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 Rapture Central Computing, the source of computerization in Rapture, with Reed Wahl. Computers were built to facilitate research, business and to control various workings and functions of the city's infrastructure, effectively thinking for the citizens. Trying to surpass Alan Turing, whom he had worked with on the surface, Porter worked to create The Thinker to achieve artificial Intelligence. Using the technologies Rapture had to offer, and harnessing the power of ADAM, he created a computer which could process data at "the speed of thought". With the completion of the Independent Reasoning Processor, he finally created an artificial intelligence.

While Wahl used The Thinker to predict scores of ballgames and stock prices, Porter tried to replicate the mind of his dead wife Pearl, who had been killed during London's WW2 bombings. Porter fed The Thinker with records of his wife, trying to recreate her personality in the computer and duplicate her voice. Wahl, influenced by splicing, imagined the computer as a way to predict everything with an algorithm -- a "crystalline equation which determines ALL". The two partners began a conflict for The Thinker's purpose. Using the growing tensions of Rapture, Wahl created false evidence of Porter's allegiance to Frank Fontaine, resulting in Porter being incarcerated in Persephone. Wahl was then put in control of Rapture Central Computing by Ryan. He later cut the Minerva's Den district off from the rest of the city, so as to remain the sole user of The Thinker. During the Civil War, the computer was assigned to the control of Rapture's security systems.



In the Minerva's Den DLC, Charles Milton Porter allies himself with Brigid Tenenbaum and Subject Sigma to get The Thinker out of Rapture to find a cure for splicing. To do so, Sigma must defeat Reed Wahl to wrest control of The Thinker from him to take its codes and allow them to rebuild the computer on the Surface. As Sigma progresses through Minerva's Den, Wahl uses The Thinker against him, freezing the entrance to the computer's core. Wahl claims that he can predict Sigma's every move. When Sigma finally reaches The Core, Wahl realizes The Thinker has been working against him, and shuts it down before attacking Sigma. After Wahl is killed, Tenenbaum tells Sigma to take the Administrator Punchcard from Wahl's body and re-activate The Thinker, preventing Rapture's automated systems from collapsing. The Thinker then reveals that Subject Sigma is, in fact, Charles Milton Porter himself. The Porter which Sigma had been hearing was The Thinker using its personality duplication system to replicate Porter's persona. The Thinker had concealed its true identity and motivations from Reed Wahl, and provided Sigma with a familiar face and voice to facilitate communication. After reactivating the Thinker, Sigma, now Porter, prints out its codes and heads to the Surface with Tenenbaum. Porter is shown restored and visiting his dead wife's grave.

Behind the Scenes

 * The acronym of the Thinker's formal name, Rapture Operational Data Interpreter Network, is RODIN, a reference to Auguste Rodin, the artist that created the sculpture The Thinker. A copy of this statue can be seen in the main lobby of Minerva's Den.
 * The Thinker is also the name of the computer that runs most of the city in the Logan's Run novel.
 * 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 keeping technology throughout Rapture functioning correctly.
 * Like The Thinker, The Fontaine Futuristics headquarters building uses messages generated with an artificial voice, though sounding more feminine and created from individually recorded words and phrases. The system is notably used to scan the company's employees and grant them access to the building's various sections, according to their security clearance in the database. According to The Thinker's announcement, Fontaine Futuristics system updates information for The Thinker.