Aquinas

The Aquinas Protocol is an internet protocol developed by Page Industries on behalf of Majestic 12 as the next generation successor to the Echelon system, after apparently 5 years and a billion credits. Released recently before the start of Deus Ex, Aquinas was publicly known as a philanthropic effort to make the internet a better place, but in reality was a brilliant tool that allowed Majestic 12 clandestine surveillance over the internet, which had been a place of relative freedom compared to most countries in the real world. It is named after Thomas Aquinas, role model to Bob Page and widely thought of as one of the best Christian philosophers; this is referenced in the intro, where Page describes a Helios-controlled future as the realisation of Thomas' mythical "City on the Hill". (However, this is an historical error as the phrase "City on a Hill" was not used by Aquinas but was rather popularized by the earlier Christian philosopher Augustine of Hippo.)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_God
Although in the past, sites had to be hosted privately on a physical system, after the invention of Aquinas anyone could host whatever they wanted at no cost (unbeknownst to the public, anyone using it is also subject to MJ12 scrutiny). Although normally, the NSA and 'Hague Commission' would not allow this, they were likely bribed into agreeing.
In the end of the game, at Area 51, the Aquinas Hub is apparently where Helios is located, and the chamber where JC Denton and Helios merge is located at the top of the Hub. This hub is likely the servers that Aquinas is located on.
After the failed merge with Helios, the Aquinas protocol was destroyed, resulting in a mass information crisis and a 20-year long economic recession known as the Collapse. In Deus Ex: Invisible War, the remaining damaged protocol plays a major part: whoever can get access to the damaged protocol (located in the former UNATCO HQ on Liberty Island) will have the resources to take over the weakened Post-Collapse world. JC Denton/Helios uses the protocol to distribute perfected Nano-augmentations worldwide, successfully creating a posthuman civilization, the Illuminati use it to reestablish their world economic and political dominance, and the Knights Templar use it to distribute a nanite-destroying virus worldwide, ending nano-augmentation forever. If Alex Denton does not upload Aquinas to anyone, the world will descend into centuries of violence, evolving the human race with the Omar emerging victorious on a war-scarred Earth, perfectly adapted to expand humanity throughout the cosmos.
==References==
Category:Technology
Category:MJ12
Category:Lore