If they ' re just objects , how can they make a choice to become a person ? I mean , my toaster doesn ' t make a conscience choice about whether toasting bread is amoral , to change their appearance and memories to escape the slavery of heating my foodstuffs . It just toasts my bread . Eyes toaster warilyAt least I don ' t think it does . Doesn ' t it take a certain degree of individuality to make the choice to escape the Institute ? I mean , sure you could hand wave that as simply malfunctioning , but that seems like a really specific error for a supposedly simple machine to continue to make . Also , when Harkness in FO 3 gets his memories back , he still chooses to be free of the Institute . Now this is purely my own opinion here , but I think the ability to make these choices means that synths have developed free will and that free will constitutes them as individuals . Which leads back to my original question Am I the same individual , if I no longer have my memories or appearance ? The individual that made the conscience choice to be become a person is seemingly no more . That seems kinda tragic to me .