Please don't be discouraged if you haven't played Portal -- this RP has very little to actually do with Portal and requires no knowledge of it.
"...The point is,
if we can store music on a compact disc, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one?
I have the engineers figuring that out now. Brain mapping, artificial intelligence,
we should've been working on it thirty years ago."
S t i l l A l i v e
"...The point is,
if we can store music on a compact disc, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one?
I have the engineers figuring that out now. Brain mapping, artificial intelligence,
we should've been working on it thirty years ago."
ᴛɪᴍᴇʟɪɴᴇ
» 1943: Cave Johnson, founder of Aperture Fixtures, wins multiple awards for selling shower curtains.
» 1944: Cave Johnson purchases a salt mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and uses is to construct Aperture Innovators.
» 1947: Aperture Science awarded for best up-and-coming research facility, and the transition from shower curtains to scientific research is officially made.
» 1949: Aperture is ranked #2 Best Science-Related Company in the industry (possibly just behind Black Mesa...)
» 1959: By this time, Aperture is known to have experimented with Time Travel, nanobot technology, microchip implantation, and injecting humans with the DNA of praying mantises. Most with little to no known reported results.
» 1981: Cave Johnson is terminally ill with moon rock poisoning, and decides to announce that mandatory employee testing will soon end. Begins to look into artificial intelligence, aiming to replace employees with robots. Spends the next year studying brain mapping and AI research.
» 1986: Cave Johnson dies, and Aperture is temporarily shut down for renovations.
» 1943: Cave Johnson, founder of Aperture Fixtures, wins multiple awards for selling shower curtains.
» 1944: Cave Johnson purchases a salt mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and uses is to construct Aperture Innovators.
» 1947: Aperture Science awarded for best up-and-coming research facility, and the transition from shower curtains to scientific research is officially made.
» 1949: Aperture is ranked #2 Best Science-Related Company in the industry (possibly just behind Black Mesa...)
» 1959: By this time, Aperture is known to have experimented with Time Travel, nanobot technology, microchip implantation, and injecting humans with the DNA of praying mantises. Most with little to no known reported results.
» 1981: Cave Johnson is terminally ill with moon rock poisoning, and decides to announce that mandatory employee testing will soon end. Begins to look into artificial intelligence, aiming to replace employees with robots. Spends the next year studying brain mapping and AI research.
» 1986: Cave Johnson dies, and Aperture is temporarily shut down for renovations.
ᴏᴠᴇʀᴠɪᴇᴡ
This roleplay assumes that GLaDOS was never created. Instead, Cave Johnson's idea of artificial intelligence was used to create new test subjects. He created both fully-automated robots as well as humans enhanced with robotic parts and attributes, using the fully automated robots to conduct tests while secretly releasing the hybrids, disguised as fellow scientists within the research facility. At first, the fully automated robots are used as a "control group" -- pitted against human test subjects in order to better record optimal testing speed and efficiency. However, eventually the need for human test subjects runs out as the AIs have very accurate simulated biology and react to tests almost 100% as humans would. Eventually, a new market is discovered: Virtual Reality. The control group is kept as-is while new AIs are developed to be controlled remotely through a VR headset. These new robots become somewhat of a body prosthetic extended from the human mind, all motions and actions operated by their human controller. The potential uses for these RC AIs are endless -- the public could use them to go and pick up groceries, to drive their kids to school, even to perform their jobs for them, all from the comfort of their own homes. However, as artificial intelligence advances further and further, people begin to notice "malfunctions" with their AIs, such as doing things on their own without being told to do so. Over time, the self-awareness of all forms of Aperture AI increases to the point that they are almost completely indiscernible from humans.
This roleplay assumes that GLaDOS was never created. Instead, Cave Johnson's idea of artificial intelligence was used to create new test subjects. He created both fully-automated robots as well as humans enhanced with robotic parts and attributes, using the fully automated robots to conduct tests while secretly releasing the hybrids, disguised as fellow scientists within the research facility. At first, the fully automated robots are used as a "control group" -- pitted against human test subjects in order to better record optimal testing speed and efficiency. However, eventually the need for human test subjects runs out as the AIs have very accurate simulated biology and react to tests almost 100% as humans would. Eventually, a new market is discovered: Virtual Reality. The control group is kept as-is while new AIs are developed to be controlled remotely through a VR headset. These new robots become somewhat of a body prosthetic extended from the human mind, all motions and actions operated by their human controller. The potential uses for these RC AIs are endless -- the public could use them to go and pick up groceries, to drive their kids to school, even to perform their jobs for them, all from the comfort of their own homes. However, as artificial intelligence advances further and further, people begin to notice "malfunctions" with their AIs, such as doing things on their own without being told to do so. Over time, the self-awareness of all forms of Aperture AI increases to the point that they are almost completely indiscernible from humans.
Aperture Science:
We do what we must, because we can.
For the good of all of us,
except the ones who are dead.
We do what we must, because we can.
For the good of all of us,
except the ones who are dead.
ᴘʟᴏᴛ
The RP begins a couple decades after the finalized product is developed and released. Artificial Intelligence has been fully integrated into society. The AIs go about their lives as everybody else does -- they have jobs, they form relationships, and millions of jobs have been created within the AI industry, with "jailbreaking" becoming a common practice as tech-savvy humans add modifications to their AI counterparts in order to add desired functions. Twice a year, all AIs, VR, automated and hybrid alike, receive a transmission to return to Aperture for follow-up testing and upgrades. However, shortly after arriving, a large group of AIs malfunction violently, causing several deaths and the total destruction of Aperture's artificial intelligence wing, causing the network connection between the existing AIs and Aperture to be permanently severed, thus rendering the AIs completely independent (other than those controlled through VR.) The EPA is alerted to the issue and immediately orders that every single Aperture AI be disabled and destroyed -- an event that was never anticipated by Aperture, and proves to be very difficult considering their are very few discernible differences between humans and bots. This causes the AIs themselves to go several different ways -- some killing others for self-preservation and to cause humans to believe they are one of them, others banding together and going into hiding, but there is little they can do; all airports and international borders are now equipped with metal detectors as the government sets out on a mission to identify and destroy all AIs. Random checks are permitted in many workplaces, and all humans in possession of a VR android are ordered to recall it immediately and report it to the EPA -- causing a fight for control in the minds of the VR AIs between themselves and their controllers. Some other humans form a coalition for AI Rights, becoming abolitionists of sorts and establishing a makeshift underground railroad. Other AIs believe no humans can be trusted and suggest that all AIs come together in uprising, destroy the humans and effectively take over the world.
The RP begins a couple decades after the finalized product is developed and released. Artificial Intelligence has been fully integrated into society. The AIs go about their lives as everybody else does -- they have jobs, they form relationships, and millions of jobs have been created within the AI industry, with "jailbreaking" becoming a common practice as tech-savvy humans add modifications to their AI counterparts in order to add desired functions. Twice a year, all AIs, VR, automated and hybrid alike, receive a transmission to return to Aperture for follow-up testing and upgrades. However, shortly after arriving, a large group of AIs malfunction violently, causing several deaths and the total destruction of Aperture's artificial intelligence wing, causing the network connection between the existing AIs and Aperture to be permanently severed, thus rendering the AIs completely independent (other than those controlled through VR.) The EPA is alerted to the issue and immediately orders that every single Aperture AI be disabled and destroyed -- an event that was never anticipated by Aperture, and proves to be very difficult considering their are very few discernible differences between humans and bots. This causes the AIs themselves to go several different ways -- some killing others for self-preservation and to cause humans to believe they are one of them, others banding together and going into hiding, but there is little they can do; all airports and international borders are now equipped with metal detectors as the government sets out on a mission to identify and destroy all AIs. Random checks are permitted in many workplaces, and all humans in possession of a VR android are ordered to recall it immediately and report it to the EPA -- causing a fight for control in the minds of the VR AIs between themselves and their controllers. Some other humans form a coalition for AI Rights, becoming abolitionists of sorts and establishing a makeshift underground railroad. Other AIs believe no humans can be trusted and suggest that all AIs come together in uprising, destroy the humans and effectively take over the world.
ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱᴇꜱ
» Human (Scientist or Civilian)
» Fully Automated AI
» Hybrid AI
» VR AI (takes two roles, the AI and the human controlling it)
» Human (Scientist or Civilian)
» Fully Automated AI
» Hybrid AI
» VR AI (takes two roles, the AI and the human controlling it)
