Bioshock
2
System:
Xbox 360
Developer:
2K Games
NA
Release: February 2010
Part
of what makes BioShock such an engaging series is the way it
incorporates real-world concepts and philosophies into its ruined
utopian fishbowl. The world is a steampunk-like fantasy, but the very
human ideas behind its creation and operation resonate with this
vague sense of reality—giving Rapture a “what if” kind of
feeling that not many other games come close to or even intend to.
So
through what better means can one tie in the theories of
mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing?
 |
| Alan Turing |
Turing's
work with technology and his powerful role in history almost feel
tailor-made for the world of BioShock. During World War II, Turing
and his team worked for Britain under top secret conditions, creating
methods and machines to crack the Germans' complex Enigma cipher and
turning the tides of war intelligence toward the Allies' favor. For
Rapture, which canon says was established in the '40s, Turing's
accomplishments would fit in well among the man-made marvels upon
which the underwater city's purposes and ideals were inspired.
“Minerva's
Den,” a DLC add-on story to BioShock 2,
ferries in what may be Turing's most well-known contribution to
computer science. The story centers around Charles Milton Porter, a
fictional character who worked with Turing in besting the Enigma.
Unfortunately, he returns to London after his work to find his wife,
Pearl, died in the bombings. A broken man, he ends up in Rapture and
creates “The Thinker,” a supercomputer that serves multiple
purposes, the most important being the regulation of life functions
in the city.
Porter
sees another purpose with the computing power he has under his
control and thinks to the ideas of his former partner in
Britain—specifically, the Turing Test. Turing was fascinated with
the concept that a computer could be programmed to “think” like a
human. He considered a test in which both a real human and a computer
would respond to questions. If another human could not identify which
responses came from the computer, it would be considered able to
“think” equally to a living being.
 |
| C. M. Porter |
You
might be able to see where this is going. Porter believes he can beat
the Turing test, and with this ability play a sort of futuristic
Pygmalion, recreating the essence of his late wife. The events
surrounding this and what direction the writers take it are something
I will leave to be discovered, but I will say it is quite amazing.
The character of Porter and the voice acting that brings him to life
are superb.
People
are still working with artificial intelligence, trying to create a
true “thinking” machine, and many are disappointed with the
progress so far. But what we will want to do with such programmed
personalities and how our human natures will react with them are
things that may need more consideration. The ways the world of
BioShock brings cold,
calculated logic and the human element into constant collision with
each other lends itself surprisingly well toward such philosophical
thought.
One
other way in which Turing and Rapture have some odd similarity: in
1952, it was found that Turing was homosexual, a crime in Britain at
that time. He chose “treatment” over incarceration, and was
subjected to large injections of synthetic estrogen to kill his
libido, chemically castrating him. People who had different
ideologies were criminalized and “processed” in Rapture, too.
Of
course, at the end of the day, Rapture is the rendering of programmed
computers. What happened to Turing was the actions of man.
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