You'd think in Fallout
if scientists could create
house robots and power armour
they could've at least figured out colour TV
by now right?
I mean really,
good job creating a "fictional universe" there guys
[slurps Diet Coke]
[Game Theory theme plays]
Hi guys, caption writer here. Since Mat didn't give one, this is a [SPOILER WARNING] for all the Fallout games. Not big spoilers, but spoilers nonetheless, especially for Fallout 4 and 3. You have about 5 seconds. Enjoy the video!
HELLO Internet! Welcome to GAME THEORY
Buying up all the Ramen in preparation
for the Great War.
Actually, that's a lie
I bought six hundred cases of Ramen noodles
'cos they're delicious
And they had a nifty deal at Costco *cha-ching*
But, in all seriousness
have you SEEN the news lately?
I mean, 2016 was a scary
year, filled with terrorist attacks,
and the world on edge.
2017...well, it's still
early, but I think it's gonna be more of the same.
Remember when your Twitter feed WASN'T people
arguing about politics?
Pepperidge farm remembers.
I do too, I remember that, those were the
good ol' days
all this doom and gloom
DID have one positive thing to come out of it-
it got me to revisit Fallout.
And not only that, I am
determined to keep 2017 positive,
so instead of an episode calculating the odds of
a nuclear holocaust that would wipe out
99% of humanity, today's episode
is gonna focus on FIXING Fallout's society.
Rebuilding civilization from it's own ashes.
Out with the old, sad, scary theories
about heroes being villains,
or heroes being dead.
It's the start of a new day,
making fictional, virtual worlds better
one theory at a time.
[Circle of life plays] Game Theory 2017
for a brighter future.
Now, there's always been one niggling issue
in the back of my head
about the Fallout series that never quite
sat right with me.
It's been over TWO HUNDRED YEARS
since the bombs went off.
And in the real world, two hundred years is a
REALLY long time.
Two hundred years is about the time it took from
inventing the steam engine to getting us to fly!
It took less than sixty years after
THAT to get a man into space!
Alan Turing first proposed his
Turing machine back in 1936,
-laying the groundwork for modern computers-
computers that, when first built, took up
72 square meters (775 square feet)
weighed 27 tons (54,000 pounds)
and cost millions of dollars!
And now, only eighty years later, we have
smartphones like the Vivo Max,
currently the world's thinnest phone at literally
4.5 millimetres (0.177 inches) thick.
No exaggeration, that is
forty MILLION times smaller,
costs fifteen thousand times less,
and is one thousand, three hundred times more powerful,
IN EIGHTY YEARS!
And yeah, I get it, the world of Fallout
has suffered a HUGE catastrophe.
But for as bad as the Great War was,
there's still functioning robot
servants, and power armour suits
just lying around the Wasteland.
Surely with that level of tech, humanity could've
rebuilt SOME level of infrastructure.
Add to that the fact that there were pockets
of people prepared for the coming nuclear war.
We all know that Fallout's Great War
happened in October of 2077,
but according to the Fallout Bible
the United States' government was fully prepped
for a nuclear attack from China eight
months PRIOR!
Back in MARCH of 2077.
This was all done by the Enclave, consisting
of the President of the United States and all the government
and corporate officials who made up the secret
shadow government pulling the strings behind the scenes
They were traded to remote sections
sections around the globe and made contingency plans
for continuing the war against the Chinese.
Operating under the belief that as long as
the important people of the U.S. survived,
they could regroup quickly and wipe out
communism once and for all.
And as we see in Fallout 2, the
Enclave established itself on the
abandoned Poseidon Energy oil drilling
platform off the coast of California.
One that was fully protected
from the nuclear firestorm of 2077.
CLEARLY they should've had the knowledge and leadership
to rein America back in, even in
the wake of nuclear devastation.
Then, there's the city of Las Vegas: or
New Vegas in the games, which escaped the nuclear
attack relatively unharmed thanks to
Mr. House's defence system.
A city that could take it's technology and
serve as a new hub for growth and
recovery of the country, but just...
....doesn't....really.
And those are just two quick examples.
In short, between the still operational technology,
the preservation of pre-war knowledge found in places like New Vegas,
and the still living world
leaders in groups like the Enclave,
in two hundred years, the Fallout
world should be in a much better
condition then where it's at in the game.
The New California Republic is about as close
as you get: it's a functional democracy, with
a dollar backed by water reserves and everything,
but lets be honest, how successful
is it REALLY when it can't even manage to kill
a bunch of dudes wearing skirts and wielding knives?
Which means that holding the
Wasteland back isn't external;
but internal.
It's the citizens, the people
themselves that are stalling this progress and recovery.
Let me explain.
In order for society to function, it needs
rational, law-abiding citizens.
If every person in the country might
just get up tomorrow and murder twenty people,
or decide they're not upholding the basic laws,
chances are you're looking at whats called
'A Failed State'.
Basically, the Purge movies.
At a very basic level, the primary rule of
government is to sustain a system of trust.
What's known as 'The Social Contract'.
We sacrifice some personal freedoms,
for a state of protection
You can walk outside and your neighbour WON'T launch
a nuclear warhead at you with a shoulder mounted slingshot
But in the world of Fallout, it's hard to feel
safe when the Jones's next door are
amassing a human skull collection on their
front porch. The basic glue of
society requires that the majority of
its citizens be of sound mind.
But in the Wasteland, that might not be so
scientifically possible.
And the biggest reason for it is in the
title of the game: Fallout.
The lingering radiation from the
bombs that were dropped during the Great War.
Huh, oh man I just realized! *ding*
That moment when you realise that the game's title is referring
both to NUCLEAR Fallout as well as to the
fact that the game literally explores the
FALLOUT- or after effects of a nuclear war.
WELL DONE Bethesda, Clap and a Half to you. [clap and a half]
Anyway, when people talk about radiation
they typically focus on the physical effects
associated with exposure.
The horrific deformities and tumors,
the classic "fish-with-three-eyes".
But even more terrifying are the permanent effects
that radiation poisoning can have on our brains!
Studies have linked high doses of radiation
to learning and memory impairment.
And survivors of the Chernobyl disaster, in which
a nuclear reactor basically blew up
and launched radiation into the air for
nine days, were up to five times
more likely to suffer from schizophrenia.
Now, it's worth mentioning that people suffering
from schizophrenia often have
'persecution delusions'.
They're convinced that somebody, or
something is out to get them.
It could be the government, aliens,
Illuminati, whatever.
And the people we see wandering around the Fallout Wasteland
exhibit these same symptoms: they're CONVINCED
that The Institute is out to get them
Tinker Tom, one of the agents of the Railroad
in Fallout 4, swears that The
Institute poisoned the air and launched
the nukes that started the Great War.
And throughout these games, time and time
again, we encounter multiple characters
preoccupied with their own delusions and conspiracy theories.
NPC: "Ghosts. Commie ghosts what don't know they're dead." [creepy music in background]
In Fallout 4, we meet journalists who are
convinced that The Institute is replacing
humans with synthetic versions of themselves.
The condition where you feel that your friends and loved ones
aren't who they say they are is a well
documented delusion called 'Capgras Delusion'.
In this delusion people become convinced
that someone has been replaced my an impostor.
In other words, being convinced that your mother
isn't actually your mother, but instead a
perfect robotic replica falls
squarely into the definition of a 'Capgras Delusion'.
And whats a common cause for 'Capgras
Delusion'? You guessed it:
radiation poisoning.
Now, yes, I know, as we play Fallout
it;s pretty obvious that The Institute IS
actually replacing people with synths.
And that a shadow government exists and plans on
killing everyone, and YEAH, we even encounter
aliens that we can kill and loot and
Motherships that we can explore across different games,
in the franchise.
Fallout gives us no reason to
disbelieve the events that we see,
but all of these are incredibly similar
to common paranoid delusions that
come with schizophrenia.
So you have to ask yourself:
"How much can we really trust the narratives
coming from the protagonists of these games?"
In particular, the Sole Survivor.
I mean, in the intro to Fallout 4, your
character supposedly just misses the
shockwave from the bomb, but radiation
travels at the speed of light.
You ain't dodgin that!
In this moment, the Sole Survivor essentially got
a huge dose of radiation straight to the brain,
before being frozen for two hundred years.
This, compounded with witnessing the murder
of his wife, the kidnapping of his child
and the collapse of all of civilization!?
Thats enough to drive pretty much anyone crazy.
So you gotta ask yourself as you're playing these
games, "How reliable are the events that you're witnessing?"
"How truthful are the perceptions
of these narrators?"
Speaking of losing your loved ones and watching the world collapse
thats the other major problem with rebuilding
society in Fallout: PTSD
or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Living in the Watseland and seeing people you know regularly
getting butchered by Deathclaws and Raiders
ain't gonna be too good for your mental health
radiation poisoning or no.
In fact, we know from similar real life disasters
that anywhere between 25 and 75 per cent
of survivors can suffer from PTSD.
In Fukushima, Japan, where an earthquake and tsunami
caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors
back in 2011, around 50%
of the survivors were believed to be suffering
from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
And if it's not the disaster itself that triggers it,
the ensuing displacement of being forced out of
your home, the financial insecurity from
losing your job, and all the effects of
a disaster that continue for years on after,
well, those'll certainly do it for ya.
But at least the survivors of Fukushima had a
society to return to...in Fallout?
There's just...nothing there.
The entire WORLD has been obliterated.
Untreated, people suffering from PTSD
can have a ton of problems integrating into society.
Aside from their brain forcing them
to constantly relive the horrors that they survived,
many people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
-per the Anxiety and Depression Association of America-
have, quote, "persistent and exaggerated
negative beliefs or expectations about
oneself, others, or the world."
People with PTSD can become irritable,
reckless, self-destructive,
does any of that sound familiar to the world of Fallout?
[NPC hissing and roaring]
It's also common for PTSD sufferers to
seek refuge in drags and alcohol:
something we see literally everywhere
in the Wasteland.
With drugs like 'Jet' and 'Psycho' being peddled
all over the place, or the empty whiskey bottles
that just litter the ground
There's even a quest in Fallout: New Vegas where
you have to retrieve a book on PTSD for a doctor.
Carrington of the Railroad describes this
very situation when discussing the
Post Traumatic Stress his agents are dealing with.
So, what can you do to save a
society like this?
Well, within Fallout the solution given
for solving this issue is, pretty depressing.
At the end of Fallout 4, Father
comes to the surface to see if the Wasteland is
really as bad as everyone says it is.
He concludes that the whole thing is doomed and that The Institute
is humanity's best hope for progress.
Same goes for John Henry Eden, the leader of
the Enclave in Fallout 3.
The irradiated inhabitants of the world had
to be eradicated for the world to be rebuilt.
Fallout 2, again the same solution.
And while all of these psychological issues and
delusions make it incredibly difficult for the
Wasteland to rebuild itself, mass
genocide isn't the only answer.
It is AN answer but probably not
the one most of us would actively want to choose
and honestly, one the game pushes you away from.
No, in order to rebuild the Wasteland,
The focus shouldn't be on rebuilding society
on the macro level, but on fixing the
people, in the micro level.
Instead of wasting time with world-wide genocide viruses,
or human replacement synths,
the true solution in Fallout
is psychological treatment.
While there's no catch-all solution for PTSD or
schizophrenia, doctors have proven
several types of medication that can help
these conditions.
Namely, antidepressants for PTSD,
and anti-psychotics for schizophrenia.
Thus, the key to curing society in Fallout
isn't dependent on which faction
you choose- whether you go with the Brotherhood of Steel,
or the Railroad, or the Enclave
or whoever- it doesn't matter who's ruling
philosophy you go with.
They're all doomed to fail if
the citizens don't get proper treatment first.
In a game full of choices,
the single best choice for an ending
would be helping the citizens self-medicate.
Only by doing this can the Wasteland
ever have a shot to...
not be the Wasteland.
No amount of free-flowing clean water is ever gonna change that.
But hey! That's, JUST A THEORY.
AAAAA GAME THEORY.
Thanks for watching!
HEY! If you liked today's theory and are in the mood
for more Fallout action, when then click this
the annotation to go and learn about the philosophy
and ethics, of the Fallout universe.
It's a video from my friends over at the Wisecrack channel.
A channel that, like this one, specialises
in fusing pop culture, learning,
and a little bit of humour along the way.
They also helped out a lot with the research that I used in today's theory,
so if you didn't hate this episode,
then, chances are you're not gonna hate THEIRS.
If you've ever been curious about which of the major
factions in Fallout 4 is
"ethically the right one", well then you're
gonna wanna click that button
And seriously, you guys going and showing
them some love will make them like me more,
and prove my value to them as a friend.
Because isn't that the true meaning of friendship?
Bribing someone to like you because you can provide
them with a valuable service?
Aaah, it just tickles the heart
Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go work on next week's theory
which is gonna start to get a little......
DARK.
See you then!