I just don’t get the Railroad [SPOILERS]

[Bella]

Okay, what I do get is recognising synth rights. You think, you feel, therefore you are sentient and have rights.
What I don’t get is, if they mind wipe the synths and give them new identities, what did we rescue exactly?
It makes no sense to rescue them just to kill them and refill their body with someone else.
It’s what the Institute does, but in reverse.

[Duudad]

Guess they value the life and consciousness more than memories and personality.
Seems counter intuitive i agree. Quality story telling right there.

[Bella]

Originally posted by Doodah:

Guess they value the life and consciousness more than memories and personality.
Seems counter intuitive i agree. Quality story telling right there.

Yep - not thought through properly.

[Cyberblonde]

railroad idiots are the refugee welcome idiots from tomorrow.

[WildCat]

Originally posted by Bella:

<...> What I don’t get is, if they mind wipe the synths and give them new identities, what did we rescue exactly?
It makes no sense to rescue them just to kill them and refill their body with someone else.
It’s what the Institute does, but in reverse.

My thoughts, exactly! They acknowledge that synths want to be free but then they insist on completely deleting that person who was longing for freedom to replace it with fake personality. It's not any better than factory reset the Institute performs on synths they caught and brought back.
While some people may say it's optional this option is offered as to a scared confused person and in such state people can't think straight and are very susceptible to suggestion.

Only DiMA offers synths the place to live, be themselves and enjoy freedom.

[Soloquendi]

It's the Commonwealths version of turning gay people straight. So they can live a "normal" life. Railroad = Religious nuts. Acadia = San Francisco.

[The Shadow of Death]

Yeah, it was a bit off-putting for me as well. It did seem rather pointless.

But as I recall, they gave the synths a choice, left it up to the escaped synths as to whether they undergo the mind wipe, so it's not all on the Railroad. Ostensibly, it makes integrating into the general public easier, but I don't really see how that would work, unless there was a realistic worry that a synth that knew it was a synth would be worse at keeping their nature a secret than a synth that didn't realize it was a synth. Realistically, wouldn't someone who thought they were a biological human be willing to submit to the obvious tests? Seems like a huge flaw in the process.

That said, I can't really recall free synths in the wasteland that the player could find out knew they were synths. There probably are such synths living free.

Again, the mind-wipe, generally stupid as it seems, is optional.

[Laidlaw]

They are more concered in that a synth has life/a soul and it is imprtant to protect this. Mind wiping them is looked at as giving them a fresh start where they do not remember being slaves but think they are living life like anyone else. Which is good for not making them into their own rival faction that could be a real threat.

Makes sense to me but I hate the Railroad in my playthroughs lol

[Zer0]

Are you telling me you dont enjoy liberating toasters?

[Yhwach]

Originally posted by laidlaw2551ppcli:

They are more concered in that a synth has life/a soul and it is imprtant to protect this. Mind wiping them is looked at as giving them a fresh start where they do not remember being slaves but think they are living life like anyone else. Which is good for not making them into their own rival faction that could be a real threat.

Makes sense to me but I hate the Railroad in my playthroughs lol

It's to help them forget that they were ever a part of The Institute to begin with, to help the pain they went through, memories of running away or being hunted down by The Coursers; they're not in the wrong when they let him lead a new life that's devoid of any hardships in the past, however, they ARE in fact in the wrong when there's not a sucessful wipe.

[WildCat]

Originally posted by The Shadow of Death:

<...>But as I recall, they gave the synths a choice, left it up to the escaped synths as to whether they undergo the mind wipe, so it's not all on the Railroad. <...>

Originally posted by WildCat:

While some people may say it's optional this option is offered as to a scared confused person and in such state people can't think straight and are very susceptible to suggestion.

When you are stressed and confused from arriving into unfamiliar environment and out of comfort then some people scare you to death with crazy stories you can't really make decisions and fully be aware of what you're doing. Also if you pay attention you can see that it's not a real choice they offer but a heavy suggestion.

There is one interesting thing that people who played FO3 may know but what they could forget and what players of FO4 never get a chance to learn: it is possible to give a synth new memories without deleting their existing ones.

A3-21 who was evacuated to the Capital Wasteland had his memories locked out instead of wiped and given new memories by scientist who was doing occasional jobs for Railroad, in addition that scientist managed to remove the synth component without killing A3-21 in the process. If player would choose so they could say the keyword to unlock the hidden memories and A3-21 would be grateful for that. As for the synth component, apparently Institute scientists believe it's impossible to extract without killing its owner.

[Bella]

Originally posted by WildCat:

My thoughts, exactly! They acknowledge that synths want to be free but then they insist on completely deleting that person who was longing for freedom to replace it with fake personality. It's not any better than factory reset the Institute performs on synths they caught and brought back.
While some people may say it's optional this option is offered as to a scared confused person and in such state people can't think straight and are very susceptible to suggestion.

Only DiMA offers synths the place to live, be themselves and enjoy freedom. [/quote]

Yep - themselves, warts and all, just like humans.

[Bella]

Originally posted by Th3Zer0:

Are you telling me you dont enjoy liberating toasters?

LOL

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Bella:

What I don’t get is, if they mind wipe the synths and give them new identities, what did we rescue exactly?

Thats kinda like the whole Indiana Jones isnt necessary for the plotline of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Institute gets shut down without the Railroad's help.

Then consider you are going to go shut down the place that makes new synths. So they are going to make themselves extinct by freeing themselves.

Even the other factions do not take them seriously. institute only sees them as theives, BOS sees them as a security risk because of the high tech on the loose issue, Minutemen well they do wtf you say.

Originally posted by WildCat:

A3-21 who was evacuated to the Capital Wasteland

That was a prototype like almost twenty years old. The whole way memories worked was most likely changed. Considering Nick is an older model than A3-21 and his memories could not be unlocked. So it probably varies model to model or even depending on their escape method.

[nobody willsee this video right?]

Originally posted by A230385:

It's the Commonwealths version of turning gay people straight. So they can live a "normal" life. Railroad = Religious nuts. Acadia = San Francisco.

perhaps religious nuts, but i also can see them useing good intentions to pave the road to hell.
they have good hearts, and are using flawed logic.
there are many examples of this in the real world where good hearted people have done "good deads" that were widley regognized as fitting and proper.
then those things were the cause of unintended consequences that eventually resulted in the exact oposite of what the flawed logic actors intended.

so yes, the rialroad as with all the factions in the game become the gods with clay feet.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by nobody willsee this video right?:

there are many examples of this in the real world where good hearted people have done "good deads" that were widley regognized as fitting and proper.

The road to hell is paved with best intentions.

For example, everyone else ignored A230385's stupid innapropiate analogy. Yet you fed him.