The Thinker (Computer)

"What's the secret of Rapture Central Computing's success? The most advanced computing device in the world - The Thinker!"

- Rapture Central Computing advertisement

The Thinker is the nickname of the Rapture Operational Data Interpreter Network (R.O.D.I.N.), the mainframe computer invented by Charles Milton Porter to process all of the automation in Rapture.

History
When Charles Milton Porter arrived in Rapture, invited by Andrew Ryan, he founded with Reed Wahl Rapture Central Computing, the source of computerization in Rapture. Trying to surpass Alan Turing who he worked with on the surface, he created The Thinker to replicate the man himself, but later tried to replicate his own dead wife Pearl, killed during London's bombardments. Using the technologies Rapture had to offer and harnessing the power of ADAM in it, he allowed the mainframe to process data at the speed of thought. With the completion of the Independent Reasoning Processor, he finally gave it an artificial intelligence. It was then assigned to the control of Rapture's security systems and various workings and functions of the city's infrastructure, as a way to think for the citizens.

As Wahl was using The Thinker's potential to predict scores of ballgames or stockprices, Porter fed The Thinker with records of his wife, trying to implement her personality in the computer and even duplicate her voice. But Wahl, influenced by splicing, saw the computer as a way to predict everything with the good equation. The two partners then entered in conflict for The Thinker's use. Finally, using the tensions during the Rapture Civil War, Wahl had Porter incarcerated in Persephone with false proof of his allegiance to Frank Fontaine. Wahl was then put in control of Rapture Central Computing by Ryan and cut the district off from the rest of the city to remain the only user of The Thinker.

In the Minerva's Den DLC, Charles Milton Porter allies himself with Brigid Tenenbaum and Subject Sigma to get The Thinker out of Rapture in order to find a cure for splicing. However, to do so Sigma must defeat Reed Wahl and wrest control of The Thinker from him before printing its codes, allowing them to rebuild it on the surface. As Sigma progresses through Minerva's Den, Wahl uses The Thinker against him, freezing the entrance to the computer's core, and claiming that he can predict Sigma's every move. As the latter finally reaches The Thinker's core, Wahl realizes that it has been working against him, and shuts it down before attacking Sigma. After Wahl dies, Tenenbaum instructs Sigma to grab the Administrator Punchcard from Wahl's body and re-activate The Thinker, thus preventing Rapture's automated systems from collapsing. The Thinker then reveals that Subject Sigma is, in fact, Charles Milton Porter himself, and that the Porter that he had been hearing was actually the Thinker using its unique personality duplication system to replicate Porter's own self. Not only did it conceal the Thinker's true identity and motivations to Reed Wahl, it also provided Sigma with a familiar face and voice to facilitate communication. After reactivating the Thinker, Sigma then prints out its codes and heads to the surface with Tenenbaum where they rebuild it.

Trivia

 * The acronym of the Thinker's formal name, Rapture Operational Data Interpreter Network, is RODIN, the name of the artist who sculpted The Thinker. A copy of this statue can be seen in the main lobby of Minerva's Den.
 * Public Announcements claim the Thinker controls a majority of Rapture's advancements. This includes self-opening doors, the Pnuemo system, 'dispatching trains' (Atlantic Express Automated train system), connecting phone calls, controlling oxygen supplies, which foods appear in vending machines, and simply technology throughout Rapture functioning correctly.