The Synth Question
Recording by Scribe Ellison
"Do synths really have free will?"
"That's the question isn't it." Em says. "That's half of why we nearly had a war here. Another war. Some synths certainly seem to. My friend Nick, he's as human as I am but the Institute scientists would say he's just a malfunctioning machine."
I offer, "That's quite poetic. To a machine, humanity would be a malfunction."
"Synths don't need to eat or sleep, they don't get sick and if they get damaged they need repairs because their bodies don't heal like ours do. They can't have children, obviously, and they don't grow older. Some have skills… a lot of them are very good with a gun, for one thing! But there has never been a synth who painted a picture or wrote a book or composed a symphony. Maybe there will be one tomorrow, but there hasn't been one yet."
"It doesn't sound like you think they're human, General. But I understood that in the peace talks you forced the Institute to free its Gen-3 synths. Why?"
"Maybe I have hope for that symphony." She smiles. "And a bit less poetically, it seemed better to err on the side of survival on such a complex issue. Gen-3s can't be told from humans most of the time. Whether they really do have free will or souls or whatever it is that makes a person a person, that's something for scientists to figure out… or maybe priests. But they seem to be people so they should be treated like people. Even some of the scientists who create synths believe that. You didn't know there were Institute insiders helping the Railroad? Yep.
"In the peace talks the Railroad took responsibility for all free Gen-3 synths choosing to leave the Institute. So now it's the Railroad kidnapping people—people who are synths and didn't know it. They restore the synths' memories in a controlled location and let them decide what they want to do with their lives. The Institute provides combat inhibitors to be installed in any synth that doesn't trust their own mind, or that looks a little unstable. Running around the Commonwealth physically unable to defend yourself isn't great, but its better than being a threat to everyone else."
I can't help saying, "That's horrible! People who never knew they were synths?"
Em sighs. "I know. We searched for a better option, the leader of the Railroad and the Institute's production team and I—not together, since Desdemona won't speak to anyone from the Institute, but separately. But synths do become violent when they realize they're synths, it's a programming glitch related to stress and neither the Institute nor the Railroad knows a way to fix it. So the only way to make a Gen-3 safe is to strap it down and tell it what it is. It's traumatic and cruel and nobody's found a better way. At least with the Railroad in charge of synths they're being kidnapped by people who respect their independence and want what's best for them."
"And there haven't been any synth rampages since the peace talks. It'll be years before the ordinary people of the commonwealth will accept synths as neighbors, but we'll get there."