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My view is that the Reapers are not actually synthetic at all. They are as to Biological life as the Geth are to VIs. IE The Geth could be characterised as a mass of VIs coalesced together to form an artificial intelligence. The reapers are a mass of biological intelligences coalesced to form another intelligence.
A few flaws with this theory though:
1. When people are being turned into a Reaper, they're turned into a liquid. Wouldn't the reapers need to extract and preserve the Brain?
2. Reaper intelligence does not (seem to) behave as a consensus the way the Geth do. Another sentience seems to exist that overrides it.
Overall, I would not describe the Reapers as a machine first and foremost, but a hybrid. Likewise, it's notably that all Reaper troops consist of Organics consumed with cybernetic implants.
I think the closest analogue I can think of to the Geth are the homunculi of Fullmetal Alchemist. Each Homunculi contains the souls and consciousnesses of thousands of human beings, but the homunculi itself has an independed personality that overwhelms them. The homunculi can draw on the experiences of the people within it, without being ruled by them.
Anyway, I wouldn't think of Reapers in "synthetic" terms, they don't have "programming".
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