ROM exists. 

[GalacticWolf5]

Listen here, I'm telling you the facts, what more do you want me to tell you?

[Googlesaurus]

Listen here, I'm telling you the facts, what more do you want me to tell you?

 

Facts only have weight in correlation with other facts. If several characters claim something and nothing else in the narrative leads you to the same conclusion, it's bad writing. No one complains about mass effect fields even though they are clearly fictional; they only care that it is coherently integrated into the universe. By contrast, "DNA holds memories and knowledge" was implemented in an embarrassingly poor fashion. 

[GalacticWolf5]

Facts only have weight in correlation with other facts. If several characters claim something and nothing else in the narrative leads you to the same conclusion, it's bad writing. No one complains about mass effect fields even though they are clearly fictional; they only care that it is coherently integrated into the universe. By contrast, "DNA holds memories and knowledge" was implemented in an embarrassingly poor fashion. 

 

DNA containing memories and knowledge was there since the beginning of the series.

 

The Thorian and the Cipher.

 

The Reapers.

 

The Protheans, more precisely Javik because he's the only Prothean we actually speak to.

 

The Prothean beacons and memory shards.

[General TSAR]

Still debating about the Reapers' motivations?

 

They are genocidal egomaniacs who will spin any tale to suit their agenda, shoot the tube.

[CylonHybrid]

Genetic memory is not entirely unprecedented. Our species has information encoded at the genetic level such as how to recognise a human face, to hold your breath underwater etc. And recent research from 2006 into epigenetics, an entirely new area of genetics has shown some interesting properties have how genetic information is stored and manipulated. Epigenetics is the software and genetics is the hardware. This is a relatively new field we are still learning about. Of course no one has proved anything like genetic memory is mass effect. But its not entirely impossible either. 

[KaiserShep]

Lasting peace is impossible, period. It don't matter whether it's organic v organic or synthetic v organic, eternal peace isn't happening.

 

This is pretty much how I feel about it. We'll get lasting peace, when all life is extinct.

[CylonHybrid]

What we learn from the catalyst is that synthetic life will destroy all organic biological life in the galaxy. But what we learn from the mass effect story is that synthetic life is usually benevolent like the Geth letting the Quarians go when they abandoned their homeworld or EDI. But we also learn that the Quarians and Geth are at war. This is because organic life is driving the conflict, not the synthetics.

 

The catalyst logic is that destroying some organic races to preserve the rest i.e. the ones that have not achieved spaceflight, preserves the growth of organic life but if left unchecked synthetic life would destroy all organic life in the galaxy advanced or not. Therefore it completes its objective of preserving organic life as a whole. By destroying some, it preserves the rest and preserves the potential for organic life to continue. This would not occur if synthetics destroyed everything primitive, advanced, whatever.. 

 

This logic is derived from previous cycles because the same patterns are repeated, although admittedly it may be caused because of the catalyst or it may occur anyway but the catalyst sped things up with the mass relay network to make the solution more efficient. This is mentioned by vendetta, the prothean AI.

[Kynare]

What we learn from the catalyst is that synthetic life will destroy all organic biological life in the galaxy. But what we learn from the mass effect story is that synthetic life is usually benevolent like the Geth letting the Quarians go when they abandoned their homeworld or EDI. But we also learn that the Quarians and Geth are at war. This is because organic life is driving the conflict, not the synthetics.

 

The catalyst logic is that destroying some organic races to preserve the rest i.e. the ones that have not achieved spaceflight, preserves the growth of organic life but if left unchecked synthetic life would destroy all organic life in the galaxy advanced or not. Therefore it completes its objective of preserving organic life as a whole. By destroying some, it preserves the rest and preserves the potential for organic life to continue. This would not occur if synthetics destroyed everything primitive, advanced, whatever.. 

 

This logic is derived from previous cycles because the same patterns are repeated, although admittedly it may be caused because of the catalyst or it may occur anyway but the catalyst sped things up with the mass relay network to make the solution more efficient. This is mentioned by vendetta, the prothean AI.

 

So it created the mass relays on purpose to bypass natural scientific law and speed up the process of technological advancement... so that it could get to destroying stuff sooner. It's silly that the Reapers, or whoever created the Reapers, thought that they needed to govern how life evolves and survives in the galaxy. I just find it a very... human logic. When you consider the Catalyst is supposed to be an AI, it's awfully shortsighted, which is why it feels more like a VI that was programmed pretty badly. Their creators' "resolution" became the very thing they intended to stop. The cycle repeats over and over, the same results, alternatives never even considered. Sounds a lot like the definition of insanity.

 

If anything, Catalyst only became a true AI once it gave Shepard the choice to make a change. I wonder that, even if the rejection ending was chosen, it would have eventually reached the same consensus itself and ended the cycle without any outside influence.

 

Whatever their logic was... I have no love for the Catalyst. And that's the one good thing about the ending, because at least we can count on it being gone or replaced now, as long as Synthesis wasn't chosen. 

[Googlesaurus]

Genetic memory is not entirely unprecedented. Our species has information encoded at the genetic level such as how to recognise a human face, to hold your breath underwater etc. And recent research from 2006 into epigenetics, an entirely new area of genetics has shown some interesting properties have how genetic information is stored and manipulated. Epigenetics is the software and genetics is the hardware. This is a relatively new field we are still learning about. Of course no one has proved anything like genetic memory is mass effect. But its not entirely impossible either. 

 

It has nothing to do with correlation to real life trends. ME is not a "hard sci-fi" series; it doesn't have the obligation to tie everything to a modern day scientific discovery. ME fields have only a tenuous connection to an Alcubierre drive, but there's no reason to complain as long as the details of mass effect phenomenon are consistently portrayed within the series. The concept of DNA storing other, fuzzier things is portrayed erratically. Only special, exotic species know about this and use it. None of the existing civilizations ever stumbled upon or hypothesized it. It plays no part in galactic affairs or culture. 

 

Epigenetics addresses heritable traits that aren't caused by changes in nucleotide sequence. It has no implications of Lamarckism, which is what "DNA transfers knowledge and memories" would be.  

[Googlesaurus]

DNA containing memories and knowledge was there since the beginning of the series.

 

The Thorian and the Cipher.

 

The Reapers.

 

The Protheans, more precisely Javik because he's the only Prothean we actually speak to.

 

The Prothean beacons and memory shards.

 

The Thorian and the rachni utilized it, but they were always posited as exceptions. Until you speak with Javik in ME3, none of the other sapient species show a lick of ability connected with it. By definition, all species in ME have this trait since all species have DNA. How did none of the sapient species ever find out?

 

Other entities claim this about the Reapers. 

 

Prothean beacons and memory shards only pass on information to other organic lifeforms. 

 

None of this addresses the gaping hole in the DNA hypothesis:  Even asari melding only transfers knowledge 

[Vazgen]

Nothing about Shepard changed genetically when he was given the Cipher. 

"The beacon thinks you're Prothean, Shepard! It must be the Cipher you got on Feros."

[GalacticWolf5]

*Removed because you edited your post so let me read that again*

[Googlesaurus]

"The beacon thinks you're Prothean, Shepard! It must be the Cipher you got on Feros."

 

...seriously? The statement contradicts your point lol. 

[GalacticWolf5]

The Thorian and the rachni utilized it, but they were always posited as exceptions. Until you speak with Javik in ME3, none of the other sapient species show a lick of ability connected with it. By definition, all species in ME have this trait since all species have DNA. How did none of the sapient species ever find out?

Other entities claim this about the Reapers.

Prothean beacons and memory shards only pass on information to other organic lifeforms.

None of this addresses the gaping hole in the DNA hypothesis: Even asari melding only transfers knowledge

Why are the Thorian and Rachni exceptions? They're not exceptions at all....

No other species found out because they have no reason to actually know about it.

[GalacticWolf5]

...seriously? The statement contradicts your point lol.

No, that statement proves that what you edited out of your post is wrong. Shepard did change because of the Cipher.

[Googlesaurus]

Why are the Thorian and Rachni exceptions? They're not exceptions at all....

No other species found out because they have no reason to actually know about it.

 

They're shown to be exceptions for two reasons. 

 

1. They were mysterious species ill-understood by the rest of galactic society. The rachni were wiped out before anyone could properly study them, so there were no records of genetic memory or "singing" to children. Binary Helix and Cerberus attempted to train the queen's young without that knowledge, and the experiments imploded in their faces. No one knew about the Thorian until ExoGeni set up the colony on Feros. Since both instances in the games are isolated events, nothing else outside their narratives were affected by those revelations. 

 

2. They were the only living species within the cycle to acquire knowledge and experiences through DNA. The rachni passed on genetic memory from queen to queen, which was how Saren found the location of the Mu Relay. The Thorian absorbed knowledge from the bodies of its victims, which was how Shiala gained access to the Cipher. The asari share knowledge through melding, which is expressly not DNA absorption or sharing. The krogan, quarians, salarians, turians and humans don't have any such abilities besides basic heritability. Experiential transfer through DNA is not brought up again until the end of ME2. In ME3, Javik can acquire memories and knowledge through psychometry. 

 

If knowledge and memory transfer through DNA was discovered, it would be the equivalent of mass effect technology or quantum physics i.e. one of the greatest discoveries in the history of a species. It would be the ultimate game changer in nearly every aspect of life. How did it not manifest through any phenomena whatsoever? Why were there no mutations that positively drew from it? How did no asari scientist ever stumble upon it by accident or conjecture in ~47,000 years?

 

 

No, that statement proves that what you edited out of your post is wrong. Shepard did change because of the Cipher.

 

Sigh, this is just logical inference at work.  

 

Liara tells you on Thessia, "The beacon thinks you're Prothean, Shepard. It must be the Cipher you got on Feros years ago." Simple enough. This is easily converted into a set of material conditional statements. 

 

If (Shepard has the Cipher), then (beacon will read as Prothean).

If (Shepard doesn't have the Cipher), then (beacon will not read as Prothean). 

If (Shepard meets the beacon's criteria for being Prothean), then (beacon would read as Prothean).

 

Which translate into

 

If (x has the Cipher), then (bacon will read as Prothean).

If (x doesn't have the Cipher), then (beacon will not read as Prothean).

If (x meets the beacon's criteria for being Prothean), then (beacon will read as Prothean)

 

Hell, this isn't solid by any stretch of the imagination. We have to take Liara's statement as hard fact and she's just saying the first thing that comes out of her mouth. Part of the ME3 narrative is that the Protheans are much different than she imagined them to be, and she had blind spots in her interpretation of their history. 

 

Nothing in her statement lets us jump to "The Cipher changed Shepard on a genetic level, therefore the beacon reads him as Prothean". We don't know what the beacon's criteria is at all. It's a small leap of logic to assume the Cipher is the criteria for the beacon. And what do we know about the Cipher?

 

There was never any description of the Cipher that suggested the Cipher changed Shepard in any physical way. In ME1 Liara takes great pains to emphasize that the Cipher was the cultural context, knowledge, and experience of the Prothean race. Shepard gains the Cipher from Shiala via melding; we know that melding for the sake of transferring information involves no DNA manipulation. But the Cipher worked out fine for Shepard. And since Shiala got it from the Thorian using the same method, we can infer that she didn't gain any genetic tweaks either. There was never any mention that the Thorian, Shiala, or Saren were changed when they gained the Cipher.

 

There are numerous details that support this reading. When Shepard returns to the Citadel after finishing the Feros mission, nothing reads him/her as being changed. When Cerberus attempts to reconstruct Shepard's body for 2 years, they find nothing strange despite thorough testing and even creating clones. When Shepard returns to the Citadel in ME2, the sensors don't sense anything off despite being praised for their ability to detect the most minute details. When Shepard goes to Afterlife, Aria's goons scan your DNA because she's paranoid. Nope, you come out fine.

[I Am Robot]

This is the only true answer:  Because plot of AI vs humans trope in sci-fi.  That is all.  It makes absolutely zero sense for their ever to be any conflict between any AI and humans, since AI is merely a tool.  As such, AI will never feel anything, so it will never want anything.  It will merely carry out its orders/programming.

 

This is not true. There are no physical laws prohibiting the existence (and thus creation through technological means) of a self conscious AI with free will and the ability to develop and act upon motivations beyond it's original programming.