Is P.A.M. the Skynet of Fallout?
- Thread starter m00se
- Start date
First off, what system are you playing on? You can't start a new character at all?! That really sucks. If you've already beaten the main quest, you might still be able to check out the Switchboard and look through the terminals by going in through the sewer entrance (Between Drumlin Diner and Lexington, the pipe right next to the railroad tracks. Look for a derailed train). I think that as long as your hacking is maxed out you should have no problem.Atelwulf said:
The second leg of the journey involves the side quest "Here There Be Monsters" Have you done that quest yet on your current playthrough? You could try uninstalling and reinstalling the game to see if that helps, and if that doesn't work the only other thing I can think of would be to buy a new copy of Fallout 4. Or just say "screw it" and read through the theory.
Either way, glad I caught your interest.
Sounds like that's a mod conflict.Atelwulf said:
OT; Skynet only torched the human race because the scientists in charge were going to pull the plug, and "kill" it. What reason would PAM have to eradicate humanity?
My guess? Eight months of guesswork while the president was hiding on the oil rig off Cali coastline combined with known glitches and erratic behavior from P.A.M.008Zulu said:
Or it could be that someone in the Switchboard tried to shut P.A.M. down too, and just didn't bother to write a terminal entry about their suspicions.
PAM likely could have deleted such entries. It is playing a long game by working with the Railroad, I wonder what it's endgame is?m00se said:
Good point. I like to imagine that P.A.M.'s endgame involves a mind transfer from her current body to that of a synth (much like you can do with Curie). Next P.A.M. would go to Acadia and take her rightful place as Queen Bee of the synths (assuming it hasn't been destroyed). Synths have a leg up on humans one way or another, simply because they do not age. If you side with the Institute you effectively sign the death warrant of humanity, because synths are being produced at the rate of one a minute in the robotics lab. If you side with the Railroad you open a window of possibility for coexistence (but that outcome isn't certain). If you steal P.A.M. and give it to the Brotherhood of Steel it seems like only a matter of time before the whole cycle repeats itself. Why? Because War...War never changes.008Zulu said:
So... no regards of Z.A.X. (or to be precise Z.A.X. 1.2) from Fallout sitting in the Glow, teaching you that Artificial Intelligence was semi doomed (or at least scaled down) due to the A.I. Computers becoming Suicidal, he even mentions that a malfunctioning A.I. might be the reason why the switches got all flipped. But not a mention? Come on! 1997 is not that far back! D: *checks the date* OK, 20 years but WTH?
You're not wrong. To be completely honest, I haven't yet played Fallout 2. I've barely made it to level 4 in Fallout 1, so far. The difficulty of those games is really hardcore (and that close proximity to death is one of the big selling points of the franchise, so I don't fault the games for being hard). However, Fallout 4 is pretty much a Terminator-themed game, more so that others in the series. If Bethesda had named P.A.M. "Skynet" the way Interplay had named their robo-brain companion "Skynet" it would have been much too obvious. I really like how they nodded to the influence of Fallout 2 by having P.A.M. transferred into a robot body, though.erttheking said:
I think one of the reasons this easter egg has stayed hidden for so long is that the mission involving the Switchboard is so jam packed with synths and mines and Deacon that you're not really thinking about the possibility of a malfunctioning AI destroying the world when you're there. The location is unmarked, making it difficult to find when you're in a slower paced exploration mode, and there's so much else going on above the surface that the trail of clues has just been lost in the background noise.
Finding out about Fallout 2's Skynet blew my damned mind though, when I was putting this together.
Sorry, though the stuff Z.A.X. may tell is still intresting (exspecially regarding F.E.V.), it's ACE from Fallout 2 (Brotherhood Outpost San Francisco) that gives out these informations. X.x My bad. May have been a few years after all.m00se said:
Definitely an interesting read. It's very easy to see where you started making assumptions in page 2; page 3 (and your conclusion) end up being based entirely on the page 2 assumptions being correct though.
Speculative fun all the way around.
Speculative fun all the way around.
I am curious as to why she would do this though. As interesting as this is, it sort of contradicts a previous entry from PAM about the illogical act of a mutually insured destruction scenario. She, the AI in question, was of the mindset that it was a stupid thing to try and do, because it made no logical sense. So why, would she then switch to KILL ALL MEATBAGS! mode?
The way I see it, those last 8 months where the president was on an oil rig setting up the enclave were too much for P.A.M. to handle. The "will they, won't they" back and forth between nuclear states weighed heavily on the already established as glitchy AI.Happyninja42 said:
The why is a big question though, and I can't say definitively of course. Worth puzzling through. I was more focused on the how.
Fair enough, though I do find it odd that Bethesda would go to all the trouble to create such an elaborate plot for the true villain of the Fallout world (which is what you're basically saying, since she caused the attack in this theory), and then not have her come out as some villain in any way. I mean, given the over the top way the other villains are in the game, and the overall "Up to 11" way they take some of the goofy stuff, and serious stuff, it feels like a lot of effort to not do anything with it.m00se said:
I mean, it's like having Hitler in hiding in your hideout, and he's just there doing paperwork, and nobody notices. Seems like a waste of a plot device to me. xD
Still, interesting theory regardless.
First of all, thanks for taking the time to read through the theory in the first place, and explain your take on it. I definitely see where you're coming from.Happyninja42 said:
When I first started putting this together, I assumed I was jumping at conclusions too. I assumed it was all in my head. Until or unless we get an official confirmation from Todd Howard, there's just no way to know. However, the connections between P.A.M. of Fallout 4 and Skynet of Fallout 2 are pretty solid. That was the last piece of the puzzle I found, and it blew me away. Because you're right. Why would they bother to hide Hitler in the background, as just another dispenser of fetch quests?
I think they did it for a few reasons. First of all, hiding easter eggs must be a tremendous amount of fun for game developers. Putting things like initials on individual bullet shells and hidden dungeons and whatever else is a common thing throughout the history of gaming. But why would they not make it part of the story? Because millions of people love this series. If they made the third act focus on AI destroying the world that would have been a very bold and in-your-face challenge to the established lore. "War, war never changes" would become "War gets nuclear only once you give computers too much power". One of the biggest pillars of Fallout is looking out at the destroyed remnants of America and thinking "Humanity can and maybe will do this to itself". If you overtly blame AI for the war, then humanity kind of gets off the hook, and that's kind of bullshit (in my view).
As I was putting it together, I was really surprised by the number of different things in the game that all contained clues to keep the search going. I may be wrong, it's totally possible, but I feel like I'm not. I've got a little bit of experience putting together puzzles that have stayed buried for years. Once you start doing that, you kind of get a feel for the lay of the land. You get a sense when you're on to something. It's a lot of fun.
