Finished the MSQ - Feels bad, pushed to do evil [Spoilers inside]

[Galvuu]

You didn't understand a single thing then. Endless didn't exist because others remembered them, but because of their own memories. Sphene couldn't let go of the actual people and used their memories to create them as AI.

And that was the whole point of letting go and YOU remembering others. As long as YOU remember them, they are not truly dead.

What constitutes something as being "alive" in XIV lore right now? Are the beings in the Ultima Thule alive? Are Omega and Alpha alive? Are primals alive? Memory seems to have been established, in the msq, as a real, physical entity, that we can see (visually, the orange orbs) and interact with (can be manipulated and stored in some capacity, not sure if physically or like energy, but matter and energy usually end up being the same if the world has any semblance of physics). The beings in the Ultima Thule are the result of Meteion's memories and Dynamis powering them up. Are those alive? Omega wasn't designed, as far as we know, with a soul. But, at some point in time, it started to think, and feel, and question its existence and its place in the cosmos. Is Omega alive? If you were to split a being's self by separating "memory" and "soul" and destroyed the memory part- is it alive? You're claiming the reverse is a categorical "no".

I'm not even saying the Endless were truly alive- I really do not know. The game sometimes says and acts like they're not, and sometimes it acts like they are. My sentiments are that it's a "maybe"- not that it mattered, I had to destroy them to save the Source. But I fail to see where the convincing evidence that they were not alive in any capacity is beyond "oh, we were told they were just AI, and AI can't be alive". A person isn't the prison of flesh, it's the electromagnetic pattern that forms their mind, in my view. And that electromagnetic pattern could, hypothetically, be stored in a machine.

wtf are you going on about. you need to calm down you are putting way to much into this game. the implications that i think a genocidal AI who lives off the death of others is the same as a normal electrical AI who would live off of natural resources without the death of an entire world is insane.

You're conflating two things.
One is: "the endless' existence is incompatible with life on the Source and, therefore, they had to be destroyed to preserve the Source". Yes, correct. There's no argument there.
Then there's "the endless were not alive, so destroying them has no moral consequence". This is not evident. Maybe they weren't alive, and were just simulations. Maybe they were alive though. And the game doesn't seem to be showing me that they were lifeless, robotic AI, especially given how they diverge from their original settings on a whim. In fact, the story is better if there is a moral consequence to our choice. Was the WoL justified? Yes, it was for the survival of the Source. But doesn't make it less tragic. Unless, well, you posit that they weren't alive because "AI", which is where this started, isn't it? It doesn't even matter that they're AI, anyway. If a living army of aliens showed up and needed to exterminate life on the Source to sustain their existence, the WoL would still be justified in killing them as an act of self-preservation. That isn't even the point of the discussion.

[AlexisLestrange]

...
Maybe they were alive though. And the game doesn't seem to be showing me that they were lifeless, robotic AI, especially given how they diverge from their original settings on a whim. In fact, the story is better if there is a moral consequence to our choice. Was the WoL justified? Yes, it was for the survival of the Source. But doesn't make it less tragic.

I mean, if there's anything to be learned from the Turing test and today's examples of AI - i.e. GPT-4o - it is that Artificial Intelligence is becoming uncannily close to presenting like that of a living human being. I agree to an extent that these AI with the make-up of memories from the formerly living are innocent in all of this, though it is quite the mockery that Sphene is sustaining this way of living in her own fairytale utopia she has enforced upon them since she was coded to do so. So yes, like others have said... it is a mercy that we go straight to shutting it down. There are so many red flags such as the introduction ceremony, a kid having seen the same show 30+ times, the food is tasteless, some of the Endless even trying to enjoy themselves because it makes the Queen happy. Living or not, in whatever way you want to see it, I think the WoL, Krile, G'raha Tia, and Erenville are all justified in shutting this down. Though yes I agree, it doesn't make the whole situation any less bittersweet. That's how SQE wanted us to see it. And to reiterate the point of this post, I don't think this makes our Warrior of Light evil. The longer the world existed, the more lives of Alexandrians and even those of the source would be taken.

As for the moral consequence to our choice, the whole beauty and liveliness of the area ceases to be, but all that remains is those of the Endless that still have one thing chaining them to existence, something that needs resolving. Personally, I think it would be a cool idea if we get an Alliance quest that revitalises the area to some extent, or perhaps just a small portion of it. However, the area of Living Memory changes forever more as a consequence of us shutting down the Meso towers.