Charles Milton Porter

"I dreamt a computer that could think for itself. And using Rapture's technology, I made that dream reality, a machine that could think, reason for itself."

- Charles Milton Porter

Charles Milton Porter is the creator of The Thinker, Rapture Mainframe's Artificial Intelligence (AI).

History
Before leaving the surface for Rapture after his wife's death, Porter worked with Alan Turing during the dawn of the computer age. Using all of the advanced technology Rapture had to offer, Porter created Rapture's Central Computing Mainframe, affectionately named "The Thinker." It was a computer able to think and reason for itself and capable of controlling the city's automated security systems, the circuitry of which was also designed by Porter.

Deeply grieved over his wife's death, Porter viewed his creation as his only close companion. Using the knowledge he gained while working alongside Turing, he sought to "humanize" the Thinker, allowing it to think for itself and behave like a living person. During that time, he also fed the Thinker data on Pearl, his wife, seeking to give the AI her personality.

However, during the Rapture Civil War, Porter came in conflict with his colleague, Reed Wahl, who accused him of misusing the technology, attempting to turn the Thinker into a person rather than harnessing its full predictive potential. Wahl believed that the Thinker could foretell the future through predictive equations and algorithms under which all humans are subject to evaluation, but Porter brushed these theories off, stating that splicing had driven Wahl, like many others in Rapture, mad. Porter's ex-friend then seized Minerva's Den, which houses the Thinker, claiming it as his own, framed Porter for high treason, and then cut the district off from the rest of the city.

Minerva's Den
With the aid of former genetic scientist Brigid Tenenbaum, Porter revives Subject Sigma to help him retrieve the Thinker's program from Wahl, who is now running the Den as a dictator. In a plot twist, it is revealed Subject Sigma is Porter, who was taken to Persephone for high treason and turned in to an Alpha Series Big Daddy. The Thinker had been impersonating Porter from the start of Minerva's Den. It is assumed that Porter is cured of any big daddy splicing as a result of Brigid Tenenbaum's experimental ADAM-deformity cure. After the events of the game, Porter is reverted back to human form and lives on the surface, working with Tenenbaum.