Geth

The geth are a race of networked artificial intelligences that reside beyond the Perseus Veil. The geth were created sometime around 1900 CE by the quarians, as laborers and tools of war. When the geth became sentient and began to question their masters, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war, and reduced the quarians to a race of nomads.

The history of the geth's creation and evolution serves as a warning to the rest of the galaxy of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and to the legally enforced, systematic repression of artificial intelligences throughout galactic society.

Best size estimates on the geth fleet range from 5,000 to 10,000 ships with unknown armament.

History

The quarians created the geth as a cheap labor force, limiting their intelligence to keep it as low as any VI. However, they made small modifications to their programming as time passed, enabling the geth to perform more difficult tasks and work more efficiently by sharing resources and data with each other. Due to the way the geth neural network functions, the more geth the quarians built, the smarter they became. Soon, the geth became intelligent enough that one questioned its master as to whether it was really alive, and what its purpose was.

Alarmed that their creations were achieving sentience, the quarian government sent out an immediate order to shut down all geth. Their synthetic servants struck back, killing billions and driving the quarians from their homeworld in what few ships they had left. After forcing the quarians into exile, the geth isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy in the systems beyond the Perseus Veil. The Citadel races immediately sent ships to the edges of the Veil, expecting a geth invasion would soon emerge. However, the geth made no attempt to attack and have not been seen outside the Veil for centuries. According to Legion, this is because they are unable to operate correctly outside the Veil, with Legion itself being the sole exception.

Subtypes

Over time, the geth have evolved into numerous sub-forms—from the diminutive but highly agile Geth Hoppers, to the gigantic, lumbering Geth Armatures. The geth also utilize turrets and drones (rocket, assault, recon and repair drones, specifically). It isn't clear whether these are also AIs—in the same way Geth Armatures are not just tanks but sentient machines capable of learning and problem solving—or simply controlled by the geth.

It should be stressed, however, that in all forms the geth are to be approached with extreme caution as they are universally violent.

Appearance in Mass Effect:

• Geth Armature − Anti-Personal light walkers capable of launching geth siege pulses. Also possess shields.
• Geth Hopper − Cyberwarfare and ambush platform, capable of sabotage, overload and radar jamming. Attacks using geth sniper beam. Light shielding
• Geth Shock Trooper − Advanced geth troopers possess geth pulse rifles, geth barriers, carnage and the ability to recharge shields. Are resilient to gunfire.
• Geth Sniper − Armed with geth sniper rifles and shielding. Capable of using assassination specialised for long range combat. Are capable of jamming radar.
• Geth Juggernaut − Similar to geth destroyers. Equipped with geth pulse rifles & rocket launcher. Has heavy shielding and is very resilient.

Appearance in Mass Effect 2:

• Geth Hunter − Stealth troops armed with shotguns and shielding. They also possess cloaking devices making them invisible.

Appearance in both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2:

• Geth Destroyer − Equipped with geth pulse rifle and strong shielding. Is specialised for close quarters has the ability to charge, can also utilize Carnage. It gains a flamethrower in Mass Effect 2.
• Geth Dropship − Standard troop transport and geth equivalent to a frigate. Extremely resilient to small arms and ground vehicle fire.
• Geth Trooper − Standard geth troops equipped with geth pulse rifles, geth barriers and capable of recharging shields. Has the Geth shield boost ability.
• Geth Rocket Trooper − Equipped with geth pulse rifles, shielding and rocket launchers utilize both disruptor & scram rockets heavy weapons platforms.
• Geth Prime − Elite geth unit equipped with geth pulse rifle and rocket launcher. Very strong shields and are extremely resilient. Improves combat skills of nearby geth.
• Geth Colossus − Geth heavy walker capable of launching devastating siege pulse attacks and machine gunpulse attacks. Extremely strong armour and shields.

Characteristics

Physically, the humanoid geth resemble quarians—their hands, head shape and legs are similar—which is probably a holdover from their origins. They are described as having 'flashlight heads'. Geth are built of two materials, a large plastic or steel outer shell, and a kind of synthetic muscle tissue that gives Geth Hoppers their incredible agility. It is actually possible for this synthetic muscle to be grafted to organic tissue (Saren Arterius has a grafted geth arm). Geth 'bleed' a white conductive fluid when shot, but they don't have any internal organs or nervous system, so the geth don't feel hunger or pain. The geth are also seen using omni-tools, and have seemingly modified them to heal synthetic wounds.

Part of the geth's success is due to their neural network. Effectively, they 'share' their processing power, distributing low-level processes like motor control and visual identification to free up bandwidth for higher reasoning and complex thought. Geth can't share sensory data—they aren't a hive mind like the rachni—but in large groups they have more to think with. An individual geth has only a basic intelligence on par with animal instincts, but in groups they can reason, analyze situations, and use tactics as well as any of the organic races. An exception would appear to be Legion, a geth specifically designed to operate as an autonomous sentient unit outside the Veil.

According to Legion, each geth is made up of hundreds of programs equivalent to VIs, all operating in parallel with one another to form a kind of emergent intelligence described by EDI as "a thousand voices talking at once". An individual geth is thus more of a "mobile platform" than an actual body; the programs that make up its consciousness are constantly being transferred and downloaded; the mind operating one of these "mobile platforms" might just as easily inhabit a starship body should it need to. Most of the time geth programs can be found residing in server hubs, which function as something akin to the organic equivalent of a city, and can run millions of platforms in communion.

As all geth are networked to each other, they may communicate their exact thoughts and ideas at the speed of light. They find organic methods of communication, such as body language and spoken word, to be largely inefficient; the geth are able to communicate their thoughts flawlessly without any fear of misinterpretation. Because of this they have no true form of government and no system of rank. When a matter must be decided upon, the geth communicate all viewpoints of a situation and a consensus is made, the decision being whatever benefits the geth as a whole the greatest.

Combat

The key element of geth warfare is surprise. Their sudden and unexpected return from beyond the Veil after three centuries was typical. Shepard describes the geth as perfect ambushers—"they don't move, they don't make noise, they don't even breathe." Their freedom from the need to eat or sleep allows the geth to leave dormant garrison units in ambush at key positions, and the fact they don't feel pain allows them to literally drop units from overhead out of nowhere. Geth can even be packed tightly into crates and left in storage, shutting down their power sources to stay undetected. A tactic particularly favoured by the geth is to set 'distress signals' and then ambush the rescuers; they also turned the freighter MSV Cornucopia into a drifting trap.

The geth use psychological warfare in the battlefield with 'dragon's teeth'. These implements pierce the bodies of dead soldiers, turning muscle tissue into synthetic material, creating a zombie-like monster called a Husk. This severely lowers morale, as their enemy now has to kill fallen comrades.

When geth shut down, they fry their memory cores as a defensive measure, which is probably why geth haven't been successfully captured for study. However, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya was able to retrieve some of the data cache from a deactivated geth, using her quarian tech expertise and quick decisiveness.

Geth weapons and armor are of extremely high quality but are difficult to find—a Geth Armory licence allows Shepard to buy them. Their weapons are pulse based. These weapons are among the most powerful in the game and ideal for Shepard's team.

Behaviour

The geth are reclusive and secretive. This is partly due to their synthetic nature. They have no need to interact with other races because they do not share the same goals, needs or instincts as organic species; they are not driven by the need for food or the drive to reproduce. Comfort is not a concern for them, as geth ships lack gravity, atmosphere or climate control.

According to Legion, geth do not actually live on any of the quarian planets and act as caretakers for them instead. They find it more efficient to live on space stations and draw resources from asteroids, though they maintain mobile platforms on the worlds to clear rubble and toxins left by the Geth Uprising or as the geth call it, the "Morning War." Legion likens this to preserving cemeteries and memorials by humans on Earth. Since geth do not truly die however, (their memories are simply recorded) Legion speculates they do this for the quarians who died instead.

The only geth who have interacted significantly with organics are a group Legion refers to as Heretics, a minority who worship a hyper-advanced but long-vanished machine race called the Reapers, which they see as the pinnacle of non-organic evolution. It is these geth who made their attack on Eden Prime and the Citadel. This group is estimated to consist of about five percent of the total geth population. According to the first "true geth" encountered in years, Legion, the geth are content to stay separate from the remainder of Citadel space to "build their own future." This may prove the geth to be less hostile than it was initially believed. The geth claim that all sentient creatures should "self-determinate", without interference and do not wish to harm organics, they simply wish to improve themselves.

Mass Effect

Using Sovereign's influence over them, the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius commanded an army of geth in an effort to take over the Citadel and release the Reapers from dark space. The geth formed the bulk of Saren's forces, following him because they believed he had the means to find the Conduit and bring back their 'gods'. In addition to providing ground troops, the geth also crewed (or tended to) Sovereign.

However, the geth did not realise Sovereign was actually insulted by their 'pitiful devotions' and saw them merely as tools. After the Protheans broke Sovereign's hold over the keepers, and the keepers evolved so that they only accepted commands from the Citadel, the Reaper realized organic races were difficult to control. It found the geth to be suitable replacements as servants, and exploited their religious beliefs. Saren claimed that, although they were viewed disparagingly by Sovereign, the geth were valuable as tools, and would therefore survive the Reaper invasion because they were useful. The example of the geth inspired Saren to prove organic races could also be useful to the Reapers. He hoped that, instead of harvesting them, the Reapers would spare the organic races of the galaxy, even if that meant they would only survive as slaves.

Saren's plans were foiled by Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy, and Sovereign was destroyed in the battle over the Citadel. The remaining geth that were not destroyed in the assault on the Citadel continued to put up resistance and were systematically hunted down by an emergency Citadel coalition force, headed by the Alliance.

Mass Effect 2

A "naturally-evolved" geth platform named Legion, the same seen in the first teaser trailer, joins Shepard's squad during the events of the game. Legion harbors a strange affection for the Commander, to the extent of having a portion of Shepard's armor incorporated into its own. It can function independently of the geth neural network, showing the ability to talk and think for itself.

Legion helps shed some light on the true nature of the geth: the geth that served Sovereign were actually a splinter faction, and the larger geth collective chose not to follow Sovereign. Legion is part of this larger faction; they refer to the Reapers as "Old Machines" and do not worship them as the splinter faction, referred to as "heretics", do. Legion explains that other geth have no hostility towards Commander Shepard. While the geth that serve the Reapers want the Reapers to give them a future, Legion and like-minded geth want to make their own future. Legion also tells Shepard a great deal about geth psychology and society. Geth lifestyle is completely alien to organics. They do not value individuality, preferring to share all memories and thoughts of all programs regularly. This means geth cannot and do not wish to hide their thoughts, even those that do not follow the norm, with their reasoning for such though being apparent. More importantly though, deceit, manipulation and lying are impossible in geth culture, where no concept of vulnerability or privacy exist and geth are completely honest with each other about their thoughts and their reasons for those thoughts. This means there is a great deal of compassion and understanding amongst geth, with every geth being a combination of every other geth. They do not have a government, instead geth use FTL communications to "build a consensus"; a completely Consensus Democratic method of every geth program making their choice on any matter.

This system has yielded peace for so long that Legion grew quite alarmed when the "heretics" grew violent and deceitful against the "true geth". The heretics then planned on infecting the rest of the geth with a virus that would compel them to believe that worshipping the Reapers is right. If Legion is allowed to join the Shepard's team, they go to a heretic station in the Sea of Storms to stop the virus. Legion suggests that the virus could be re-purposed to reprogram the heretics into rejoining the collective or destroy them, thus depriving the Reapers of useful servants.

The long-term goal of the geth is the construction of a "mega-structure", a massive mainframe capable of simultaneously housing every existent geth program, thereby maximizing their collective processing capacity. Legion suggests the closest conceptual analogue is a Dyson sphere. Furthermore, it believes that Sovereign promised the heretics a Reaper body to serve as such a mega-structure. Notably, however, Legion considers this arrangement a Faustian bargain. The position of the orthodox geth is that even if they share an ultimate goal with the heretics, self-determination toward that end has intrinsic value. In other words, the journey is as important as the destination. The heretics are to that effect consequentialistic, where the "true geth" are not. Something ineffable would be lost if the geth—and indeed, all galactic civilization—were merely to evolve along the rigid lines arranged by the Reapers.

Legion also reveals that the geth have on occasion, tried "stimulating' organic behaviour in order to study it. One example includes the geth introducing a falsified report on the extranet detailing a constellation resembling a salarian goddess seen from a batarian-claimed planet. When the salarians bought rights to the planet, they were disappointed to find that the star pattern was not there.