User blog comment:Koveras Alvane/The Beauty of Mass Effect 2 Ending/@comment-24174486-20130423151236/@comment-256004-20130426152316

The "interface" in this case refers to the operator "MAGIC(S*, L*, P4*, ESC)", which I use in my article. It formally describes the function that takes into account the current survivors, the full loyalties set, and the survivors who don't hold the line (the active party and the escort) and returns a set of squadmates who will die holding the line. This interface symbolically represents the full programming logic that determines the outcome of the situation (as depicted in the flowchart linked above by Lily) and that I did not want to fully include in my article for the sake of readability.

Regarding the presence or absence of logic in the Suicide Mission, my answer will depend on how obvious you want your causality to consider it "logical". If "logical" means "I am able to perceive the full cause and effect chain that leads to every specific event taking place on the Suicide Mission" for you, then yes, it is illogical, as the Suicide Mission script is more rooted in the writer's desire for a dramatic arc than in simulating the effects of every player action in the game. If "logical", on the other hand, means "if I screw up or never get to do some good things before the Suicide Mission, some bad things will happen to me during it", then the Suicide Mission is very true to the game's underlying rules and thus, internally consistent and logical. I may add that the latter expectation is much more rational in gaming, since the computer technology is not yet capable of simulating reality to such degree that satisfies the former.