User blog comment:Ironreaper/Problems with the Catalyst/@comment-1221773-20120411191208

1 and 2. Assumes the Catalyst is an AI, and that all AIs unequivocally want to destroy organics. The geth and EDI are proof that there are some exceptions to that, and EDI is proof that AIs can care for organics. I believe they are a minority, though.

3 through 6. Assumes the Catalyst has the same purpose/intent as the Reapers. Why the Catalyst doesn't open the door for the Reapers from the get-go isn't explained, but neither is it a true plot hole; we simply don't know the answer, just as we didn't know why the Reapers destroyed galactic civilization every 50,000 years in ME and ME2. It's possible the Catalyst has zero control over the Citadel and mass relay network, and only observes the Reapers carry out his plan as if it's an experiment on a grand scale. Or, the Catalyst is testing the Reapers by not interfering to see if his creation can successfully implement his plan, and the moment the Reapers fail, he would abandon them and move on to another plan or let the galaxy steer its own course. Or, it may be as simple as the Protheans' corruption of the keepers has disabled the Catalyst's control over the Citadel. There are many ways BioWare could fill this in.

7. EDI states that the Reapers may have failed to create a new Reaper from the Protheans because they were somehow incompatible. If true, then the Reapers would have no choice but to destroy the Protheans anyway, since allowing them to live would disrupt the overall plan and risk the chance of technological singularity.

8. This is two questions. First, the Crucible is what made the new choices possible, not the Catalyst or Citadel alone. The Crucible generates the energy, the Citadel/Catalyst amplifies it and transmits it through the mass relay network. Second, you forget that the Catalyst never needed a different solution before ME3. The Reapers were successful for at least a billion years, why would the Catalyst consider doing anything else? But in ME3 the Reapers fail, the Catalyst states as much. Since his plan has finally been proven to be flawed, he realizes that any other plan or decision he makes could also be flawed, so he gambles on Shepard being able to make a choice that will pan out.

9. A lot of speculation. This also isn't a plot hole, just something we don't know yet.

10. See response for questions 3 through 6, related to whether or not the Catalyst even has that ability to contact Sovereign. We don't even know if the Reapers know about the Catalyst.

11. Not a plot hole, just something we don't know yet.

12. It could be that the network was going to be shut down, but the Allied fleet arrived before then. Or, the keeper disruption also prevented the Reapers from taking control of the network. Of all of your questions, this is most probably a true plot hole.

13. See responses to 3 through 6 and 8. The Catalyst may have no control over the beam or may not want to interfere.

14 and 15. See responses to 3 through 6 and 8. The Catalyst may not have that ability or may not want to interfere. Also, the Crucible's location was kept a closely guarded secret. The Reapers didn't even know the Crucible was being built until the Illusive Man told them.

16. See response to 3 through 6 and 8. The Catalyst may have no control over the Citadel's functions or may not want to interfere.

17. Not a plot hole. If Javik's tales of wars against synthetic scourges are true, then it's possible every cycle produces some kind of hostile synthetic and benign synthetics are few and far between. Why would the Catalyst take a single example of organics and synthetics cooperating and disregard a billion years of experience that demonstrates synthetics inevitably turn against organics? The geth may not turn against organics, but there's nothing preventing another synthetic race from rising up and crossing the line that the geth were recluctant to cross themselves.

18 and 19. First, that would mean that the Reapers would have to babysit organics indefinitely to keep watch for any hostile synthetics. This might be a viable course of action, but then the Reapers would be irrevocably influencing the development of organic civilization even more than with the relay network and FTL technology. All organic civilizations would homogenize into an order imposed upon them by their guardians. it would be a kind of utopian stagnation, organic life would have no purpose. Second: The Reapers are arguably the apex of synthetic life in the galaxy, they've been around for over a billion years. Any new synthetics won't stack up; the Reapers could easily overpower them, but instead of destroying them, they utilize them as another tool to achieve their goal. The weaker synthetics could be used as cannon fodder to spare the Reapers losing any of their own, and could accelerate the the purge. I believe ME spells this out.

20. See response to 18. But even if the galaxy was warned about the dangers of synthetics, it won't be long before someone breaks the taboo and experiments with AI technology anyway. People don't always heed warnings or advice, however sound it may be.

21. You should read Alastair Reynolds's "Revelation Space" trilogy and short story "Galactic North". What happens is at at some point, a nanotechnological plague known as Greenfly arises and begins terraforming every planet and piece of rock floating in space into self-sustaining habitats. It was a human-designed device, but was corrupted with alien technology. Eventually, as Greenfly mutates more and more out of control, the habitats it builds aren't even habitable and it starts pursuing and consuming organics. No one can figure out how to stop Greenfly, so it continues consuming entire solar systems to make habitats unabated, expanding exponentially. It's heavily implied near the end of Absolution Gap (book three) that eventually Greenfly consumes whole galaxies, and millions of years later nearly all of the universe has been rendered uninhabitable. Surviving species are forced to adopt synthetic bodies and live in ever dwindling corners of the universe that Greenfly will also inevitably reach. That is certainly a worst-case scenario, but something similar to it is likely what the Catalyst fears.