Unwinnable - On the subject of Geth Souls and Moral Agency (Mass Effect)

anexanhume · Jan 19, 2019

https://unwinnable.com/2019/01/15/mass-effect-andromeda-geth-units-souls-backlog/

If the treatment of religion in Mass Effect: Andromeda is so disappointing, it is in part because the imagination and performance of the religious self — the spiritual self, or at least the numinous self — in other BioWare games is so much more engaged and interesting. In Andromeda, when Suvi Anwar, the Tempest's science officer, expresses her faith, and her lack of internal conflict between that faith and her work as a scientist, the player is given the choice only to affirm that expression or ridicule it. This is markedly different than, say, Thane Krios's discussion of his somewhat unusual (even for his species) polytheism, to which Shepard's interest, or lack thereof, is never construed in terms of any apparent need to express agreement or disagreement with Thane's beliefs.

I think this parts helps to underscore how Andromeda was a re-tread of the franchise in ways that failed to innovate or create new thinking, instead of repeating notes in hopes of riding the nostalgia wave.

The question of the possession of a soul in this context concerns status as a moral agent to which one is obligated to admit the dignity of moral and ethical consideration. In a legal sense, this is what we argue about when we argue whether animals do or do not have rights, and the denial of this dignity is the injury we inflict (among others) when we behave as if another is not worthy of moral consideration.

More at the link.

I am reminded of the extremely insightful comments from former ME writer Chris L'Etoile. His objection to Legion sporting N7 armor fragments was an interesting divergence in the nature of the geth as defined by the franchise.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ol...e-writer-on-writing-ai-for-mass-effect.29024/

Unwinnable - On the subject of Geth Souls and Moral Agency (Mass Effect)

anexanhume