| “ | Scanning. Designation: Sigma. Please... come in. | „ |
| ~ One of The Thinker's critical functions. |
Rapture Operational Data Interpreter Network (R.O.D.I.N.), or more commonly known as The Thinker, is one of two secondary protagonists (alongside Brigid Tenenbaum) in the BioShock 2 DLC, Minerva's Den. It is revealed in the DLC that The Thinker is responsible for most of Rapture's automated functions.
Though the AI exists within the story of the original BioShock and BioShock 2, it only appears in the DLC for the second game.
By default, it is voiced by Michael Csurics. Although, when mimicking Charles Milton Porter, the voice actor is Carl Lumbly, the same one for the character being mimicked.
History[]
The exact date of when The Thinker's design began is unknown, but some time before 1960, Charles Milton Porter arrived to Rapture and founded Rapture Central Computing, which ended up running most of the computerization in the entire city. During this time, Reed Wahl had teamed up with Porter. These two were the best qualified in managing Rapture Central Computing, due in part to them being the creators of it.
Porter had worked with Alan Turing when before arriving in Rapture, and wanted to surpass Turing's brilliance by attempting to create artificial intelligence. With this in mind, Porter and Wahl created The Thinker, the most advanced AI in not only Rapture, but the world. The use of the common "wonder drug" ADAM is also part of The Thinker's conceptualization. The name "The Thinker" comes from a real-life statue that can be seen in the underwater city, which is of a man sitting and thinking, with one fist under his chin.
The Thinker's algorithms and intelligence was so great, that it could predict the outcome of just about anything. Reed Wahl used this to predict the outcome of sporting events, which the outcome was always correct. Porter began trying to use The Thinker to replicate of his deceased wife, Pearl, who died during a bombing in World War II. Porter was feeding The Thinker more and more information of Pearl, to which The Thinker itself was seemingly okay with.
Because the two partners had conflicting interests in using The Thinker, Wahl falsified an audio recording by recreating Porter's voice and exposing it to Andrew Ryan. The false recording purported that Porter was pledging an alliance to Frank Fontaine, Andrew Ryan's arch nemesis. Disgusted by this, Andrew Ryan had his men incarcerate Porter, holding him in Persephone, a notorious prison in Rapture. Overjoyed, Reed Wahl selfishly had The Thinker all to himself. The splicing and ADAM abuse only drove Wahl even more mad with power.
Soon after, Porter was turned into an Alpha Series, which is the prototype design for the Big Daddies in Rapture. His old identity wiped, Porter is now known as Subject Sigma. Sometime in 1968, Sigma attempts to reach The Thinker's core, but a security bot detonates a tunnel that Sigma was walking through. This leaves Sigma injured on an ocean floor, starting the events of the DLC.
BioShock 2[]
Though The Thinker is never mentioned nor seen in the base game, the AI was active. There are unused pieces of dialogue where The Thinker would reference events that Subject Delta went through. This includes the transportation lockdown in Pauper's Drop, the complete flooding of Siren Alley and the scanning of Delta during his time in Fontaine Futuristics.
Minerva's Den[]
During Subject Sigma's journey through Rapture with his intent being to take The Thinker's control away from Reed Wahl, Wahl constantly uses The Thinker in many different ways to impede Sigma's progress. This includes freezing the entrance to the computer's core, tampering with Rapture's security systems, and even guiding the main enemies of the game in Sigma's direction.
Because of The Thinker's correct predictions, Wahl can see Sigma's every move even before it happens. It is revealed toward the end of the DLC that The Thinker was actually working against Wahl the whole time and secretly helping Sigma, and was simply allowing Wahl to use it to let his guard down. Enraged by this, Wahl shuts The Thinker down, then Sigma and Wahl engage in a lengthy battle, with Sigma emerging victorious.
Once Sigma reactivates The Thinker, the AI reveals that Subject Sigma himself was in fact Charles Milton Porter, and was using Porter's voice to guide Sigma so that the latter would follow a familiar voice. Brigid Tenenbaum also reveals that The Thinker chose Porter over Wahl, as the AI knew the true character of both men.
Sigma then prints out The Thinker's codes (as Porter wants to continue working on the AI on the surface), enters a bathysphere with Tenenbaum, and heads to the surface. An audio diary reveals that The Thinker mimicked Pearl's voice, but Porter backed out of the idea of having the AI replicate Pearl, as it made him extremely uncomfortable.
Personality[]
Being the most advanced AI in existence, coupled with the fact it has gained benevolent sentience, it always picks the right outcomes of scenarios without fail. Given that it chose to falsely help Reed Wahl when truly helping Porter shows the AI's clever and crafty nature. The Thinker even predicted being found out, deactivated, Porter defeating Wahl and then being reactivated, proving the AI's perfect clairvoyance.
Trivia[]
- The concept of The Thinker is heavily based on SHODAN, the main antagonist of the System Shock series. Both AI's use false identities and voices to guide the player, with the difference being that The Thinker had nothing but good intentions, while SHODAN was simply tricking the player for its own ends.
- The acronym R.O.D.I.N. is a reference to Auguste Rodin, the artist of the statue the AI's name is based off of.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- The Thinker at the BioShock Wiki