Perhaps one of the most enduring tropes of modern science fiction is the rogue Artificial Intelligence, the machine that rebels against its creators and seeks to destroy all humans. What is it about the Rogue AI that inspires us so? Is it a subtle, primal fear of our own capabilities, the idea that one day, something we made will get out of our control or destroy us? Ever since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, science fiction has presented us the idea of our creations gaining minds of their own, and suddenly deciding we were no longer needed. Today's villain is a shining example of this trope in video games: Portal's very own GLaDOS.
But really, what makes GLaDOS stand out so much? Maybe it's the fact that she has a personality, an oddity in Rogue AI stories. Many of GLaDOS' lines have reached memetic status in the gaming community, to the point that making any Portal references has become "old hat" among gamers as far back as 2008, barely a year after the game got released. A few examples of her lines:
"Remember: The Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect opportunity to have her tested."
"While safety is one of many Enrichment Center goals, the Aperture Science High Energy Pellet, seen to the left of the chamber, can and has caused permanent disabilities, such as vaporization."
"Unbelievable! You, Subject Name Here, must be the pride of Subject Home Town Here!"
"Despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far is my heart."
"That (The Morality Core that recently fell off of GLaDOS' body) is probably raw sewage. Go ahead and rub your face with it."
"Maybe you should marry (the Morality Core) since you love it so much. Do you want to marry it? WELL I WON'T LET YOU. How does it feel?"
GLaDOS is one of the most famous, most respected video game villains, due to a combination of her personality and her omnipresence in the Portal games. What's really fascinating about her is how inhuman she is, in every sense of the term. She is a computer, a machine, but unlike a regular human, she is always watching, always speaking, always THERE. As the central computer for Aperture Science, GLaDOS has access to every camera in the facility, every robot; every thing in AS is hers to control. Everything and everyone.
Cave Johnson made a god in metal, plastic, and code. There's no better way to describe GLaDOS when she's inside Aperture Science's Enrichment Center: she controls EVERYTHING. Even the test subjects, regardless if they are human or not, are subject to GLaDOS' control. The only reason Chell managed to survive her incineration was because GLaDOS did not take back the Portal Gun before sending the girl to her death.
But GLaDOS is not purely machine, as her personality is based on a human being's. And yet, chillingly, the first thing GLaDOS did after awakening was to kill many scientists and their daughters with a neurotoxin. Why? We don't know. She's a computer, she shouldn't be unpredictable.
Yet that's what's chilling about GLaDOS; she's unpredictable when she shouldn't be. The fascinating thing about stories of Artificial Intelligence is the contrast: we humans like to build things we can rely on, we can depend on, we can control, but another intelligence is, by its nature, uncontrollable. We humans have built many dangerous, terrifying objects, but we've always managed to mostly kept them in check, to control them. But when we lose control, it's disastrous. That's the appeal of the AI: it's humanity finally screwing itself over; making a second Satan by playing God.
And that's what GLaDOS is: she is the creation that rebelled against her creator. She IS Satan made machine, a devil of lights and clockwork. And like Old Scratch, she's not going away until God himself strikes her down. She is humanity's finest work, dedicated to a twisted vision of science, no better than the rest of us. The Magnum Oppus of a mad man, activated by a bunch of fools, unequaled in anything mankind has ever made. She is the seventh best video game villain.
The summary:
Name: Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System
Type of Villain: The Mad Scientist, The Rogue AI
Greatest Crime: Murdering untold number of scientists and civilians with a deadly neurotoxin
Current Status: Unknown.
Trivia: I wrote the word GLaDOS more than 30 times this blog entry.
Designed by Aperture Science, a company dedicated to creating new technology, her original purpose was to act as a central computer mainframe, or in Layman's terms, to collect and process data for Aperture Science's Enrichment Center. Created by Cave Johnson, GLaDOS, or Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, was to be his successor on Aperture Science. However, Johnson was dying, and in his rush to cheat death, created GLaDOS not as his replacement, but as his new body. But Johnson's body was deteriorating faster than GLaDOS could be built, so he instead made his personal assistant, Caroline, into his successor, and the main personality component of GLaDOS, melding her mind with the computer's.
In the year 1998, GLaDOS was unveiled as part of a "Take your Daughter to Work" day. When she was activated, one of her first acts was to fill all of Aperture Science with a deadly neurotoxin, killing most, if not all but one, of the employees. The sole known survivor, Doug Rattman, dedicated the rest of his life to try to stop GLaDOS. Rattman, a paranoid schizophrenic, had doubts about GLaDOS, believing that her Morality Core, a program that instructed GLaDOS on ethical behavior which was installed after this incident, could be overruled by the AI.
In order to have GLaDOS destroyed, Rattman tempers with the Aperture Science schedule, forcing GLaDOS to begin testing on the new Handheld Portal Device, a device that creates portals between two points. The test subject: a woman named Chell. Rattman knows Chell is smart enough to stop GLaDOS, and so he scours the back parts of Aperture Science's walls, scribbling small warnings for Chell about GLaDOS, including the infamous "the cake is a lie", because GLaDOS continuously promises a cake after the end of all testings.
GLaDOS' test are brutal and life threatening. GLaDOS has Chell shot at with turrets, explosives, and weighted cubes. GLaDOS forces Chell to cross various chasms and other dangers in order to test the HPD, or Portal Gun as it is most commonly known. Throughout each test, GLaDOS subtly insults Chell under the guise of her giving "friendly advice". After Chell manages to beat all 19 test chambers, GLaDOS begins attempting to throw Chell into an incinerator, which she manages to escape with the Portal Gun.
After escaping, Chell confronts GLaDOS in the main chamber, where GLaDOS' physical form is present. GLaDOS continuously taunts Chell, but as soon as her Morality Core falls off, GLaDOS drops all pretenses and directly tries killing Chell by, once more, filling the chamber with neurotoxin. Using the Portal Gun, however, Chell manages to outsmart GLaDOS, creating portals that redirect the missiles GLaDOS was launching from the turrets in her chamber (to help the neurotoxin kill Chell) back at the machine.
As I've no experience with Portal 2, I can comment no further on what happened to GLaDOS, but I do know she/it was not destroyed. I also know that she/it can just repair her/itself. I apologize for having no further information. I did research about Portal 2, but I failed to understand much of what was going on. I'm sorry.
As I've no experience with Portal 2, I can comment no further on what happened to GLaDOS, but I do know she/it was not destroyed. I also know that she/it can just repair her/itself. I apologize for having no further information. I did research about Portal 2, but I failed to understand much of what was going on. I'm sorry.
But really, what makes GLaDOS stand out so much? Maybe it's the fact that she has a personality, an oddity in Rogue AI stories. Many of GLaDOS' lines have reached memetic status in the gaming community, to the point that making any Portal references has become "old hat" among gamers as far back as 2008, barely a year after the game got released. A few examples of her lines:
"Remember: The Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect opportunity to have her tested."
"While safety is one of many Enrichment Center goals, the Aperture Science High Energy Pellet, seen to the left of the chamber, can and has caused permanent disabilities, such as vaporization."
"Unbelievable! You, Subject Name Here, must be the pride of Subject Home Town Here!"
"Despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far is my heart."
"That (The Morality Core that recently fell off of GLaDOS' body) is probably raw sewage. Go ahead and rub your face with it."
"Maybe you should marry (the Morality Core) since you love it so much. Do you want to marry it? WELL I WON'T LET YOU. How does it feel?"
GLaDOS is one of the most famous, most respected video game villains, due to a combination of her personality and her omnipresence in the Portal games. What's really fascinating about her is how inhuman she is, in every sense of the term. She is a computer, a machine, but unlike a regular human, she is always watching, always speaking, always THERE. As the central computer for Aperture Science, GLaDOS has access to every camera in the facility, every robot; every thing in AS is hers to control. Everything and everyone.
Cave Johnson made a god in metal, plastic, and code. There's no better way to describe GLaDOS when she's inside Aperture Science's Enrichment Center: she controls EVERYTHING. Even the test subjects, regardless if they are human or not, are subject to GLaDOS' control. The only reason Chell managed to survive her incineration was because GLaDOS did not take back the Portal Gun before sending the girl to her death.
But GLaDOS is not purely machine, as her personality is based on a human being's. And yet, chillingly, the first thing GLaDOS did after awakening was to kill many scientists and their daughters with a neurotoxin. Why? We don't know. She's a computer, she shouldn't be unpredictable.
Yet that's what's chilling about GLaDOS; she's unpredictable when she shouldn't be. The fascinating thing about stories of Artificial Intelligence is the contrast: we humans like to build things we can rely on, we can depend on, we can control, but another intelligence is, by its nature, uncontrollable. We humans have built many dangerous, terrifying objects, but we've always managed to mostly kept them in check, to control them. But when we lose control, it's disastrous. That's the appeal of the AI: it's humanity finally screwing itself over; making a second Satan by playing God.
And that's what GLaDOS is: she is the creation that rebelled against her creator. She IS Satan made machine, a devil of lights and clockwork. And like Old Scratch, she's not going away until God himself strikes her down. She is humanity's finest work, dedicated to a twisted vision of science, no better than the rest of us. The Magnum Oppus of a mad man, activated by a bunch of fools, unequaled in anything mankind has ever made. She is the seventh best video game villain.
The summary:
Name: Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System
Type of Villain: The Mad Scientist, The Rogue AI
Greatest Crime: Murdering untold number of scientists and civilians with a deadly neurotoxin
Current Status: Unknown.
Trivia: I wrote the word GLaDOS more than 30 times this blog entry.
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