Watching Star Trek the other day and suddenly I was thinking about The Institute! (Spoilers)
"What Are Little Girls Made of" - Series 1, Episode 7
Dr. Roger Korby has the technology to make programmable androids that are indistinguishable from humans (at least, on the outside).
[Gen 3 synths]
He copies Captain Kirk and sends it to the Enterprise.
[Art, Roger Warwick, etc.]
He argues that these android bodies are superior to human ones...
[Gen 3 synths, again]
...yet the androids develop their own free will
[escaped synths]
and ultimately, Dr. Korby reveals his intentions to upgrade humanity... in fact, he has done so himself and is revealed to be and android!
[Father creates synth Shaun].
I've always thought that the Institute's endgame was to create 'Gen 4' synth bodies that allowed them to potentially live on the surface again, resistant to radiation and disease, need no sleep and little, if any food so that the scientists could instal themselves into this manufactured immortality and do Science! without the inconvenience of interruption by sleeping and eating - oh and keep lesser generation slave labour, too.
This is what I've always felt that Father really meant by 'Mankind, Redefined' and I wonder how much this particular Star Trek episode inspired the Fallout writers?