The end of the world as we know it

Many games let you make choices: good and bad, right and wrong, often measured on a numerical scale. Few let you see the effect of those choices like Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Premised on a future in which nanotechnology has become widespread after a major worldwide economic and communications collapse, the game follows a nano-enhanced supersoldier as he unravels layered conspiracies to discover secrets that could dramatically affect the post-recovery structure of society.

*Spoilers throughout*

Midway through the game, the player discovers the following: the two major factions for which the player has been working are actually branches of the same organization, headed by the Illuminati. Two other factions have arisen, one on either extreme of the nanotechnology issue: the Templars are bio-purists, fighting to eradicate the nano-enhanced, and the Omar are a machine collective infused with nanotech (much like the Borg). On top of it all, an AI system called Helios now inhabits the world's communication network.

Each of these factions espouses a rather well-defined political philosophy, and they take the opportunity to explain it to the player-character via dialogue at key plot points. More importantly, the player gets to take that philosophical advice and act on it; at the end of the game, the player has to decide which faction (if any) gets control over the world's communications systems and, by extension, the structure of the world economic and political systems. Let's look at the options:

1. Illuminati: Control. The world is united politically, the economy is rebuilt, and transparency and information are more pervasive than ever. Somebody--something?--named Ophelia is running the show from behind the scenes. Shades of Big Brother... Big Sister?
   
2. Templars: Purity. Having purged the world of nano-augmented humans, the Templar leadership turns its attention inward, towards ensuring doctrinal conformity. It's a new theology of humanity; a humanism more concerned with preserving humanity as it than exploring the possibilities for its future.
   
3. Omar: Survival. Through extensive experiments, the Omar develop methods of synthesizing the best of biological humanity and technological enhancements into an entirely new form of life. After centuries of war and environmental destruction, the Omar are the last beings standing--a triumph of evolution. They carry this success to the stars.
   
4. Anarchy: Freedom. Nobody wins. But then, nobody loses. Every person regains the power to forge her own destiny. It may not be the most elegant solution, but it's the one that's known to work. Will it be a Lockean heaven or a Hobbesian hell?
   
5. Helios: Ascendance. Humans stay humans... but are simultaneously something more. They are all interlinked, connected through the Helios AI, which integrates and analyzes all the emotions, desires, and needs of humanity to produce a communal paradise. No longer does government rule by laws and generalities; it knows its citizens better than they know themselves.

See the Wikiquotes page for the relevant end-of-game text, including a philosopher's quote related to the principles espoused by each winning party.

I'm most interested in this passage, from a conversation between the main character (Alex Denton) and the human face of the Helios AI, JC Denton (a symbolic name, and the main character from the previous Deus Ex):

JC Denton: The separation of powers -- from Aristotle to Montesquieu -- is designed purely to thwart the ambitions of individuals. How comical, the West's pride in its vast tangle of agencies, jurisdictions, arcane procedures...

Alex D: What's the alternative?

JC Denton: Address the flaws in human nature. Make all beings truly equal in both body and mind. If you start with minds that are lucid, knowledgeable, and emotionally sound, the needs of government change dramatically.

Alex D: How do you control human emotions? Antidepressants? Is that freedom?

JC Denton: Is it freedom when one child is born to poverty, a chance combination of organic materials, while the wealthy child is shaped every day of his life, enhanced genetically, trained, educated, often augmented nanotechnologically?

Finally, Helios/JC is saying, humanity has the power to overcome the precise problems on which previous philosophies were premised. John Rawls would be ecstatic: the only remaining barrier to true equality of opportunity is institutional, and Helios can demolish even that.

This consideration, while key to the game world, resonates with our own. How can we call humans free when chance plays such a determinative role in our lives, when so much of our effort goes into protecting us from ourselves?

After all, this is the primary innovation of humanity, that we no longer have to play with the cards nature dealt. The history of the species is full of invention, of growth, of mastery over those forces that would seek to destroy it. And at every turn, humanity has won. Its only remaining opponent... is itself.

Perhaps we need to invent ourselves a Helios.