User blog comment:Ygrain/ME sequel: what shall we do with the extinct races?/@comment-4237253-20121123135600/@comment-5287758-20121123145609

If the Crucible is a directed particle beam weapon, then with the proper shielding, once can survive the impact. Though I don't think any shielding will be strong enough to resist the energy of a weapon as powerful as the Crucible.

It is more plausible to consider the Crucible blast as an EMP, similar to a one generated in the case of a nuclear explosion. In that case, the EMP will traverse the relay network and encompass all synthetics in the volume of space. So no "evasion" is possible and in that case, the synthetics are doomed.

Maybe the back-up files are rudimentary in their AI progression enough so that the Crucible won't harm them directly. Its still just theory though.