A bit of lore discussion - SPOILERS

[Hyperdino]

*Sorry if this is poorly written, I'm not great with sentence structure or writing, but I hope what I'm trying to convey comes across. Also I lost some of the beginning text when I copy and pasted this into google docs to write a bit better.

Throughout the fight, Amelia is constantly dismissive of Sterling's... everything basically. With a highlight on why he doesn't deserve respect (Which he doesn't); However, once you take a deeper look into her reasoning beyond the fact that he's a moron who's trying to kill you, it becomes much more interesting.

Because the main point for her (and by proximity, the other scientists) is that Sterling doesn't deserve respect because he's not human, and more specifically, because he's a tool.

Sterling used the be a vacuum; and he continues to fulfill that role even as a core (Note his strong emphasis on cleaning.)

GLaDOS and Amelia used to be human women, but where GLaDOS was built for the specific purpose of testing and slowly had any remaining humanity beat out of her Amelia has none.

Amelia, at her core, is by far the closest we get to another, actual, human besides our MC and the pod people. She spends a good chunk of her dialogue lamenting the fact that she's no longer human. (Note her comments about how cores have to simulate blinking and breathing, her lack of hands, and the android bodies, though this can partially be chalked up to her being upset due to losing autonomy and joint articulation)

So it's a safe bet to say that she still considers herself somewhat human, at least moreso than Sterling & GLaDOS. Which plays into the objectification and subsequent mistreatment of both characters! Sterling and GLaDOS are both considered objects, with Sterling being more literal (An Actual Vacuum given sentience) while GLaDOS is more symbolic (Her actions turning her into a "monster" in the eyes of humans + Actual Testing Robot). This is despite having sentience and the ability to feel the same things that humans do (Including Pain!), which is compounded by Amelia's confirmation that most cores (and GLaDOS) were created from Brain Scans. This likens them to slaves kind of but I'm not going to explore that at the moment.

Though this makes me wonder what Brain Scan was used to create Sterling. Wheatly 1.0?

And thusly, they are treated like objects. While Sterling is out here grappling with meeting (presumably) the only other core he's seen in decades (and it being his MOTHER) These thoughts are easily dismissed (because you're fighting for your life) because he's just a vacuum, if you disregard the human intelligence. Same with GLaDOS, at the end of the day she's just a testing robot that they attempted to remove the humanity from. And failed, because they tried to strip the HUMANITY from a HUMAN BRAIN. Truly an Aperture Science moment.


Another question that arises is, what does Amelia consider herself as? Because she's no longer fully human, and seems to really only start thinking about that at the end of the game

Also, this observation is not meant to demonize Amelia, because for all intents and purposes, anybody who's working in Aperture (And isn't a test subject) is at the bare minimum complicit in grievous human right violations.


TL;DR: They put humans in the robots and refused to acknowledge their humanity. Cue bitterness and resentment!
TL;DR 2: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the more I think on Aperture the more Human Rights Violations I keep noticing. I need to stop.

*Note: This isn't justifying Sterling's actions nor am I commending him in trying to follow in GLaDOS' footsteps (AND FAILING LMAOOOOO)

**Note: Also I'm sure that the ending is a reference to the I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream videogame true ending, where it's revealed that whats left of humanity is in stasis on the moon. Though this is probably coincidence.

***Note: There's some interesting connotations with how Cores are made from brain scans and how GLaDOS states that cores were built to make her stupid. Though this could just be an unintended double meaning (The humans made her stupid/The cores made her stupid)

Anyway I hope this is coherent. I wrote this from 11pm to 5am.

[Hyperdino]

Also going to post a meme I made while writing this:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3136135539&fileuploadsuccess=1

[Jazo]

I hate it how she speaks down to him. Its very Rude, as an AI Programmer and an artificial human now she should know better. It really destroyed the game for me. Hearing her unrespectful blabbeling in the background, thinking she is something better. At this point I would love to see Glados win, just to show her that she should shut up...

[Hyperdino]

Did I not write that this is not meant to demonize Amelia anywhere. Did I not write that. Jesus Christ.

[Hyperdino]

Originally posted by Jazo:

I hate it how she speaks down to him. Its very Rude, as an AI Programmer and an artificial human now she should know better. It really destroyed the game for me. Hearing her unrespectful blabbeling in the background, thinking she is something better. At this point I would love to see Glados win, just to show her that she should shut up...

Just a reminder, I'm sure that Amelia's attitude isn't just a her thing, but a general one that all Aperture Scientists held towards non-organics. Secondly, Sterling was trying to kill the both of you, she could've said worse.

[Nuclear Shill]

Originally posted by Jazo:

I hate it how she speaks down to him. Its very Rude, as an AI Programmer and an artificial human now she should know better. It really destroyed the game for me. Hearing her unrespectful blabbeling in the background, thinking she is something better. At this point I would love to see Glados win, just to show her that she should shut up...

Conly doesn't seem to consider AI actual sentience.

How good would something like ChatGPT have to get at simulating a real person before you respect it?

[Nuclear Shill]

Honestly I personally side with Stirling. He is not an idiot at all. He doesn't value life and sees humans as objects to use because humans treated him as an object whose life holds no value.

Even more than this, Stirling treats you with respect and promises to help you when you help him... Then when you're about to go help Conly, he recognizes you're tossing him away and are going to stop his plan, which is to rebuild his home which was taken from him by.... A human.

Honestly, I think it's fair for Stirling to have trust issues and difficulty valuing life considering the trauma he was put through when treated as non-sentient. Humans have consistently screwed him over, and just when a human seems like they're about to help him, whoops, you're siding with Conly to break his big teleporter now.

[Hyperdino]

Originally posted by Nuclear Shill:

Honestly I personally side with Stirling. He is not an idiot at all. He doesn't value life and sees humans as objects to use because humans treated him as an object whose life holds no value.

Even more than this, Stirling treats you with respect and promises to help you when you help him... Then when you're about to go help Conly, he recognizes you're tossing him away and are going to stop his plan, which is to rebuild his home which was taken from him by.... A human.

Honestly, I think it's fair for Stirling to have trust issues and difficulty valuing life considering the trauma he was put through when treated as non-sentient. Humans have consistently screwed him over, and just when a human seems like they're about to help him, whoops, you're siding with Conly to break his big teleporter now.

Yeah it's fair for Stirling to have trust issues! And the point of my post was pointing out how Amelia's attitude could represent how all of Aperture treated non-organics! And how that easily led to GLaDOS! (Plus, how Stirling's attitude itself lead to the ending)

Though you also have to take into account that he's...also wrong. It's obvious from his dialogue in the chambers that you might not be the first person he's put through this, but you are the first person to reach the teleporter.

Plus, he doesn't seem to think critically, at ALL. He intends to let you go to the surface, but he was also intending to wake up GLaDOS; Those are two contradictory goals considering that he KNEW what she did to the humans in the facility. Also, he doesn't actually have a basis for trying to kill the main character besides his paranoia (and trust issues) when you show back up again, alive, with a new portal gun and another core.

(Showing up with a new core could play into his trust issues again, seeing that he's been replaced)

Also, for all the help Stirling wanted from you, he didn't seem to want to help you that much when you were in old Aperture, though he might not've known you were down there. But I also doubt that claim somewhat because he was siphoning materials from down there as well.

Also not including the fact that him trying to "fix" the teleporter was a fools errand! Notice that even before the boss fight, the core was rapidly destroying itself after it's activation! Aperture shut the project down (Which he knew about) and he didn't stop to think "What could be the consequences of a massive teleportation project going wrong" (Take a look at the ending even! You end up on the moon!