The changes done to River's mind (stripping the amygdala, among other things) were part of this experimentation process. A telepath would excel at any of those - they could detect anyone in your organization who was planted as a spy (or who had developed disloyalty), could easily infiltrate any organization (it's easy to get hired if you know exactly what the interviewer wants to hear), and assassination would be simple for someone who knows exactly how to get through your security and how to become your best friend. These people could be used in any number of ways, ranging from internal security to infiltration and even assassination. Their apparent purpose was to create a number of telepathic spies and/or secret agents. They were experimented on to enhance and develop those abilities. I thought it was rather clear what they were trying to do - River was one of several children who were identified as having potential psychic abilities. Other than both experiments being roughly "brain-based" (and both ultimately being a devastating disaster for the Alliance :)) there doesn't appear to be much of a direct link between the two. The former was an attempt at mass behavior modification to reduce aggression in an entire population, while the latter was a targeted attempt to activate specific neurological capabilities in a specific set of people. The Reavers were the result of a chemical weapon gone awry, while River was the result of brain surgery. The description of what was done to create the Reavers and what was done to create assassins like River are also not very similar. This is something that governments throughout Earth history have toyed with, with varying degrees of seriousness, under the premise of "no matter how crazy it sounds, it's even crazier to let someone else figure it out first." It is fully in line with the Alliance's behavior to fund such a program as soon as they thought it feasible (it's almost a natural extension of the Operative program.) We can surmise that the Alliance had made some kind of medical or scientific discoveries that led them to believe they could create programmed, psychically-active assassins. In that scene, the program is described as just another Alliance weapons program. The best description we get of the program that River was part of, is the opening scene of Serenity. This was obviously unintentional, given that the person responsible was punished rather severely. The knowledge embedded itself in her subconscious and is part of what kept her "crazy". ![]() ![]() The only concrete link between the two of them was the fact that one high-ranking government official, who happened to know the truth about the Reavers, was put into the same room with River while they were busy activating her telepathy. While it's likely that all Alliance scientific research is connected in the sense that it all falls under the government umbrella, there is no evidence that the Reaver problem led directly or indirectly to the psy-ops program. As far as what is stated on-screen by Alliance personnel, there's no direct link between the Reavers and the psy-ops program that River was part of.
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