Tenenbaum

* See also The Cure
* See also ADAM
* See also Sea Slugs
* See also Little_Sisters
Rapture's discoverer of ADAM and a genius genetic technologicst.
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== " Ve haf vays uff makingk du Kyurrd !! "  - Tenenbaum ==
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 'When me and the kraut put you in that sub you were no older than two' - Radio Message Fontaine at end of Proving Grounds :
Tenenbaum was involved with Fontaine's scheme using Jack against Ryan.
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==Tenenbaum Timeline==
TenenbaumsHabit.jpg
* Survives Concentration Camps by Collaborating with the Germans in their "Human Experimentation" and genetic research. 
* 1945 - Liberated by Allies.
* Leaves Europe which is a very bad climate for Collaborators - Vetted to get invite to Rapture ( How became a candidate and with what qualifications ?)
* 1947(?) - Arrives in Rapture  ( fairly early when much of City didn't exist yet )
* Works for Ryan Labs, various other drug research, Medical research, Genetic alterations of Plants tailored to Rapture environment ( later with Langford ).
* 1949 ... 1951 - ADAM discovery from Sea Slug. Works on ADAM Applications for medical therapies using Stem Cell methodology.
* 1952 - Works for Fontaine developing Human tissue modification technology, For Ryan doing genetic alterations for Maintenance Cyborgs of mentally damages citizensMental Damage is not something like tissue regeneration to just 'cure' with ADAM. Developed The Slug Host method for a magnitude increase in ADAM production for Fontaine.
* Counted as amongst Best and Brightest in Rapture (1952)
* Starts investigating Human Enhancement via ADAM genetics ( something the Nazi Scientists also had been working on ).
* 1956 - Assists in Fontaine's Jack Project
* 1959 - Little Sisters "Harvester" Research - Involved in their development (working for Ryan) after the Kashmir Massacre when the City requires a sustainable ADAM supply. ) 
* Assisted with components of Big Daddy 'Protector' project ( collaborating with Gilbert Alexander, Sinclair, Suchong ) 
* 1960 - Makes decision to 'Save' Little Sisters ( hates herself for the evil she has done ). Quits working for Ryan and Goes into Hiding.
* Interacts with Jack (Events of BS1)
* Assists Jack with getting rid of Fontaine's conditioning
* Leaves Rapture with rescued Little Sisters
* Period on The Surface, likely working on ways to cure ADAM disease. ( Lack of resources hinders the effort. )
* 1967 - ( or earlier when Lamb started kidnapping children ) - Tenenbaum returns to Rapture to stop the kidnappings, or to rescue the 'kidnappees', and possibly to gather more information for an ADAM cure.
* Uses several Alphas to interfere with Sofia Lamb's use of Little Sisters, and to gather resources for her "Cure" project.
* Assists Eleanor with information/process to revive/reconstitute Delta
* 1968 - Holed up in Atlantic Express Depot after saving a number of Little Sisters (somehow). 
* Contacts Delta ( Events of BS2 ) to obtain assistance in saving Little Sisters
* Events of Minervas Den. Tenenbaum helps revive Sigma/Porter intending to get access to Computers to assist in her search for the ADAM Cure.
* Tenebaum Departs Rapture with saved Little Sisters and Cure data and a program from The Thinker for calculations -- The Cure is still without solution.
* Back On Surface, Porter is reconstituted from Sigma.
* Problems with suspicious authorities and war crimes detectives. Can't get super computer access, and the same happens to Porter.
* 1969 - Returns to Rapture - initially to Minervas Den - works on cure - finds partially workable solution
* Meets Johnny the Delta clone(?) ( via The Thinker referencing Big Daddy Central alert of a rogue BD ) and starts an alliance.
* Founding of New Rapture
* Improved Cure of Splicers created, assisted by 'Johnny' and the Ryan Faction at Hephaestus ( and the mysterious "Zeus" )
* Tenenbaum operating 'The Clinic' doing the long task of curing Splicers who become citizens of New Rapture
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BioSHock Two : 1968
Tenenbaum here looks old ( now with an actual game model for her ). If she was in a concentration camp at 16 as per that Audio Diary - say in 1940 - THEN by BS1 (1960) she was age 36 and by BS2 (1968) was age 44. 
Possible she was in the concentration camp ( medical experiment section of Auchwitz ) at some later date ( to more plausibly survive in such an unfriendly environment ... ) then you might subtract a few years from those ages.
Of course the nastiness in Rapture might prematurely age anyone.
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Tenenbaum in her Hideout
Consider Tenenbaum Was A Monster :
She discovered ADAM and imagined to do what the Nazis she once worked for never achieved. Working for Fontaine, Tenenbaum discovered the only hosts capable of producing practical amounts of ADAM for Saleable Products were young girls (originating the Little Sisters" label). How many failures and deaths did that development take ? There must've been (many?) other subjects of similar human testing/experimentation (the Novel illustrates some), who were maimed/died. SO Tenenbaum helped kill innocent people in 'the name of science' (or rather for Fontaine's profits), and created Little Sisters from orphans (family members were convinced to turn them over to Fontaine's charity). The children were "mentally conditioning" and physically turned into mutants (slug implanted symbionts). Later, it is not clear what further attrocities Tenenbaum committed to help create and perfect the 'Gatherers' - converting the child-mutants who existed when Fontaine 'died' allowing Ryan to alleviate the ADAM shortage threatening the city. 
Only later does Tenenbaum have 'regret' enough to seek a 'Cure' to the mess she had a large hand in creating.
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 Tenenbaum's Return (the MMORPG Plot): 
After the events in Minerva's Den took place, Tenenbaum got to the Surface intent on working out a cure for ADAM addiction (including the resulting physical deformities, insanity and other side effects). She had few resources and spent alot of time evading various government agents (as was Porter).
Tenenbaum arranged to get some money by selling an antibiotic developed in Rapture to a pharmaceutical company which unfortunately was insufficient to finish the research (to build an 'Independent Reasoning Processor' and program another 'The Thinker' to do the genetics calculations). The effort eventually fails and the only solution IS a return to Rapture.
Tenenbaum used the same Small Submarine she had left in (hidden in Iceland) to get back to Rapture Central Computing. 
Tenenbaum brought her advanced research for a genetic correction process, with programming instructions from Porter on how to run the calculations through 'The Thinker'.
In Rapture at the Minerva's Den complex, Tenenbaum set 'The Thinker' to running the calculations and worked refining the results and running further calculations. The solution pointed to one of the chemicals left over from some of the Sea Slugs extract which Tenenbaum had previously worked on (it was something that had to be removed to purify ADAM. - This made sense, as a mechanism that naturally kept the Sea slugs themselves from becoming puddles of tumors).
Once the Cure (anti-ADAM) research was progressing, it had to be tested, which is where an Alpha series Big Daddy named 'Johnny' came in.
Back at BS2 times when parts of the Adonis Resort area was flooded by a Big Sister trying to get Delta. The Vita-Chamber there that Eleanor had hacked/programmed/modified overloaded/shorted out and eventually caused a CLONE of Delta to appear (quite a magic trick reconstituting the Big Daddy diving suit also ... But maybe Eleanor forgot to tell the Little Sisters to stop putting BD suits into that machine as they had so many times, failure after failure). Delta was dead again by this time (ending of BS2) so that 'quantum entanglement' issues might be simplified.
This Big Daddy Alpha 'Johnny' had a desire to find Lamb and kill her. There were various difficulties trying to traverse flooded areas and non-operational Atlantic Express trains and hordes of ill-mannered Splicers to deal with. "Johnny" wandered around Rapture quite a bit trying to figure out what had happened and seeking Sofia Lamb (until he learned Lamb was finally gone). Waking with Eleanor gone reset his pair-bond conditioning (not all the conditioning resulted in 'self-termination' anyway).
Later, Tenenbaum was alerted by The Thinker that the Minerva City-Maintenance system reported a Rogue Big Daddy moving about Rapture, not responding to repair directives and apparently talking to itself. She then contacted "Johnny", and recognized the same configuration as Delta and its independent personality (which Tenenbaum had previously assisted Eleanor with manipulating for Delta).
With "Johnny's" help, Tenenbaum was able to get some much needed Sea Slugs out of the Abyss to extract various chemicals from them (she had to destroy all the ADAM she had brought to the Surface). Later 'Johnny' was able to capture and restrain Splicers to be tested with the 'Cure' process. Several more Little Sisters were recovered during the same time. Some surviving non-Splicers were also found/rescued.
Eventually, after several Splicers were successfully 'cured', a plan to rebuild Rapture was made. Tenenbaum's cure would be used to bring ALL the City's Splicers back from insanity and repair them physically. The rest of Rapture's Little Sisters would also be saved.
The Minerva complex had been part of a system that coordinated the Big Daddies which had continued to do much of the City structural maintenance. The growing number of ex-Splicers (citizens) were able to direct Big Daddies (via the Minerva City-Maintenance system) to find a relatively intact/safe part of the City and start clearing it of Splicers and secure/stabilize the environment for a proper base of operations.
Tenenbaum set up the 'Clinic' in this 'New Rapture', and continues to refine the process. Meanwhile the rehabilitated ex-Splicers organized a growing community and reestablished a semblance of civilization.
A dependence on 'boosters' of anti-ADAM compounds prevents the cured Citizens from returning to 'the Surface', as many would otherwise want. In time, that problem might be solved as well.
'Johnny' around that time disappeared. Rumors said that he was heading for The Surface to find Sofia Lamb.
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Tenenbaum - "Zis Quantumz Shtuff, like Suchong sez, dis iz all Boollshitz"
Tenenbaum on seeing how the Vita Chamber works - "What song and danz it iz to zell a resuzcitation machinen ... "Dat Sinclair, he zell youz de doodoo, and callz it goldz." 
( I sense an opportunity for a Sea Slugz 'which talk like Tenenbaum' picture Meme captioning contest here )
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Tenenbaum's "Reversing ADAM Sickness"  :
Tenenbaum's method (by BS1 time) - How certain even with the "Rescue" Plasmid that The 'saved' Little  Sisters are ever going to be anything close to normal?? 
How exactly did Tenenbaum 'test' her new Rescue_Little_Sister Plasmid ?   Wouldn't that require trying it on one Little Sister after another, and with what result for the failures ??  Damage ?? Death ?? Trials done over and over before she got it to work ?  She mentions trying it on Splicers... What did it do to them? ?   And how did she get ahold of them to test them in the first place ??  (Neat flashback scene for the MMORPG ... Strapped down Splicer and Tenebaum saying "Now this probably WILL hurt alot ...") Tenenbaum throws it to Jack,  but was it actually tested before that point ? How ? It is a Plasmid that has to be applied to the person who then will do 'the saving' ( Hmm Tenenbaum used it herself, making her a Splicer ??? ).  And while Tenenbaum was developing it, how many Little Sisters died screaming as their insides were shredded by genetic displacement ?   ( Remember though, Tenenbaum was pretty bloodless about her clinical methods. )
In the 'Good' ending of BioShock 1, you see an aged Jack, but what if that was mere months after they escaped, and the ex-Little Sisters also have aged rapidly because of their modified Slug-symbiont exposure (like Jack) to Tenenbaum's treatment ?   Not so 'good' an ending with that happening, no?
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Tenenbaum Mentioned Using Fontaine's Smugglers  :
She probably would be importing technologies and research material from the Surface World, to assist in the specialized genetics the ADAM project required (Fontaine would have arranged this fro his own reasons).    She may have done this for her 'Save the Little Sister' project before her 'disappearance', even while she still worked for Fontaine - setting up for her new mission to save ALL the Little Sisters from the fate which SHE largely made possible.  
How much she was able to still do this after Fontaine became Atlas ? Possibly there were other smugglers, but what resources did she have to pay for it ( Smugglers don't do it for free ) and she had the rest of her mission to dedicate what resources she had.
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Player's Allegiance to Tenenbaum  :
The Player (as Jack) is able to win Tenenbaum's allegiance by saving Little Sisters.  Is 'Allegiance' the right word?  'Assistance' maybe ??  But then in the Games she does virtually the same thing even if you tear apart and eat every single ADAM-Filled Little Sister Goodie you come across.
Yes, you get some stuff from her if you save some/all, but it adds up to about the same thing ADAM-wise and game-wise.  She deprograms you (either way), and assists you still (or is it she just uses you ???),  and it really doesn't matter much in the end as to what happens in the game - some cuts scenes you are not quite sure why you got them (kill this one, kill that one or don't ...).  Now IF when you turned EVIL JACK at the end, she exploded you brain,  then THAT would have been a difference (maybe that's what did happen after the credits rolled ??).  You slaughter some huge number of people (Splicers) but Tenenbaum doesn't care about those.
With Delta, it follows the same pattern.
It might have been very different if you had to sacrifice your Plasmid/Tonic 'powerups' to "do the right thing", but the game designers KNEW what that would lead to - MOST Players saying  "Screw 'The Right Thing', WHERE are those Little Sisters full of that tasty ADAM at?"'.
Actually if Tenenbaum had the ADAM to give you already (the no-kill bonus drops - Teddy Bears) - Why wouldn't she boost your abilities FROM THE START and thereby enable you to SAVE the Little Sisters more effectively (and YOU not get killed and thus strand any 'saved' ones in Rapture)?  OR, If she had to get the ADAM from them, then she could have promised you the ADAM within a short delay to reasonably convince you to be nice to them (Since she REALLY did NOT want YOU to kill them).   Instead, we (the Player) get a fake moral choice.  
Clever would have been : To run the game plot different ways, randomly with each playthrough - So you wouldn't know if you were 'going to get screwed' or not - Including that possible 'explodey-head' punishment at the end ("Bad Jack, Ach, I vil turn you off now !").   Terrible would be the option you openly 'find' Tenenbaum face-to-face, and could at that point choose to kill her and take whatever ADAM she had - YOUR choice for YOUR-OWN goal of escaping Rapture, and to decide if Tenenbaum was simply getting in your way.  Lots of variations of endings -- some REAL moral Choices.
There is potential for 'better' REDOS of the original games like this in the MMORPG system.  All kinds of clever things the Players could think up for this 'fixing'.
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Presto-Chango - No longer a Little Sister :
When did Tenenbaum create her Little Sister Fixing Plasmid (the one she gives Jack).  When did she have time to develop such a thing or the resources required or the equipment ?   Had it been something she secretly worked on before quitting Ryan Industries, when she finally realized what ugly fate she had caused for the Little Sisters ?
Is it a toxin that kills the Sea Slug ? Though in the game we see them change quite rapidly, so it might include some restorative to undo the various changes.   They seem to still be indestructible at that point (or at least for a while we still see them), but then there is a general prohibition of killing children in games ( How will the MMORPG handle THAT issue, when we might have 'cured' Little Sisters and other NPC children present in New Rapture ??? )
This 'cure' for the Little Sisters may have given her ideas/clues for the general Cure for ADAM's effects, as per later parts of the plotlines.
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Tenenbaum or Tennenbaum :
Going back to play BioShock again,  I noticed in the Rapture Central Control Level there is a picture on Ryan's  "WYK" wall - a picture with  the name  "Tennenbaum"  (double n's)  under it
Probably just another Asset editor who didn't get the memo ... (or a sloppy typo - doubly sloppy for not being corrected)
Hmmmm, Tenenbaum involved in that Ryan embryo plot - a very good reason maybe that Tenenbaum Got out of Dodge ...
So she changed her name to avoid the authorities for her involvement in Nazi atrocities  (Yeah, that's it ... "Mine namen gechangen twei 'En' hasyt gafoolen zem !!1")
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Nazi Programs ??   Tenenbaum's Hidden Past ??  :
It is possible that there were other undocumented genetic research programs (even with the Germans being anal-retentive about documenting stuff).  Advanced genetic research could be an iffy enough area for special SS involvement (Fact : all the infighting in the bureaucracies/factions of different Reich government entities - it did alot to hamstring German war efforts).
Now that would have been a real bomb 'to drop' -- That the Nazis were secretly trying to develop equivalents of Plasmids back there (and then), and that is where Tenenbaum got more than a few ideas - Leading her to recognize what she had when the Sea Slug incident happened (the missing component the Nazis never managed to develop (or Didn't They ??? ***CUE THE DRAMATIC MUSIC*** ....) (( Timelines can always use a bit of stretching for these amazing technical developments in a story. ))
(( Heh - add 'the Nazi Connection' to possible MMORPG storylines -- There already is that rumored secret Arctic Base that survived after the War ...  Most turn out to be 'crazy Splicer rumors', but who knows... ))
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Suchong and Tenenbaum (The Atrocity Twins) :
Creepy dialog ( new Audio Diary heard from Suchong ) relating a scene Tenenbaum suggesting their ADAM experiments be done on Twins ( a classic genetic study mechanism to have a valid 'control' sample ). Creepy part is : Tenenbaum mentioning she took part in such 'twin' experiment use when she assisted Nazi doctors in a concentration camp. "Suchong Know THIS KIND - Even Suchong be creeped out by this woman ..." ( Suchong peripherally might have been connected to the Japanese Experiments - Unit_731 https://unit731.org/
She then mentions that twins are a bit hard to obtain ( not that many in 20000 population ). Suchong comments to himself : 'Suchong have no trouble creating many 'twins' - all twins possibly need. Easy Peasy."One thinks that Suchong, if he had stayed on the Surface, might have been employable in the Post-War Nazi project of Cloning Hitler ...
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Cut from the Game (BS2) During Development:
"My name, it is Tenenbaum. I... I was part of... the Science of Rapture. Once, it was... the most perfect city in the world.  And, of course, you know... the Little Ones.  Rapture's greatest miracle ... and our greatest sin ... my sin."
Cut because it makes Tenenbaum the biggest monster in Rapture of all(?)   Being instrumental in amorally using children for "Rapture's greatest miracle"  might kinda make the Player question why they are cooperating with her, or what she really might yet be up to  (as if the Player had much choice in the game's plot ...).
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Tenenbaum's ADAM Declarations - Wrong or Poor Wording (Her Bad English) ? :
I don't know who wrote Tenenbaum saying that word 'remembers' ?? ( Maybe reflects her not-so-great English word selection/mis-translations ) But 'ADAM remembering' isn't right.  The situation should be more that ADAM has caused changes to be overlaid over a person's original DNA (nullifying/suppressing some of the original DNA affects to allow modifying the body tissues/structures from the original pattern OR locally changing the tissues genetics).  The body 'remembers' because the ADAM changes DIDN'T wipe them out from the body's cell DNA.   So what she is talking about (The Cure) is removing/disabling that genetic overlay so that a person's original DNA ( still there in all the cells, NOT 'remembered' by ADAM ) can reassert itself to return them to normalcy. 
It would be logical that ADAM mechanisms, when they start to malfunction/degrade, don't have enough 'working' ADAM effects to maintain that genetic 'overlay' -- hence requiring additional/continuous applications of 'ADAM' ( possibly with larger amounts needed over time to maintain its effect, as some kind of immunity happens ).   Without this 'maintenance' ADAM, the effect is to have conflicting/partial DNA operating, interfering with Plasmid/Tonic effects, causing disruptions/imbalances of other body functions and tissues (causing tumors and  other aberrations).  
A similar poor wording was Tenenbaum's 'predatory' - Referring to ADAM, when it is not really a case of automatically requiring "more ADAM", but maintaining a sufficient amount to allow all a Plasmid's genetic patterns to fully operate.  Otherwise it falls into disorder ( conflicts and/or malfunctions -- think of taking a big cutoff saw and cutting out a section of a car engine and then seeing what happens to the car when you try to run it ).  And the ADAM lasts a shorter time or more is needed (we only have single unit doses in the game) to clear/overcome that disorder.  
People who used MORE Plasmids/Tonics ( and more complex/severe ones like Combat Plasmids ), besides needing more 'maintenance' ADAM, have more changes/modifications to their bodies, and thus more to go wrong/be disrupted when their ADAM supply is interfered with.   Conflicting Plasmids happen in various combinations and they cause more to go wrong faster.
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One part of the 'Cure' is to get out all of that conflicting DNA/RNA (the real 'Plasmids'), leaving only the original DNA, and preferably having some sufficient quantity of Stem Cells available (something that ADAM stimulates) to facilitate repairs to all the damage (now using ONLY the original DNA, which is stable, as the pattern).   This could be a manually controlled complex process (not just an injection like the ADAM products were simplified into for game play reasons).
Simply letting the body clean out the ADAM by itself doesn't seem to work (or is too slow) when there was sufficient changes to the person. Example - Booker's 'lighter in his fingers' might only have localized effects/degradation, he might start showing only minor effects if he got low on his ADAM boosters. That versus other more complex/extensive things like Combat Plasmids, which required massive changes to support the abilities given the person.  Those would leave more disruption and damage when the user didn't get their regular ADAM supply.
A Comment about the Cure 'mentally' restoring someone : Memories are NOT stored in DNA/RNA, but in fine brain interconnection structure which is all post-genetic.  So if someone has got brain damage as an ADAM side-effect, their damaged brain tissues might be 'restored', but NOT the imprinted patterns those would be lost with that previously damaged tissue.  That loss can include control of muscle actions and sensory interpretation functions of the brain (something which could fit right in with a skill/ability development ramp system for Game Character development).   This would mean that some Cure cases would require substantial rehabilitation.
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Heeeeeres Jack Daddy !!!! :
In one of the BioShock game reviews, someone comments how stupid it was for Jack to have to turn into a Big Daddy in order to just open some door (to get a Little Sister to do it in a way not seen previously and never seen again). Maybe a better idea (mine - which they never 'thought of' or cared 'to think up') was that Tenenbaum already knew something about what the desperate Fontaine was going to do, and Big Daddy-fy-ing Jack was the way to beat that (the extra toughness/strength/armor/whatever). And so, she really just used it as an excuse to have Jack CHANGED like that Not actually AS MUCH as real Big Daddies were converted - to become part of the suit mechanism, as Delta and Sigma/Porter were - and supposedly Porter was eventually REVERSED from in Minervas Den story.. (Seriously Tenenbaum just had to ask one of her tame Little Sister's to Open that door, to clear the way towards Fontaine - being one of their LS Project developers, she would know what conditioned 'buttons' to push with them to get it easily done.) 
Tenenbaum needed Fontaine gone, and she seems to have been as manipulative as most of the other Characters in these stories.
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