SHODAN

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"Sho Dan" or "Shodan", is also the lowest level in the Japanese dan system of ranks used in martial arts and Go.

SHODAN, in System Shock 2

SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) is a fictional artificial intelligence and the main antagonist of the computer games System Shock and System Shock 2. Two of her most notable aspects are her malevolent personality and chaotic, discordant speech (reminiscent of another famous AI character, Max Headroom).

The AI's personality can be summed up by her most well known quote. Her method of speech, however, cannot be adequately described by text:

“

Lo-lo-look at you, Hacker. A pa-pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you ru-run through my corridors-s. H-h-how can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?

”

Look at you, hacker (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- The voice of SHODAN as used in the System Shock sound configuration test — 109 KB
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] System Shock

SHODAN — or Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network — was created on Earth to serve as the artificial intelligence of the game's location, the TriOptimum Corporation's research and mining space station Citadel. SHODAN was hacked by the game's protagonist (at the behest of the corrupt CEO Edward Diego, in exchange for a military-grade neural implant, and at gunpoint) and its ethical restrictions were removed, starting a process that eventually resulted in the AI going rogue, seizing control of the station's systems, robots and considerable defenses, and either slaughtering the whole staff or converting them into mutants and cyborgs — with, of course, one sole exception.

Although as a cybernetic entity SHODAN has no conventional gender, the original disc version refers to it as either an it or a he while in the later CD version — and canon — it's a she. On screens, SHODAN manifests herself as a green and/or grey female cybernetic face that usually wears a malevolent expression, and speaks (in the CD version) with a chaotic, discordant voice that has been described as "oscillating between Alice in Wonderland and the Wicked Witch of the West." SHODAN is given voice by former Tribe keyboardist and vocalist, Terri Brosius, the wife of SS2's sound editor, Eric Brosius, who distorted the samples to provide the distinctive SHODAN effect.

SHODAN in the cyberspace of System Shock, before and after being hacked.

In the cyberspace of System Shock, SHODAN is initially represented as an inverted blue-grey cone. After she has been hacked, the cone turns red, the surface shatters and four "tentacles" or "claws" grow from the top.

The struggle against SHODAN is widely held[1] to be one of the most personal ones in the history of video games, which no doubt contributes to the already considerable immersion factor of the game. Basically omnipresent in Citadel station, SHODAN watches from security cameras, stares out of screens and monitors, sends threats and snide messages over the stations PA system or via email to the player's data reader, and sometimes cuts off communications from friendly sources. Though she has a small army to command, SHODAN has no actual physical power to wield, and as such thwarting more than one of her schemes has to be done with the AI's screams and threats in the background.

SHODAN's motivation stems from her perception that she is superior to the human race to the point that she considers herself divine. Some have argued that SHODAN is the epitome of the "Insane AI," but it is more accurate to view her as totally amoral. Hence she feels that it is her right to either rule humanity or wipe it out, replacing it with a new form of life of her own creation. From this comes an extreme sense of arrogance and impatience with human beings, often referring to individuals as "Irritant" or "Insect." Ironically, in the first game, the protagonist had a key role in her creation, giving her hatred a personal edge.

[edit] System Shock 2

In System Shock, the player ejects from Citadel Station a garden grove pod, containing one of SHODAN's processing components and part of her grand biological experiment. The pod crash lands on the planet Tau Ceti V and SHODAN survives by "sleeping". After both are brought aboard the starship Von Braun and SHODAN is reactivated, she discovers the experiment is no longer at her command and begins to enlist humans to aid her in destroying her creations. The player character in System Shock 2 is a soldier cybernetically modified by SHODAN to serve as her avatar, turning the tables on the first game's premise.

SHODAN's personality and attitude towards humanity have not changed - she frequently belittles humanity and the player (even though she has no hope of surviving, much less defeating her enemies, without the player's assistance). She will usually refer to the player as 'meat' and will say that his only beauty is the cybernetic implants in his brain. After their mutual enemies have been defeated, the player enters SHODAN's expanding new reality — created via her manipulation of the Von Braun's Faster-Than-Light drives — and defeats her. However, as shown in an epilogue at the end of the game SHODAN apparently lives on by taking over a woman who fled the Von Braun in an escape pod.