The Path of Human Advancement

[Sabby]

Okay, by now, everyone knows about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This is not a discussion of the game. While I was disappointed with the story, the four different endings were just so thought provoking and deep, I thought they deserved a real discussion here.

Once again, this is not for talking about the game, it is a serious discussion of the endings, the four different messages, or variants of the same message, and the general topic of human advancement, whether it be technologically, philosophically or morally. Please keep in mind that none of these endings, or their messages, are endorsed over the others, nor is there a right and wrong stance presented. If your looking for black and white, you'll find none here, it's one big grey mush.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - All Endings

[Jude]

This would be an interesting topic to discuss without game spoilers, but as is I won't be touching this thread cause I still want to play Human Revolution. :P

[AndyZ]

My preferred answer was quite simply to tell the truth.  To me, the truth is pretty much it.  If you have to lie to convince people of something, then that something likely isn't of value.  Moreover, once the lie is discovered, people will naturally gravitate towards the idea that your idea is incorrect anyway, regardless of its actual merits.

For example, look at all the scandals coming out involving green energy and climate change.  Even if you believe in such things, all the stuff with Solyndra, Climategate and all the rest are only going to hurt your case.  I can easily say the same for people who fake miracles, the guy who put an orangutan jaw on a human skull to claim evolution was real, and all the rest.

Whether you shift the truth or simply obscure it by destroying evidence, either will only cause problems to surface later.  This is part of why I believe history repeats itself; people make the same mistakes until they understand why they did something, and can then learn from it.

I have many comments about the game and the endings, but as requested, won't list them here.

[Vekseid]

The only lie involved in 'climategate' was that there was any sort of scandal on the part of climate researchers. That lie got repeated so often that people still believe it.

I think we may need a sticky listing those sorts of lies, even.

[Jude]

In the aftermath, the researchers in climategate were cleared of any wrongdoing by multiple independent commissions.  This was never reported.

[Vekseid]

You didn't need to wait for that. All you needed to do was read the e-mails yourself. One researcher wanted to spice up a graph, with appropriate notice given in the text. If only Fox was held to the same standard of integrity.

[Jude]

It was more than that, actually.  In some of the emails they expressed the desire to play dirty with how they publish their articles in order to circumvent review in journals that they didn't like the editors of.

A lot of what they did was against the spirit of science and free, open, and honest inquiry, but the science itself was solid.