Rapture Computers

* See also Bio-Electronics
* See also The_Thinker
* See also Era_Electronics
* See also Era_Computers
* See also Computer Oddities
* See also Too Late For Rapture
* See also McClendon
* See also Wahl
* See also Porter
* See also NO_Autopilots_In_Columbia
I understand that many of you haven't a CLUE about how Computers work, but bear with me on these various explanations to TRY to account for a somewhat realistic (Sci-Fi) part of the Rapture Story ( pertaining to Computers/The Thinker, and such ).
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 'Remote' Access Computers :
Perhaps might be found : A few working Gimmick 'remote calculator', tied to a central computer by radio wire ( you send the numbers and key functions and get back the results of the calculation ). This kind of "Computer" is really a "Terminal" used to input and output data.
I actually saw something like this in a mid-1960s Scientific American magazine 'Ad' - It was a video terminal that connected to a computer by phone (modem). Yes, most people back then DID NOT have computers in their daily lives - except maybe beyond their billings being sent by mail ( the printed bill effectively being a computer punch/scan card ).
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Rapture - Technology Changes Would NOT Stop In The Rest Of The World :
Because of the rapid advances of computer (and general) technology in The Surface World, the Rapturites involved in that field would have wanted continuous access to outside information - including past the 1952 'cutoff' of Rapture from The Surface WorldWave of The Hand Fantasy is not to be in BioShock Rapture - if we can help it.. Otherwise, the terms "crude", "cumbersome" and "limited" simply would have described any/all computers in Rapture.
Special arrangements would have to be made through Ryan's 'secret'/Secure Global connections to assure security and secrecy for such 'Access'. Ryan would still be selling off his Surface Empire at that late a date ( as he wouldn't have sold it in a 'fire sale' ), and would still have lots of resources (And money) available to reinforce his City's ongoing stabilization and adjustments. 
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Before Accounting Computers :
There were Rooms full of people with adding machines doing Companies' Accounts. Mechanical calculators were the chief method ( apart from still primitive military computers ) in the year Rapture was started.
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Computer Limitations in 1950s Era Rapture :
The Thing about the Computers in Rapture IS : They don't have to meet the needs of something carried about (like a palmtop/smartphone), or to be maintained by careless consumers. At that time, they were something a company/university would have, or be owned by an Accounting Service company used by other businesses. They would be maintained by experts and coddled - and with all that STILL be cost effective ( the reason they were used ) as the valuable tools they more and more became.
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Computer Terminals :
* First CRTs (VDTs) were around 1959/1970. Possible in Golden Age Rapture ( when they were A Pushed Tech ). But with Rapture 'falling apart' in 1959, they likely wouldn't have any for the Rapture:Reborn MMORPG.
* Teletypes were well developed by the 1930s, so would be a likely type of remote terminal interface ( so you could type "Do You Wish to Play A Game Of Global Thermonuclear War" to 'The Thinker' )
* Simulated teletype input/output (in the game) is fairly easy to do.
* 'Thinker' related Missions could make use of this ( with stilted computer-ish Mission info being supplied/sent to Player )
* The "McClendon's Home Computer" in City Hall could likewise make use of a Teletype device.
* Punchcard reader systems are still used in New Rapture (particularly for 'programming')
* Building new 'Terminals' ( getting the equipment and having there communication lines hooked up ) to access the cities computer system from additional locations ( another City Bounty for important equipment ... ). So recovery of one largely intact would be worth lots of $$$.
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Minervas Den Computer Printouts - Covered with Nothing but '1's and '0's :
It is funny how some people think computers 'worked' back in the days of the mainframes.  Magnetic Tape Drives with the Spinning Wheels and a big panel of Switches and Blinky Lights was 'a computer' to most people ( as seen on TV and in Movies ).   In reality. you had only a few big Printers and their 'Fanfold' Paper printouts, which the 'programmers' were always shown looking at.   
Of course Printers do normal alphabetic text, but it would be too small and gibberish to most Players anyway, so you might as well have a 'symbolic' moving texture of 1s / 0s serve to represent lots of output being generated.
The odd thing is those printer paper reading displays being seen everywhere on walls in Minervas Den, used to create some simple animated 'computer' machinery Asset as filler for the game.   They don't really make any practical sense, as they would allow a view of the printout for only a short time, and then the output paper disappears somewhere.   Computer monitors ( CRT + Keyboard ) allow seeing/requesting any/all accessible data, and would have been existing ( even as Teletype machines ) by then.  
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The Computers at Minervas Den supposedly did alot of Monitoring/Control work for the City, and paper CHARTING status displays could/should be what those wall things were supposed to be ( with MUCH slower moving paper with only recent status info being relevant ).   Guys with clipboards would make regular round checking them ...
Game Assets thrown together for a DLC representing "Big Computer Stuff" is all the Shooter Game/Slaughterfest_Game_Element really required. The MMORPG would show the surviving computer equipment better - less anachronistic, and done correctly and just as impressive.
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Memory Banks (Our Modern Miracle) :
"So much of your convenience is made possible by Rapture's modern Computer Technology.  These machines not just 'think', but remember facts and figures perfectly for later use.  Your telephone call goes thru in seconds ?   The Pneumo package gets to you without fail or delay, that Trolley's schedules is followed to the second,  your billings are handled efficiently and without error ??  Thank Rapture's Mighty Computer Brains, and those who have brought them to you "  -- Commercial on radio/television - brought to you by Rapture Central Computing
Required for the first bio-based super computers ( Wow - "640 KB of memory - Nobody will ever need more than that" - Bill Gates ).   'Program AS Data' - self modifying code - "Computers are a modern miracle that will change the World"
Then for 'The Thinker' which had to process 'Faster than Thought',  a need for magnitudes more memory ...
"Your Rapture Scientist at Work - Taming the wild brain cell's structure to bring regularity and systematic use ( If only we could do that to our own brains, what might WE achieve ... )"
Large grids of 'memory' cells, grids of grids, wall upon wall of grids ...
"Every possible thought held simultaneously - That is the Thinkers advantage" (Radio advertisement)
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Using Programs to Make Programs :
Once you have sufficient memory in a Computer, you can start to write 'Programs' that assist you in creating other Programs., Tools such as a Text code Editor, and a 'Compiler', which translates English-like text and equations into the more intricate internal computer (machine) code. "FORTRAN" : an early Computer program 'language' was short for FORmula TRANslation 
* To facilitate running those programs, you would have some form of an "Operating System" running on the Computers. There were mechanisms (programs and hardware) which 'rolled' Programs and Data 'in and out' of a computers memory ( from secondary storage - disks/tapes ) to facilitate operations on computers having limited primary memory ( which has ALWAYS been true ).
* Text Editors also have more general uses (The Publishing Industry was revolutionized by them).
* Calculators which ran some easily edited/modified 'code' equations were Tools which allowed great/faster advances in Scientific/Engineering Calculation. Might someone have written a 'Spreadsheet' programs ? ( Which greatly facilitated accounting and business operations ).
* Computerized Training of the Bio-Electronic Circuitry - If you want to mass-produce and greatly bring the costs down, such a process has to be automated (or as much as possible). A special purpose Computer tied to circuit manipulating hardware (production rigs) can do many of the functions which otherwise would have to be tediously done by hand.
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 "Cogito Ergo Sum" - "I think therefore I am" - Descartes :
Sorry, Not likely there being any real Artificial Intelligencer for "The Thinker", Just mimmickry ( which was something they showed Porter trying to 'program' in the Minervas Den DLC ).
Sentience ?? Nope. The Thinker replying to buzzwords in Porter's dead wife's voice - Eliza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA Chatbox-type programs did that in 1966 ( just The Thinker's machinery might add Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis, instead of it being done thru a teletype ).
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Computers In Rapture :
Earliest Rapture computers would exist around 1953 (before that they were too expensive, too huge, too unreliable, too difficult to program. AND NO, RAPTURE ISN'T GOING TO MAKE THEM THEMSELVES BETTER, AT THAT POINT). They ( when bought and brought from The Surface ) would most definitely be used as billing machines - A type which could process many of the various accounting billings for the inhabitants, with minimal cost. This would be one of the programmable electronic (tubes) Punchcard systems seen in the early 1950s ( ref plugboard programming ).
Making computers ( them being 'home-grown in Rapture ) would have to come later because of the specialized knowledge/technology/components doing that required. The technology was simply too new.
Previously, commercial 'big iron' computers were too expensive to justified their being brought to Rapture ( as an alternative, some Research Data could be sent to the Surface to be processed by computer used by Ryan Industries ).
If Rapture fell apart ~1959, that allows for a rather narrow timespan for advanced computer tech happening in Rapture ( like that needed for The Thinker ). Computers even up there on the Surface by that date were STILL fairly primitive. When the Chaos began few more advances could be expected.
McClendon's Bio-Electronics developments ( utilizing some ADAM processes, once that happened mid-1950s ) could short circuit many era computer technology limitations, and make a The Thinker type of system at least possible. Such advances MIGHT be marketable in the Surface World to raise the money needed for fixing various shortcomings in Rapture ( which may have become apparent by then ) - Exports arranged by Ryan, assuming Rapture's secrecy could be maintained.
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Note - These early (real) computers weighed TONS ( and consumed many kilowatts of power ) and would NOT possibly fit in a free-moving Bathysphere, to be used as some fancy (game shown) 'Autopilot' ( which elsewhere has been explained and corrected ). Even a centralized computer system would depend on good timely sensor data and a reliable communication link, so wasn't really possible to control such a vehicles maneuvering. (( Even less possible (INFINITELY less possible) : That ludicrous 'Enter the Latitude/Longitude Autopilot seen on that 'Zeppelin' Booker and Elizabeth attempt to get away in. -- Sorry Kennyboi, 'quantumz' no can do. ))
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History of Data Communications (Required for Raptures Computer Use) :
Definition of "Modem" - "a combined device for modulation and demodulation, usually used over an acoustic phone line. Electronic Digital data is converted to Analog signals which are better at traveling over long Telephone wires than Digital signals."
These 'modems' would have been a technology used in Rapture in its 1950s-period normal Telephone wires would be used ( albeit at a much much slower data rate (ex- 9600 baud, 1 K Bytes per second ) than our modern Digital/computerized DSL/WiFi/Cable). 
Telemetry - data from remote monitoring (a real useful ( *paying*) purpose for computer systems - even fairly simple ones ). Sensor Telemetry data read frequently can be quite slow, but still be effective. Control signals to remote devices, likewise. This would be an initial tech development to feed City System data back to a central site for monitoring. Later Remote Control (for automatic adjustments) could be added ( control valves and such though are MORE expensive than sensors ).
Encryption (primitive data security) - though this usually is only done followed the detection of 'insecurity', and is employed when unauthorized access has caused some loss to those willing to PAY for securing their communications. Making signals more jam proof or resistant to interference is generally the more common goal of improvements.
Long distance Radio transmissions in Rapture is abominable ( as it usually is underwater ... ), and local transmission is subject to interference ( and you don't have access to all the modern tricks/technologies that 50+ years of advancements have added ). So such data transmissions normally would NOT be through Radio links.
(( BTW, Columbia can't be beyond some 'telegraph' system, which any (reasonable) Sci-Fi would be limited to. Telephones for voice, but not data. SO showing complicated control things ( Control Room) in Columbia is just ignorant writer BS. )) 
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'Brain Module' - One of the Fundamental building blocks of The Thinker and of similar 'intelligent' machines... :
Rapture's bio-electronic revolution sidestepped decades of later 'Surface World' advancements.  Even to this day, the real world has not managed many of similar Artificial Intelligence achievements ( even with today's complex micro circuitry and processing capacity/speed ).  With Artificial Intelligence the practicalities of PROGRAMMING the huge quantities of cohesive/intricate 'smart' logic always remained the roadblock.  The methods have been long known - It is building all the required intricate logic which is the difficult part. 'Weak' AI to handle very specific tasks has already been done - Chess, Jeopardy ... ( and would be used in this MMORPG for example ), but 'Strong' AI can handle generalized problems -- Things it has never seen before ( but can compare similar things to ).
In Rapture, because of the ADAM tool and research/work in genetics, and investigations of biological models/patterns, greater advances were able to be made.  Biological models could be employed and copied. The same N-grams used to reconstruct a long dead Delta's mind could be used as patterns to copy and build up the complex logic required for human-like Artificial Intelligence.  It is copying what millions of years of evolution developed, instead of starting over from scratch and trying to build it all via tedious baby steps.
The ultimate achievement was "The Thinker", which eventually achieved self-consciousness in the plotline.  It required many magnitudes of logic complexity/content greater than the typical Flybot control unit or the City Repair Guidance system, or the Train/Trolley Scheduler.  Assembling the required hardware was hard enough, but composing the logic was far more difficult.  It took ADAM technology to make the copying of chunks of the functions of human brains possible.
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Early Gear-Driven/Mechanical Analog Computers in Rapture ( No Steampunk-like Fallacy Here ) :
Early calculation machines, used for fixed functions usually ( like trajectory calculators on WW2 battleships ) - effectively a mechanical slide rule - More a tool than a self-operating programmable machine.  Useful for scientific research to run certain types of calculations.
Combined with electrical relays, similar mechanisms were used by Various Punchcard handling/processing machines ( largely Billing and Accounting uses ).
More complicated mechanical calculator machines had a physically limited computing speed ( versus electronics - even tubes sped things up by factor of hundreds ).
It would be a while before electronic computers would be common used, let alone made in Rapture. Rapture's first electronic units were Surface mechanisms ( 'small' ones were brought with later immigrants and others purchased from Surface sources ).  Some experimental computers were constructed, and technology was pushed forward with use of the new X-isters.
Brain Boost later sped tech development up in Rapture, and was combined with contemporary technical information from the Surface about new electronic computer technology.
It started going sideways when Bio-Electronics allowed very complex logic circuitry to be made.
This led to The Thinker (RODIN), and eventually AI ( use of N-grams to re-construct brain-like functions ). Parts of their structure were very different from the computer architectures used on the Surface ( which were also primitive from what we have now ).
The alleged "Predicting the Future" that Reed Wahl raves about ( in the Minervas Den DLC ) is more in his head than anything real - an ADAM insanity delusion.  Logic for discerning and solving complex problems have to be painstakingly composed, and the result most often is NOT applicable to problems of other kinds. The lessons any Learning Machine is trained with had to come thru a human - the Limiting Factor.  Human brains cannot predict something they can't possibly know about, and arbitrary outcomes are little more than possible Probabilities - not Certainties.
NASA IBM computer 1957. Notice the punchcards and the woman has a Punchcard Reader in front of her. No terminal ( the console is that bank of switches ). It was basically a Card Batch type operation with programs and data on cards ( and maybe out-of-view a tape drive for more data. ) Notice how it isn't embedded in the walls. Computer cabinets needed to be accessible on all sides.
Early hard drives were quite large, but then memory was measure in kilo-words too. 
Note this is something that stands over 6 foot tall ...
You wouldn't be seeing these in Rapture, as the technology happened in the 1970s ( and this isn't "Wave of the Hand" Fantasy Columbia ). The Bio-Electronics I propose to make some of the advanced game technology possible, using something significantly different from this (IC), based upon the well researched ADAM technology in Rapture.
Computer graphic output device seen in Minervas Den (BioShock DLC) used for a simple computer game.
Vector (line) drawing was an early method of graphics using patterns made with the X-Y sweep of the electron gun to draw lines, dots and symbols. The aspect ratio here is a bit odd. Usually displays like this were round or square.
A possible technology top see in Rapture ( late period just before 'The Chaos' began ).
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Amateur Computer/Electronics 'Hobby' Activity :
With the advent of things like the McClendon Home Computer ( What year ??? It is huge, so probably was early ), Computing and Electronics in Rapture expanded further into the realm of amateur development ( garage/kitchen-table invention ) which could greatly spur development for products and services ( ie - like the cliche of the 'Computer Dating Service' programs ). Hobbyists have great potential, and in Rapture's innovative culture it might have brought significant advancements ( which COULD have continued in that time of the post-Ryan Chaos within the various Factions in the City ).
Software (Computer Programs) can be the product of a single person. Computer programs can be tools which can open up opportunities for other industries and accelerate other developments significantly.
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The idea of the Transistor would revolutionize electronics. Semi-Conductor Components on the Surface varied quite a bit, depending on their designed qualities/capabilities, where they became cheap enough to use for the small 'Transistor Radio'. But Transistors made for fast computer use were horribly expensive ( paid by military budgets - $100+ a transistor ). Fortunately, the Transistor was invented in late 1940s well before the 'cut-off' in 1952 ( and possibly obtainable even later ), so significant technological development on them had already been done by the time they came and could be used in Rapture.
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The Vacuum Tubes from Minervas Den :
The more advanced computer technology would have already switched from the old vacuum tube electronics (used in first computers brought to Rapture), past the still primitive transistor logic ( used by computers in the middle 1950's ), and into using the Bio-Electronic circuitry, which was an outgrowth of the ADAM-based genetic engineering. ( If you could make someone's arm spit fire, then why not some nerve tissue do a few useful logic patterns used for computing ??? )
The Tube-tech structure of the hardware was already well understood/developed/available ( the way the rack pieces mechanically went together - connectors, existing parts and wiring/mounting arrangements ... )
"Tuuuubular Man !!!" (some Splicers in Minervas Den use this term ... or maybe not)
The early vacuum tube racks/modules were shaped that way so that the components which failed the most ( the electron vacuum tubes mounted in modules ) could be accessed for easy/quick replacement. Their backs ( when the panels swung away from the wall in a straight forward arrangement ) allowed access to masses of wiring for power and data signals. Heat dissipation was done by circulating air behind the components. Minerva Den's later Bio-Electronic module systems retained/reused similar accessibility.
Even after today's technology's super-miniaturization, real super-computers are massive things, and likewise The Thinker's system covers many halls of wall space for its 'core' and 'lobes'. Note - the component racks we see other places (ie- in Operations) are OTHER earlier technology computers still used for more mundane purposes. Those Older systems would still be useful and used for their original purposes ( financial billings, monitoring city systems, scientific calculations ... ). Computers weren't cheap, so why replace what already worked.
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We See Tubes !!! :
My replacement for vacuum 'tubes' in Rapture were a similar packaging for a much more complex component. Instead of a single 'valve' (as the Brits call them) acting like a single transistor ( some real world eventually had several 'valves' per tube ), the new advance of Bio-Electronic circuitry components (taking the same space) could have components operate as a complex functional block, or even as an entire small computer. Only a few connecting pins per 'tube' exist in this socketed-tube-style module form ( the conventional existing plug&socket technology ). Fortunately, with such components, Serial Communications used within The Thinker requires few wire conductors ( the other newer style of module - the 'Computing Block Modules' (CBM) have around a hundred pins on their larger square connector blocks ).
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Bio-Electronic Revolution in Rapture :
Brain/Nerve Tissue uses quite a few kinds of cells to function ( many, which even today, brain experts don't largely understand their function ) which operate as a group. Thru ADAM-manipulation of genetics, and thus cell and extra-cellular operations, it was possible to tailor Nerve cell functioning in various useful ways :
* Positive logic processing - which can do functions like 'AND' and 'OR' logic ontop of Threshold Summations of multiple signal inputs of varying weights/strengths.
* Negative logic processing - who's activation suppresses the flow of positive signal output ( the fundamental 'NOT' logic operation required for logic circuits to usefully function ).
* Cells - which maintain the other cells by transporting oxygen and nutrients ( used during formation and growth of the 'circuitry' ). 
* Structural cells - which form the supporting matrix the other cells are suspended within.
* Training Processes - which shape other cells' structures and interconnections so that they can dynamically 'Learn' -- are used to train the logic patterns the Positive and Negative cells forms respond to. 
Neural Nets - groups of interconnected 'cells' which take a large number of inputs and simultaneously derive complex interpretations/generalizations to produce the desired patterns of outputs. The processing usually happens in multiple progressive 'layers' where one subset of processing is passed on to another to achieve the required complexity of Logic required. Each cell does a summation of all its connection signal inputs, with each given a 'weight' associated with it, and if a threshold is reached the cell sends its own output signal. Having outputs of one layer feed back into previous layers greatly increased the flexibility of the applied logic (cyclic brain operations). 
Neural Nets are best used to create specific single functions ( separated to enable efficient training to form the desired logic ). Then multiple Neural Nets, each providing a different function are interconnected together with additional logic to become a processing unit of the computer. Digitally (binary) structured nerve components interface in and out of the Neural Nets (external signals are generally binary 0/1).
Another use is to have arrays of small processors ( groups of many separate logic units ) to operate upon data analogous to that architecture -- like upon an array/grid of pixels from a camera (optical processing).
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Earlier attempts tried to make use of living tissue as the working circuitry, but they proved unstable even after genetic methods forcing the self-training cells to cease modifying their logic. Living tissue, besides having to be 'kept alive', degraded much too quickly. A further series of developments ( a result of other ADAM research ) allowed the cells to be heavily structurally modified with various chemicals, so that after processing with heat, the tissue would be killed and the cell's structure rendered into stable electrical circuitry. This also allowed signals to be processed electrically at hundreds of times the rate living cells chemically were capable of, though at the loss of the self-modifying ability ( which other solutions were found for ).
Note - Live Sea Slug brains were tried for a while, as they really aren't smart enough/inclined to self-change very much. A great deal of research had already existed about Sea Slugs (because of the ADAM research). But they failed eventually, like the others of the 'live' mechanisms attempted.
Some later developments in 'live' nerve tissue succeeded, but the results were only useful for special purposes due to their short-term stability.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biological_circuit - more about triggering cell operations - useful for the conversion process.
This actually fits in with ALL of it. Controlling Cell operations by triggered phases is the single most significant factor in ADAM technology. The Bio-Electronic Circuitry is actually child's-play compared to some of the Plasmid/Tonic effects. Some of the 'smart'/'logic' techniques to control the phases automatically were employed in the Consumer-Grade Plasmids/Tonics ( imagine the advertisements : "Sinclair Solutions Plasmid - NOW TWICE AS SMART !!!!" ... ) 
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Computer Hype (Corrections) :
"Public Announcements claim the Thinker controls a majority of Rapture's advancements. This includes self-opening doors, the Pneumo system, 'dispatching trains' ( Atlantic Express Automated train system ), connecting phone calls, controlling oxygen supplies, which foods appear in vending machines, and simply making technology throughout Rapture functioning correctly. "
Contrary to boasts (like above), Central Computing did not 'Run All of Rapture'. Central systems cannot run things they no longer have communications with :
* Many of the communication wires that connected the City like a web, were damaged or fell into disrepair during the Civil War and were never fixed, yet most systems continue to operate.
* Most of the environmental/safety machines were made self-regulating ( often with very simple robust mechanisms that don't require alot of maintenance and repair or continual human adjustment ).
* Instead, Central Computing's function was monitoring conditions to be able to dispatch repair crews ( including Big Daddies ) to fix problems sooner than later (later = more mess to cleanup). Leak detection sensors, sump level alarms, jam and overload indicators, etc.. would be monitored looking for incidents/signs/warnings of potential breakdown.
* It would be very stupid ( in a place as well engineered as Rapture ) to make all of the City's safety dependent on a single complex remote system.
* And how would all these systems have operated computer-controlled BEFORE The Thinker ever existed ???
* Automatic Doors need only simple electric eyes ($1.95 each...) -- control wires to everything equals lots of unneeded $$$$ expense.
* Pressure Bulkheads MUST be Failsafe, and work even if power is turned off. The Thinker can monitor and sound additional alarms and coordinate rescue operations and such. But the Emergency Doors close and seal automatically by themselves or by manual intervention.
* The Pneumo would have its own independent systems ( was made by another company who wouldn't want anyone cutting into their profits ). 
* Same goes for the Phone companies. Billings would be the more practical application of The Thinker's abilities.
* Planning models would be another.
* Train dispatching does not require a super-computer and trains are not allowed to 'run themselves' for long well understood safety reasons. Radio links ( required for moving Trains/Trolleys ) are not overly reliable for remote control.
* Oxygen supplies are a basic/critical utility service and must have simple redundant systems. Monitoring can predict long term problems and help prevent failures by scheduling maintenance and load leveling capacities.
* Some businesses may use the computer to analyze spending trends and make projections ( good old spreadsheet type accounting ) as well as various research 'number crunching' calculations.
* 'Simply Technology' is actually made more complicated if run 'remote' from some computer, than with simple local devices ( like an ordinary thermostat ) that most systems already operate with more than adequately.
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== Computers in Rapture - History : ==
The Computers in Rapture would be a mix of the real 1940s/1950s technologies, being eventually expanded with some significant Rapture-created advancements. (Crude) Integrated Circuits were being invented around the time of Rapture's %27civil war%27 ( thus too late, as Rapture's economy disintegrated ). Any of that type of miniaturization would have to have been developed in Rapture itself, but would depend on close contacts with Surface developments ( which would have not been easy ). Circuits for Rapture's original computers (all of 1946-mid 1950's era Surface tech) would be made up of Electromagnetic Relays, Electron Vacuum Tubes and Diodes, and later Discrete(individual) Transistors. Some later electronic "Bio" (ADAM/Genetics Enabled) advancements could be used to greatly accelerate computer technology.
To do something like Porter's AI required a huge increase of computer processing abilities, with new methods of data processing like massive parallelism, and a much greater miniaturization of complex circuitry ( which would be based on Rapture-developed Bio-Electronics ). Timing of such Biological-based developments would hinge on the date when the ADAM genetic-manipulation technology matured (mid 1950s). So all the talk of automatics in Rapture for the first decade were NOT the 'Thinking' machine, but dedicated conventional systems made using the Surface-style technology ( Relays, Tubes, later Transistors ). 
Even as major improvements made by Bio-Electronics were developed ( much was McClendon's work for his Robotics ), Porter found the capacities required for his AI still not met. This would require a some major project (and $$$) to bring the different/NEW components into existence, and then into effective/efficient production. McClendon's work ( an investor in the advanced technology ) would leverage off the work already done on ADAM genetic manipulations of organic tissues.
The AI work would be funded partially (initially) by the Computer Processing Business ( Billings and Accounting ) done at Minervas Den for the City and Rapture's other businesses, with more investments from those wanting ever greater computing resources. More would come from coordinating the Pneumo Mail system. The rest would have to be from investors, like Ryan, who could see Computers as an expanding field with great potential, just as was happening in the rest of The World. Using the 'ADAM' buzzword probably assisted in securing investments.
One advantage of the planned AI system was : It could be flexibly broken down into smaller groups of computers to do many different tasks at once, but then also be combined into one large system when needed. It was actually a network of computers which could grow incrementally -- and historically, estimates of the processing power required for AI were (and still are) absurdly low. It would be at a fairly late date when Porter actually achieved his operational AI -- possibly only months before the Kashmir Incident ( and his incarceration in Persephone ). 
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There is significant illogic(faulty writing) in a 'faked' declaration of Porter's support for Fontaine (resulting in charge of "Treason" ) being good enough to lead to Porter being hauled away under arrest (by 'secret police' no less), and exiled to Persephone --- When Fontaine HIMSELF had not yet been arrested for any crime. Some kind of substantial real EVIDENCE of collusion with running the Smuggling Operation might have been more logical to mention for the results it allegedly produced ( and hardly just some doctored 'Audio Tape' ). To get Fontaine himself, Ryan had to wait for solid evidence of the Smuggling operation - that was clearly shown in-game. And later, when Fontaine was "dead" - with the crime kingpin gone, it was largely assumed/found that most everyone else were just little fish. Porter was hardly one of Fontaine's minions or gang thugs or soldiers ( the Perps allegedly 'sunk' in that Department Store ). If there had been faked proof of siding-with/helping the murderous Atlas at a later time, it might have made more sense. On the other hand, the investigations into Fontaine's crime operations may have turned up real proof that Porter WAS involved in the Smuggling operation in some substantial way (Ex- Porter did know how to code a submersible's "signal beacon" which could get past City security, and he may have been bypassing official Import Restrictions to facilitate the project he was obsessed with).
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Computing in Rapture probably started with Ryan's surface organization (and other Rapture Businessmen) bringing in the simpler Tabulator type Computer machines (fixed accounting programs frequently implemented with a plugboard method of programming and some electron vacuum tube arithmetic logic). This was the Surface technology mostly available at the time of Rapture's Founding (late 1940s) -- brought in early and then likely re-engineered/copied/improved ( with additional information about advances on the Surface ).
Later, with Surface technical advancements, there might be obtained something more programmable like the IBM 701 - available 1953 ( which still used Electronic Vacuum Tubes ), and having it reverse engineered in Rapture. Technologies : Electrostatic memory (Memory CRT tubes), and a few years later Magnetic Core memory, Tape Drives, Drum (Disk in 1956) drive memory, Punchcards input/output and In-Memory Programming. Later redesign would allow substituting transistor technology ( which IBM did in the late 1950s ) with more than a 10-fold increase in speeds.
Once Brain Boost came on the ADAM market (mid 1950s ?), Rapture's computer technology advancements could have accelerated. Subsequent improvements to Brain Boost brought likely even more computer advancements, both hardware and software. (( Note - the existence of Brain Boost in Rapture shows that genetic manipulation of nerve tissues/bio-chemistry and their functions was possible in the Game Universe. That serves to support the many manipulations required to make my proposed Bio-Electronics possible. ))
The Computer required by Porter's AI system would dwarf all the above mentioned machines in size and processing abilities, and would eventually use/require the most advanced Rapture miniaturization, specialized logic and programming, and would far exceed what was available on the Surface. This probably was only being achieved immediately before the 'civil war' started.
New Automation at the start of the 'civil war' ( including the 'smart' security devices ) would make use of similar technology to this.
You might see why I have pushed the idea of the Bathysphere running on Cableways, (Concept Art for the BioShock Movie showed the use of cables also), as a computerized automatic guidance system, able to do the required Real-Time navigation would have (that early) been > 10 X the size of the whole 'submarine' with the technology in use at the time period when the Bathysphere system started operating (~1952 or earlier). Early (true submarine) "Bathyspheres" would have required an operator, and NOT operate in the Automatic way we see in the game -- certainly NOT for Public Transit, unless they had a cable or track to guide them on fixed routes (( No free Autonomous movement. They can barely get an Automobile to routinely drive itself TODAY - 60+ years later )).
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Rapture Mainframe's System Evolution :
Rapture's earlier 'big' computer installation would have proved COMPLETELY inadequate for 'Artificial Intelligence' attempted by Porter. There are Real World limitations to such era machines -- the estimates made of the capabilities required for AI were only guesses and have always been FAR FAR off. Much of that early Rapture equipment infrastructure was reused from those attempts -- reemploying the Racks and the wiring space behind ( lots and lots of connecting wires ), and those multitudes of 'tube' sockets ... The Surface Computer technology proved wholly inadequate, and Budget limitations are a reality. Porter didn't have a 'Blank Check' from Ryan.
More than a few Bio-Electronic 'Tube' style rack 'modules' were reused/employed later on 'The Thinker' ( all those walls of arrays of what look like vacuum tubes in Minerva's Den ) - Which originally had a fraction ( being 1 x 1 x 2 inch components ) of the new electronic Bio-Electronic logic circuitry the later next generation 'Cube' (4 x 4 x 4 inch) modules have in them. But then, those later components were designed for a different purpose than 'number crunching' type computer processing.
That older 'wall of tubes' design exists because of heat dissipation issues ( previously the original computers were using tube-based electronics, which generate FAR more heat ). Water-cooled/chilled-air circulation had been used ( along with closely regulated humidity, needed to restrict precipitation which tends to short out electronics, and later too dry air which allows static charges to build up ). 
The Rack design (pattern) also has a significant amount of space behind it for all the masses of wiring connections ( the Bio-electronics requiring more than the typical mainframe at that time ). Mass-Connecting sections of the expanded computer was extremely important to 'The Thinkers' operation.
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Home Computer In Rapture :
May have also been a connected sub-station computer 'smart terminal' for the Thinker, or more likely one of the (few) other large centralized computers at Rapture Central Computing ( Where its use could be 'timeshared' to lower the cost -- large computers in the real world in those years cost millions of dollars ).
Advertising which Hyped The Future was commonplace in the Real World at that time.
'Personal' Computing would be still largely the domain of 'the rich', who might have one for business purposes ( many companies might use a computing service for their Billing/Accounting ).  Still, its a rather expensive technology for common 'home' use.  So it would be a 'fad' for a long while. 
The civil war expedited the development of 'intelligence' mechanisms for the Security Devices - Turrets, Scanners, especially Flybots, ( but that technology was unlikely to have later moved into any consumer markets in a Chaotic Rapture ).
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Earlier Miniaturization Attempts - Punch Card Electronics :
The Stacking Idea being tested using equivalent of Paper Punchcards as a packaging/structural technique ( copper circuitry traces on the card being like circuit boards had ).
Google Project Tinkertoy for Real World circuit developments of this sort.
Stack of thin plastic/ceramic 'Punchcards' with conductive circuitry silkscreen PRINTED onto surface using organic conductors and semi-conductor polymer 'ink', and other depositable chemicals for conductors/resistors/built-up capacitors/transistors
Punched holes ( a bit smaller than the classic 'chad' ) used for inter-level interconnects via 'pins + wavesolder'
Component densities weren't good ( but still better than soldered-in discrete components on circuit boards ).
A real one - Modularelectronic.jpg Micromodularmodular.jpg
Interesting contemporary Real World technology :
: http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/usa_project_tinkertoy.html
modular electronics which included automation of production of the circuits.
: http://www.radioattic.com/new.htm
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Evolved into the later McClendon STACK ( the thin glass plates used to super-miniaturized the technology for certain uses ).
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Compiling Ideas Into The 'SLUG' Language ( Slug Brains requires a 'Slug' Language ) :
The pre-existing organization of the Sea Slug brain was made use-of to function to digest, find and retrieve information ( one of "The Thinkers" primary processes - and "Independently Reasoning" requires information to reason about ... )
Rapture Operational Data Interpreter Network (R.O.D.I.N.) - Interpreting data is only one function required of AI
S.L.U.G. - Slug Language Computer Programming Languages - http://www.britannica.com/technology/computer-programming-language Utility Generator 
This is not quite the same thing a General Purpose Programming, as it really results in purpose-built Processors, with a fixed function ( but still can have control modes and parameters and handle random data. )
Logic patterns 'programmed' to make use-of the known/understood  structure/function of these organic mechanisms ( product of millions of years of evolution ... ).    Redundancy is built in to handle the 'irregularities' of biological tissue.  Appropriate ADAM form tracings to guide selected cell formation and interconnections, used to then Grow the circuits ( to later be 'baked' into working circuitry ).
Complex pattern matching used to sift thru the stored 'memory' is one typical function. 
Translating between 'Memory' ( non-binary vector data stored in geometric arrays of nerve cells ) and human useable data ( names, phone numbers, ideas, concepts ), and vice-versa is another.
Visual/Sensor interpretation (ex- for Flybot Controllers) is yet another.
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Corpse Gold !!! In The Era Of New Rapture :
Like early gold mining it is likely the ADAM recovery process (Little Sisters) only recovered half the ADAM in a corpse ( or stranger the corpses regenerate it at some rate ). Further (newer) processing techniques could potentially recover additional ADAM. So look forward to your carting Corpses back to New Rapture for further ADAM recovery (( BTW, This could have been done originally without imperiling Little Sisters, but then we wouldn't have had Big Daddies to fight. ))
Genetic Material/tissues/DNA residual found in Corpses ALSO has some value for ongoing research. There is something odd about WHY Rapture's corpses seem to hardly deteriorate ( in sucha wet environment ), which might be eventually explained ( the ADAM remaining in them keeps regenerating or stabilizing them ). Also why the rats didn't eat them ...
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Memory 'Cells' for Computer ( A bit is a bit is a Bit) :
A natural process in nerve cells is used for Short-Term Memory ( where the cells don't physically change like in the Brain's Long-Term Memory ). A cell (or group of cells) feeds-back into itself to maintain its state ( its (axon) output state is retained without additional external input ). Something similar to this mechanism would be employed to form 'Memory' circuitry in the Bio-Engineered computers. 
The natural cells data 'value' is not a digital (1/0), but of some 'weight' ( a continuously-ranged value ) dependent on the complex interplay of interconnected cells. But that kind of system is hardly used even today in computers because of its difficulties in controlling and programming the logic ( even less understood in Raptures era ). But 'digital' logic IS understood, and non-digital mechanisms CAN be employed to produce a digital system when they can be manipulated sufficiently and the problem is simple.
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The Great Ball Bearing Computer  ( NOT made by McClendon & Co, Inc ) :
This is based on a Real World system ( a particular system where ACCURATE COUNTING was required - National Race Track Betting in Australia ).
Streams/Waves of ball bearings head off in different directions to different parts of the machine.
Gravity force, Levers, Path diverging, Electromagnetic Triggers, Magnets, Dinging bells, Control 'Flippers' ( Pinball Logic ... )
An amusing Ka-ching Ka-ching sound as the machine 'cognates'.
Beware the ones that come shooting out at high velocity into your face ...
Or when it malfunctions - slipping on the tiny round things rolling all over the floor.
Splicers may have (in their usual half-mental way) built their own 'Com-pu-ter' using bowling balls and simulacrum ( ? How many real bowling balls really were there to find/use/be-wanted in Rapture ?? )
Goldfinger Boss : "No Mr Meltzer, I expect you to DIE !!"  (KaChing running in the background)
Doubles as an amusing 'live' pinball game for Player's Mission scene ( that one at the start of "Indiana Jones" was basically the same thing ... )   A bowling ball hurling at 20 mph can do serious damage ...
One time they got an answer of '42' ( Or did they miscount? Many Splicers have 6 fingers these days ... )
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Angry Jellyfish, Game (Or some name that DOESN'T violate Trademark statutes):
Game for your New McClendon Home Computer... ( I suppose you could play that style of game on a text graphics display ).
But this thing (the computer) better have more uses than just playing games.
Likely one of first really useful (Real Life) programs will be available - Spreadsheet - A tool that many businesses would be willing to buy computer time for. Imagine 'batching' spreadsheets using Punchcards ahead of time (to save from wasting data entry work TIME on the main system). Printer paper for output would likely be being made again ( Newsprint paper is sufficient for normal uses ).
MMORPG :
The New Rapture City Hall has one (a computer) used by the 'government' (Ryan rolls over (almost) - in his fabricated artificially narrow philosophical grave) for various Accounting, etc... ( The City has employees with wages/salary and job/work schedules are processes ).
There is a Major Bounty out (offered by the City) for additional McClendon Home Computer units, and for spare parts (The units are fairly rare as they were expensive and people in Rapture didn't yet understand all the uses they could be put to, as well as the limited programming being available ). More large companies had them rather than individuals.
Other computer systems are also still available/existing, useful for accounting/billing, including some 'timeshare' systems run out of Minervas Den ( which survived largely intact during 'The Chaos' and the Faction Wars. )
Is New Rapture still too ramshackle and small to need computers ? The Player comes on the scene at the time of the 'Great Expansion and Renewal' where the City is exploding with the new critical mass of ex-Splicers, and the return of a 'normal' environment. This requires many of the old systems/solutions to be able to 'scale up' to the new civilized complexity, and the City Council is also now looking forward and is taking actions now to be ready to to meet needs which soon will be required.
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Computer Games In Rapture :
McClendon had a "Text Adventure" game called "The Colossal Anthill" ( which derisively satirized the parasitic Surface World - as in the specifications made by Ryan who was paying for the project ) in development at his company. It was disrupted by the 'civil war' and never finished. With a Text interface it would have been playable via the Text-Capable Phones then available in Rapture ( you will see some of these still in use in the MMORPG ). Because of the increased duration of customer phone use for anyone playing, it was no surprise that RT&T also invested in part of the game's development.
To Play, you type into the 'terminal' command words/sentence-phrases that you slowly learn and figure out as you play. Then a text description is printed out about where you are in the imaginary world, and what objects/monsters are present and menacing you, and what actions give results. Your goal is to explore and to find your way out ( likely ending would have led to Rapture ).
North, South, East, West, Up, Down - standard commands to transition between 'rooms (game locations) via a direction if one is offered.
"aynrand" typing this secret nonsense word takes you to the secret room where Parasites can't find you.
"Taxman" - you have to find 'Your Blood' to pay him to stay out of 'The Big House', and even "Death" can be no relief to its excesses.
"Disincentive Center" - N S W E doors lead to Crony-Capitalism, Progressive Tax, Excessive-Regulation, Welfare-State
"War-Monger" - friend of all Tyrants and Death-Merchants ( Parasites usually get others to do the fighting which benefits them ).
"Redistribution-of-Wealth" - a poison pit and one way path to the Disincentive Center ( the Taxman is frequently camped out here )
"Ant-People" - people content to just exist and do what they are told. Found throughout the game - usually the messy victims of the various monsters.
"Commissar" - leads to one-way passage to "Gulag" and "Mass-Grave". Kill with 'Gun' or 'The Great Chain'
"Surface" - a place infested with Parasites and False-Altruists, if you are heading its way turn around.
"Informer" - works for the Commissar and guides him to YOU
"CASH" - Money makes the World Go round - Sought by most Parasites
"Whining Room" - must avoid the Bleeding-Hearts which misdirect towards "Ineffective-Solutions" and "Hypocrisy" and "False-Altruism"
"Twisty-Bureaucratic-Passages ... all alike", go in circles (and waiting lines) forever ...
"New-Deal" - has to be repelled by flashing "The Constitution", allowing escape (for awhile)
"New Deal Salute" - hand out stretched at waist-height, palm up - an indicator that 'New Deal' is nearby.
"Red-Tape" - insidious Substance which slows down all progress and strangles every non-parasite
"Lawyer-Middleman" - larval form of Politician, 'bloodsuckers extraordinaire' - Rats who create a world for Rats.
"Forest" and "Burnt-Forest" - You have to find 'Match' to burn your Forest down so the Parasites can't confiscate it.
"State Church" - coercive force of great magnitude
"Death-Taxes" - used by the Taxman to get you again AFTER he kills you by bleeding your descendants dry
"Pope" - morality cloaked in gold, frequently found in the 'State-Church' neighborhood. Religious Fetishes can be bought/sold.
"Communist-Tyrant" - also named 'The New Czar' - murders your relatives - usually found near Mass-Graves and with Commissar. Enabled by "Useful Idiots"
You have to follow the path of 'Freedom' to get to 'The Way-Out' ( Hint : find where 'Rapture' is, and use the word 'down' )
"Hand-Outs" - a poison that converts the ordinary citizen into a Parasite - DON'T EAT THIS !!!
"Tax-and-Spend" a never-ending cyclic trap that feeds countless Parasites, making them stronger and more insidious, overwhelming the industrious with burdens.
"The-Giant-Hand-of-Big-Government" - use the 'Dodge' command and then "Run"
Laissez-Fairies - not bad of themselves, only when Crony-Capitalists are around.
Corrupt-Politician - found near the Lawyer and the Mountain-Of-Bribes
Free-Market - hated by Crony-Capitalists and Communist-Tyrants, undercuts their power.
'KGB' and 'CIA' - Tools of "Soft War", friends of War-Monger
'False-Altruist' - evil being which will ensnare 'The Ignorant' into Altruism for 'helping', where the gains/advantage goes largely undeservedly to the 'False-Altruist' ( who only help themselves ).
"Monopolists" - Cronies found near Corrupt-Politicians, They will use but really hate Free-Market
"Censorship" - Tool of The Tyrant and Commissar. Used against 'Free-Press' and 'Free Speech'
"Free-Press" - a hard to find Tool to face off Parasites ( Parasite "Propaganda Mill" frequently masquerades as )
"Rapture" - materializes as one of 'The Way-Out' s
"Fantasy" - the ideas of some which are unreal and illogical and sometimes passed off as Science and History
"Union-Thugs" - Deploy your Pinkerton
"Welfare-State" (trapped into Parasitehood... Oh Noooooooossss!!!!)
"A-Bomb" - (GAME OVER!!!)
"The King" - center figure for the sustained power of the undeserving ( usually near State Church )
"The Giant Roach" - like many parasites, comes out of its filthy little hole at night to spread disease
"Anarchist" - Envious Parasite unwilling to find better solutions other than destruction or others.
"Racist" - an ignorer of merit and sustainer/maintainer of unwarranted privilege.
"LightHouse" - A Pathway to Escape.
Note -- for those too young to remember, many of these are twisted references to a game called "The Colossal Cave" and "Adventure", which existed on computers quite a while before the PC (Personal Computer) ever existed.
"Step On Roach" command that kills a small parasite - If you don't do this soon their are hundreds of them
"Expose the Commie" - find the Mass Grave and use the Armed Populace to kill the Communist-Tyrant
"Carnival Bathysphere Line" cable takes you to "Carnival" where you can obtain the "Vorpal Cotton Candy"
"Only Man" - when you meet Andrew Ryan who wanders about, say this to him and he will give you a golf club and autographed golfball. The golf club can be used to beat the Splicer zombies.
"Art Critic" - conman/charlatan - a self-proclaimed arbiter/judge of art. Has to foist NEW art no matter how bad, to make a living and feel important.
"Corpse" - don't be fooled - chop it up good before passing it. Perhaps it is some unfortunate 'done to death' by Parasites nearby, before YOU arrived.
"Hooverville" - a misnamed blame myth created by the Socialist and Communist, for a problem which never went away and only got worse after these Parasites came to power and tried their 'solutions'.
"Socialist" - a fiend which fools others into enslaving themselves and "knows best" how others should live.
"Ryan Dollar" - useful when you find the "Circus of Values" vending machine where you can buy Pep Bars to restore the strength you will need to retain your Freedom and Rights.
"Leak Patch Kit" - patch the "Leak", unseal the "Securis Door", get to the "Restroom"
"Tea Room" - Kelp Tea is good for you - it prevents scurvy. ( Of course you need "Ryan Dollar" to enter Arcadia to get to the Tea Room )
Exile - there are two kinds - Willing and Forced. Leaving the Surface was one.
"No God" - its own religion, used to subjugate men to those who set themselves up as gods.
"Absinthe" - drink enough and all paths seem the right way ( at least until you go insane AND THEN All Paths Are 'The Right Way' ... )
Panhandling 'Artist' - Fended off with "Don't Quit Your Day Job"
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The 'game' was to be a 'proof of concept' demonstrating a method to teach children, and to access information by adults. Its advantage was the lowering of labor costs for these activities.
One of McClendon's employees had an idea for a more visual game called "Parasite Invaders".
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