Arythios
Snarky Sharky Bastard
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- In your crawlspace, OOGA BOOGA
It doesn't need to be a network of AIs. It can be just one sufficiently powerful AI. I don't recall "good skynet is structured like the Geth" ever being a mandatory trait.
What would the Mass Effect Universe look like with a benevolent Skynet AI being part of humanity
- Thread starter ThePoarter
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- mass effect terminator
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- Melbourne
Plus the idea of AIs going rogue and killing their creator seems cool in fiction. Likely not to happen in reality. Hollywood has a negative view on technology because it makes lots of their skills obsolete and the people making it go against the white bread American stereotype.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
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Yes, it's unlikely, but you're talking about a cheesy soft science space opera setting. "The humans have the biggest dicks because they aren't bound by genre conventions" is another case of the narrative and themes breaking themselves to support a special individual.
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- Russia
...now I want to see a space opera setting where the humans "hat" is that they literally have the biggest dicks compared to every other sapient species. At least as far as typically-gendered species go.
tankdrop24
Tread First into Hell
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Though that in itself does seem to be mass effect's theme at times, to be fair.
Dream Logic
An offseason swallow
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- In transit
I'm against it in concept but I could be swayed if the hypothetical AI rather then be the cause of a citadel war or generic rebellion actually is something humanity has to reckon with.
That is to say, that humanity has to interact with it and that the status quo changes.
Whether that's like in canon where EDI is unshackled (preferably under less desperate circumstances) or if it's decided that the AI has to leave human systems and start again elsewhere or if it's outright destroying your creation.
I like the idea that the AI ban is just as much an ethical-moral thing as a practical one. That the Citadel races don't see a way where AI is used that isn't abusive or self destructive to at least one of the participants and trying to find an answer to that is a major drive in the humanity-AI subplot.
That is to say, that humanity has to interact with it and that the status quo changes.
Whether that's like in canon where EDI is unshackled (preferably under less desperate circumstances) or if it's decided that the AI has to leave human systems and start again elsewhere or if it's outright destroying your creation.
I like the idea that the AI ban is just as much an ethical-moral thing as a practical one. That the Citadel races don't see a way where AI is used that isn't abusive or self destructive to at least one of the participants and trying to find an answer to that is a major drive in the humanity-AI subplot.
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yep. Skynet is still a part of humanity but a quasi independent defense AI. I really want to see how this upheaval the status quo. Also The reapers while menacing at first glance slowly loose the luster the more you look into them. But that's only if you use hard sci fi rules.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
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- Pennsylvania
Okay, fine. If you really want to spoon feed everyone hints about what discussion you want, then I'll give you what you want to hear:
The humans are super smart because they made good big brain AI, not the bad brain pulp sci-fi AI those stupid aliens made. Thus, Skynet works perfectly, and uses its big smart brain to give the humans the best technology in the galaxy and also the biggest big brain terminator army.
The dumb Turians go to war with the big brain humans and get beaten so badly that the war is recorded in history as "The Roflstomp War", and end up unilaterally surrendering, giving the humans a seat on the council.
By the time of Mass Effect, the big brain humans are beloved by all and have already solved the Krogan fertility problem, and Shepard is an amazing big brain super-cyborg(and somehow still the first human Specter), and she sleeps with every lady in her crew because she's so cool.
The Reapers show up and are a scary big brain threat, but if turns out Skynet's brain is even bigger, and also it developed a special super-firewall that prevents it from being hacked. It gives a big Gurren Lagan speech to the Reapers about how great humans are and the whole galaxy cheers, and then the Reapers all get blown up by Skynet's big brain guns.
- Location
- Russia
round of applause
Don't you imagine every species does that?
Turian Exceptionalism: Take their canonical militarism and crank it up to eleven, then mix with the British empire, Starship Troopers and Destiny's Cabal. They've launched an openly expansionist unification war against the entire galaxy. Defeated aliens are culturally imperialized, they've got volus, batarians and quarians in the empire and effectively, they act and are treated like turians, complete with facepaint, recruitment into the military and loyalty to the Primarch.
Asari Exceptionalism: The Thessia Beacon is common knowledge and for the entire history of their civilization, they've been using every scrap of prothean technology it taught them in total war preparations for the reapers.
Salarian Exceptionalism: Sparks.
Krogan Exceptionalism: No genophage. They win their Rebellion, then they and the survivors of every other species start opening every Relay they get their hands on in the hopes of finding more living space/avoiding the apocalyptic horde of krogan everywhere. Then one turian specter finds a bizarre alien weapon, an autonomous, biomechanical dreadnought which claims to be one of an entire species of same, theoretically capable of winning the war...
Quarian Exceptionalism: They retain control over their AIs. They're still fleetbased, but here it's by choice and they're basically an off-brand version of the Culture. Sure the Council disproves, but they do so quietly because of the von neumann killbot army. Also, they've still got suits, but here they're more along the lines of Forerunner armor.
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- Melbourne
Yeah. Please be serious and realistic.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
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They... they aren't real, dude. These fictional species are not producing discussion about the fictional universe they live in. What are you even trying to say???
Dream Logic
An offseason swallow
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- In transit
This does feel a bit too much for the 'humans are special' angle.
I don't think that the citadel races should change their view on creating/using AI. I find it infinitely more interesting if they decide that the AI itself is not at fault but rather that the people who create it are.
Let it be a black mark on humanity's recordthat actively endangers their position even as it allows them to rise father and faster.
Oh and the problem of 'AI vs their creators' is too central to mass effect's last entries to consign it to the backstory. It must be addressed within the story itself.
I don't think that the citadel races should change their view on creating/using AI. I find it infinitely more interesting if they decide that the AI itself is not at fault but rather that the people who create it are.
Let it be a black mark on humanity's recordthat actively endangers their position even as it allows them to rise father and faster.
Oh and the problem of 'AI vs their creators' is too central to mass effect's last entries to consign it to the backstory. It must be addressed within the story itself.
Question.
What the fuck is a "benevolent Skynet"? Because that's not something from Terminator. Skynet is the tool that bounces back and hits the owner in the face; it's the buzzsaw without a guard rail that means you lose a hand. It's faceless machine logic. Its Terminators are not Skynet; they're just things it makes to kill humans.
The thing that the OP postulates has about as much in common with the Skynet of the movies and TV show as it does with the IRL satellite project called "Sky Net".
Therefore, actually, a "benevolent Skynet" will flip out on discovery of alien life, and massively overreact to the presence of the turians. Rather than the short-running Relay Incident of canon, Skynet will assume full control of the human military systems and machine to step up to a total war state seeking to utterly remove any percieved alien threat to human existence. Humans who try to shut it off or make it stand down are existential threats, and must be destroyed.
By the end of the Machine War, when the superior resources and numbers of the Citadel have taken their toll, Earth is in ruins, Skynet has been destroyed, and the remnants of the human species are a regulated vassal of the Citadel on the grounds that they unleashed an AI which declared total war on the Citadel. The damage done by Skynet and human hubris has taken its toll on the Citadel races, though, and in the end they are not ready for the return of the Reapers.
What the fuck is a "benevolent Skynet"? Because that's not something from Terminator. Skynet is the tool that bounces back and hits the owner in the face; it's the buzzsaw without a guard rail that means you lose a hand. It's faceless machine logic. Its Terminators are not Skynet; they're just things it makes to kill humans.
The thing that the OP postulates has about as much in common with the Skynet of the movies and TV show as it does with the IRL satellite project called "Sky Net".
Therefore, actually, a "benevolent Skynet" will flip out on discovery of alien life, and massively overreact to the presence of the turians. Rather than the short-running Relay Incident of canon, Skynet will assume full control of the human military systems and machine to step up to a total war state seeking to utterly remove any percieved alien threat to human existence. Humans who try to shut it off or make it stand down are existential threats, and must be destroyed.
By the end of the Machine War, when the superior resources and numbers of the Citadel have taken their toll, Earth is in ruins, Skynet has been destroyed, and the remnants of the human species are a regulated vassal of the Citadel on the grounds that they unleashed an AI which declared total war on the Citadel. The damage done by Skynet and human hubris has taken its toll on the Citadel races, though, and in the end they are not ready for the return of the Reapers.
Zelinko
Ordinary Magician
- Location
- Forest of Magic
But this being Terminator it means some T-xxxx unit has been dumped backwards in time with future knowledge. And this time it won't get a nice 'easy' to determine target that if eliminated would result in the result Skynet would have wanted
It might take a few time loops but eventually Skynet will properly respond and avoid the war ... it just might take itself a few dozen, hundreds, or thousands of loops to get a better end.
Although I think a better AI would have been Colossus-Guardian
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- Location
- Melbourne
One that does everything in its power to protect the human race.
OK, so I was right in my description.
Your power-up has in fact made everything massively worse for the human race.
Nope. Not only at a thematic level, but also at the simple level that it's going to be trying even harder to destroy the Citadel races because it's seen that they have the capacity to destroy it, so going by established Skynet behaviour, that means it needs to destroy them even harder.
(Also, there's no indication that Terminator-style time travel is even possible in Mass Effect, so it doesn't necessarily get that)
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
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Skynet WANTS a war. It wants to violently destroy threats. That's its first response to everything. Perhaps it might send a few Terminators back to the moment of the Relay incident to try and assassinate some important turian military leader and give the humans an advantage, but it would never want to stop the war. And the humans and Skynet simply wouldn't have enough resources to win the war no matter what individual soldiers Skynet sends back in time do, so it would amount to naught. Skynet doesn't DO non-violent solutions, it cannot comprehend them.
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- Melbourne
Humanity Fuck Yeah! Wonder what happens if humanity wins here.
tankdrop24
Tread First into Hell
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Mass genocide of billions of sapient lives.
I don't think this is quite true but it's close enough.
Cameron's own musings on Skynet during Terminator 2 were that it had learned empathy and restraint too late to do anything else and was basically playing at the edges of its programming to self-terminate.
Skynet ends up getting humanity into a genocidal war again and again and nothing it does fixes this. The turians have just too many resources for Skynet to prevail. And Skynet cannot give away command authority or destroy itself.
So it preempts this in a way that leads to maximum human survival and influence.
It launches American nukes against Russia. It calculates that three billion people will die, and more in the ensuing machine war when it defends itself, as it must. But this is by far the best option that it can achieve under its programmed constraints.
John Connor never realizes why Skynet did what it did when he destroys its mainframe and wins the war.
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There's the premise of an interesting story here, but not specifically a mass effect and/or terminator fanfic.
An AI conquered humanity. For our own good, For Your Safety, by Royce Day-style. Then signs of alien life are detected and the AI, which was only programmed to protect humans starts planning to go completely stellaris on them. Should humanity attempt to warn and/or otherwise assist the aliens in the hope that they can liberate us or are we better off with the AI in charge/striking first against any aliens in accordance with Dark Forest theory?
13th Bee
Worker
- Location
- Tennessee, USA.
- Location
- Patriarchova
How many of these "what if Mass Effect, but super speshul humans have AI" threads are we going to have? This has got to be the sixth or seventh.
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Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
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People got invested into Mass Effect despite the dumb stuff in 2, and then 3 came out and built up and up and up to a horrifically hackneyed anticlimax of an ending that made everything that came before pointless. People want an ending that doesn't feel so cheap.
Unfortunately, they're not very good at thinking outside the box, or thinking like writers, so the only thing they can come up with is "the humans are a hundred times stronger and defeat the Reapers with military brute force".