Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The Secret Origin of Fallout's Synths

I've discovered what could well be an incredibly well hidden easter egg in "Fallout 4"...or just an amusing coincidence.   Whether that demonstrates my cleverness, or the fact that I have way too much free time, I leave to you.  Heh.

Here's the logo to "The Institute", the shadowy masters of robotics technology in "Fallout 4".


This is a breakdown drawing of a second generation Synth.  They're pure robots without any self-awareness or functionality beyond their programming. 


With that body form in mind, take a look at this comparison shot.  On top is the Institute logo.  Below it, the logo of another cutting edge robotics manufacturer. 


Here's a closer look.  What makes this second group particularly interesting is that it also had issues with killer robots going rogue and gaining sentience.


It's the logo of "Nova Laboratories", taken from the identification plate of their first generation robotic soldiers.  These insidious machines were equipped with brutally effective laser weaponry and designed to carry out kamikaze attacks using nuclear weapons.  Sound familiar?


Here's the robot the ID plate was attached to.



That's right.  The whole Institute mess started with SAINT Prototype 5, better known as Johnny 5 from the 1986 movie "Short Circuit".  Despite the primitive technology of the time even this robotic assassin could effectively disguise itself as a human.


The screencaps of the "Nova Laboratories" logo are taken from the very well done opening credit sequence.  What's telling is that the computer aided manufacturing in the film is now garage technology.  That certainly wasn't the case back in '86.



4 comments:

  1. Huh. That's interesting.

    I will note that both logos (or at least the SAINT) are based on Davinci's 'Vitruvian Man.'

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man

    As this is rather famous, you see parodies of it here and there. IIRC, one of the NASA spacesuits had a spacesuited 'Vitruvian Man' logo patch.


    -MJ

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  2. Replicants are like any other machine - they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem." "You know the score, pal. You're not cop, you're little people"! "No choice, huh?" Bryant: [smiles] "No choice, pal."

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  3. It goes back even further than that. The figure is Leonardo da Vinchi’s Vitruvian Man from circa 1490. Remember than da Vinchi is working on making marvelous machines of all kinds and his Vitruvian man became a biometric/anthropometry meme, so being picked up by a robotics tech company is not surprising. Unless these killer robots are indeed a direct descendent of da Vinchi’s works. Eventually one might even posit an end point much like Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep/Bladerunner and or the newer version of Battlestar Galactica. Paranoia abounds … wheee! Yes, Propnomicon some people do have too much time on their hands and ain’t it just great.

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