The Institute

Recording by Scribe Ellison

"The Institute's plan?" Em takes a long swig from a bottle of whiskey. "Who knows. I've asked the current and past directors and they don't seem to know either. The Institute was sealed off the day the bombs fell, that's two hundred years for whatever goal the place originally had to mutate just like things mutated up here.

"What I have been able to figure out? The Institute was part of a college called MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, back before the war. They had a high tech shelter and a plan to restore civilization in the Commonwealth after everything. The plan had to do with creating synths—the programming for synths had just been developed when the bombs fell—to explore and work the land. Synths can be repaired if they break and restored from data backups if they die, so they're better fit to wander in the glowing sea than you or I. I think originally synths were meant to live on the surface testing seeds bred to clean the soil for planting and restore prewar facilities so that when the radiation faded enough the scientists would have a functioning city to move into.

"Yes, synths were supposed to help people. But somewhere along the line someone decided that the more human a synth was the more useful it would be. A thinking synth could make decisions without having to report back for orders. So the new goal became making synths that are basically mechanical humans. The latest generation, you can't tell them apart from ordinary people."

I reach for the bottle and Em passes it over so I can fill my cup. It's whiskey, but watered down as I should have expected. Drunkenness is actually scheduled in Sanctuary to make sure no attack finds the whole settlement inebriated. I say, "We've all heard about it, synths replacing people..?"

"They do that. Did that. Not anymore. Even the previous director didn't really know the reason for replacing people. He said the goal was to test how well synths can pass as human, but that explanation doesn't make a whole lot of sense since they did it over and over, for years. I did hear a story, that the Institute was observing a trader when he was killed by a deathclaw. The watchers had become familiar with the man and felt sorry for his family who would likely perish without him. So someone brought his body in, copied his brain over, and returned him to the surface a synth with all the memories of the human he had been. That's supposed to have happened years ago and inspired the trend for replacing the dead. The motive was kind, but unfortunately when a synth realizes it's a synth and all its memories are from a dead person it tends to go berserk. The Institute was trying to adjust the programming so that wouldn't happen but they had to keep testing it… I know. None of it makes a whole lot of sense.

"Now, after the peace talks, the Institute is restructuring their synth production. They agreed to make only low level gen-one synths with combat inhibitors to do work on the surface. Any new gen-three synths will be programmed to know they're synths but they must be treated like full citizens and allowed to leave the Institute if they want—that's the compromise the Institute and the Railroad signed, anyway. I'm not sure the Institute will ever make another gen-three. What they'll do instead… I worry. I know the current director, she's a good sort, and I still worry."