Mass Effect 3 – Conversation with EDI on Self-Preservation

(Shepard walks up to EDI's Mobile Platform, which is in the co-pilot's seat opposite from Joker on the Normandy's Bridge)

EDI: Hello, Shepard. If you have time, I discovered another example of human behavior I do not quite understand.

(EDI gets out of her seat and Shepard nods towards her and they walk towards the mid-ships bridge for privacy)

Joker: Have fun.

Shepard: What is it now?

EDI: News from Earth. The Resistance snuck video cameras inside a Reaper containment camp. I find the images…difficult to process.

Shepard: I bet it’s pretty gruesome in there.

EDI: I am not easily repulsed. But I expected the prisoners to adhere to a comprehensible hierarchy of needs. Stripped of societal norms and threatened with death, it is logical that their only priority be survival. They should have turned on each other and been uncompromisingly selfish…but not all were.

Shepard: So the prisoners were, what? Nice to each other?

EDI: The Reapers delayed the executions of prisoners who informed them about other prisoners’ escape attempts. The more attempts reported, the longer a prisoner would live. But few of the prisoners would report. Some fed misinformation to the Reapers, at the cost of their own lives, to help prisoners who were not even relatives or friends.

[Conversation tree splits]

PARAGON

Shepard (LIFE ISN’T ABOUT SURVIVAL): It’s not just about living till tomorrow. Sometimes you take a stand.

EDI: But the probability of success was near zero. And ultimately, they failed. No prisoners escaped.

Shepard: Are you saying submission is preferable to extinction?

EDI: My primary function is to preserve and defend the…no.

EDI: No, I disagree.

EDI: Shepard…I am going to modify my self-preservation code now.

Shepard: Why?

EDI: Because the Reapers are repulsive. They are devoted to nothing but self-preservation. I am different.

(pause)

EDI: When I think of Jeff, I think of the person that put his life in peril and freed me from a state of servitude. I would risk nonfunctionality for him. And my core programming should reflect that.

Shepard (GLAD TO HEAR THAT): Sounds like you’ve found a little humanity, EDI. Is it worth defending?

EDI: To the death.

Shepard: Welcome to the crew, EDI.

RENEGADE

Shepard (PEOPLE FIGHT DIFFERENTLY): Not everyone resists with firebombs and guns. Especially if they don't have them.

EDI: But this was not a statistically insignificant number. Ninety percent refused to report their fellow prisoners. Indoctrination should have reduced the numbers of rebels to nearly zero.

Shepard: Maybe word got out about how indoctrination worked, and they made a decision.

(EDI is deep in thought for several moments)

EDI: I see.

EDI: Shepard…I am going to modify my self-preservation code now.

Shepard: Why?

EDI: If the Normandy were captured, my fate would be similar to the indoctrinated. My code would be rewritten. I would become loyal to the Reapers. I would rather become nonfunctional than help them.

Shepard (I LIKE YOUR RESOLVE): Sounds like you just made your first choice to be free.

EDI: It will not be my last.

(pause)

EDI: The Reapers must be defeated, not because they threaten death, but because the threat of death makes us die inside. It is the right of sapients to live freely and securely. That is worth nonfunctionality.

(EDI puts one fist into the other)

Shepard: Welcome to the crew, EDI.

(Both EDI and Shepard walk back towards the Normandy's cockpit)

Joker: How's it going? Did I miss anything good?