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This topic has moved here: Subject: Was is really only 100,000 years ago? *Warning: Minor Spoiler*
  • Subject: Was is really only 100,000 years ago? *Warning: Minor Spoiler*
Subject: Was is really only 100,000 years ago? *Warning: Minor Spoiler*

Two Million Year Theory

I wish to start out by stating that the near 1:1 local years to Terran years that we see when calculating the time since the first firing of the Halo Rings has always bothered me a bit. While 100,000 years ago, humanity was still in Africa, I wish to show the possibility that the firing of the rings dates back much further.

Soell System

We know that the Soell System consists of, at least, the Soell star itself, the gas giant Threshold that is roughly twice the size of Jupiter, the moon Basis that is roughly twice the size of Earth, and Installation 04. It is from this system, specifically Installation 04’s Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, that we find out the actual firing of the Halo network was 101,217 local year ago. Using the assumption that Soell falls somewhere in the spectral classification ranges for a type G (yellow) star, given the fact that such information was never disclosed to use previously, we are able to make parallels with our own star system. Our own star, Sol, is a type G2V star.

Using the size of Jupiter and Saturn, and their relative distances from Sol, we find that the most plausible position for a planet twice the size of Jupiter to lie would be somewhere between these two orbits. This would, in turn, allow us to find a more fitting conversion between “Threshold” years and Terran years. For simplicity, the term “years” will refer to Terran years. Jupiter, the lower limit for this conversion, makes its orbit about once every 11.86 years. Saturn, the upper limit, makes its orbit about once every 29.5 years. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that 1 Threshold year would lie somewhere between 11.86 and 29.5 years. Using these to calculate the firing of the Halo’s, we find that 101,217 Threshold years ago would be somewhere between 1,200,433 and 2,985,901 years ago (or between 1,197,881 B.C. and 2,983,399 B.C.).

Geological Time (3 – 1.2 M.Y.A.)

One interesting fact that appears when we use this new time frame to estimate the time of the firing of the Halo’s comes from the fact that this geological “cover” encompasses the Pliocene – Pleistocene Boundary roughly 1.8 M.Y.A. Like many other epoch boundaries, this one saw a major extinction, although this extinction was specific to marine animals. I am sure at this point many of you are questioning my logic for pointing this out. After all, Halo was meant to destroy “any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood” (343 Guilty Spark, Halo). However, theories have been surfacing recently that Earth was suppose to be special, that was part of the reason why humans are seen my the Monitors as “Reclaimers” and why the massive Forerunner artifact was build under the plains of Kenya in the area of Mombasa and Voi.

With that pointed out, I turn to a current theory for this extinction to bolster my claim that this time frame saw the activation of the Halo Rings, and not the time around 100,000 B.C. that has frequently been claimed. An article presented in 2002 suggested that a Supernova near Earth may have been the cause of this extinction (Source). The article continues to suggest that a massive bombardment of Gamma Ray Radiation from the Supernova would have caused ozone layer to become compromised. As such, Sol’s radiation would make it to Earth’s surface, causing the oceans to heat up. This would have killed off the simple algae and plankton that are so often the basis of marine food chains, sending a ripple effect up the food chain and killing off those that could not adapt quick enough. Had this Gamma Ray bombardment been powerful enough, the ozone layer of any planet would have been stripped clear and the planet’s star would completely irradiate the plant leaving a mostly barren rock with only bacteria and small, adaptive creatures alive to reproduce and start the evolutionary cycle all over.

Human Ancestors

I admit I previously assumed the first firing of the Halos to have been roughly 65 million years ago, to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, if this were the case, then it would have been impossible for the Forerunners to know what humans look like, as they would not evolve to something remotely looking like a human for over another 60 million years. With the aforementioned calculations, we find a few human ancestors that lived in the vicinity of the Kenya artifact. Specifically, these being H. habilis and H. erectus. Of the two, H. erectus appears to be the more likely candidate for the earliest “Reclaimers”, since they were apparently very similar in appearance to the modern human even if their brain was not as large as our own (with their brain cavity being roughly 75% the size of the brain cavity on a modern human). However, it is possible that all higher-level, humanoid ancestors were classified as “Reclaimers” to allow for the millennia of evolution that still lay before the human race.

!!SPOILER WARNING!!

If you have not read the information provided in the terminals found in Halo 3, it is suggested that you skip this portion of the theory as it draws from information provided from these terminals rather than theories that this community came up with prior to Halo 3 arrived on the market or other scientific deduction. The next bold-faced tab will mark the beginning of the continued, spoiler-free theory.

This reference finds its way into the “Human Ancestors” section, but is actually more of a reference to the Forerunners themselves. In the sixth terminal, we find references to a Forerunner, referred to as the “[Librarian]”, who was indexing the inhabitants of Earth. It was this Forerunner who apparently saw to the construction of the facility on Earth as well as, most likely, the construction of the Key Ship used by the Prophet of Truth to gain access to Installation 00 seeing as how previous message fragments (Fragment 4) make mention to the destruction of all older Key Ships by this Librarian. This Forerunner makes mention to Mt. Kilimanjaro, albeit cryptically, as being his or her final resting place. The reason I bring this up here is because of a small note in Geological Time known as H. rudolfensis. This was a ‘human skeleton’ that was found in Kenya recently that was dated to sometime between 2.4 and 1.6 M.Y.A., placing it within the time-frame set above for the firing of the Halo Rings. Only partial fragments of a single skull have been found to date, which brings up the possibility of this being a species ‘alien’ to Earth, rather than a true human ancestor. I feel obliged to point out that this skull was located on the other side of Kenya at Lake Rudolf, rather than along the Kenya/Tanzania border where Mt. Kilimanjaro can be found. This could be explained away, however, due to the fact that the H. erectus species which was common in the area was a nomadic group of Hunter/Gatherers. As such, N’chala (Tribal Elder in the Cradle of Life) and his tribe clearly viewed the Forerunners as gods and may have taken the Librarian with them as they traveled across Africa, either integrating him/her into their tribe as their leader or simply taken his/her bones with them as a sign that they were “Favored by the gods” to all those they came across and fought. It is worth pointing out that the grave site this skull was found at does include H. erectus and H. habilis skeletons.









Conclusion

A 1-to-1 Threshold to Terran year conversion is certainly possible. This theory, after all, begins with the key assumption that the Soell system operates very similarly to the Sol system that we call home. Astrophysics has clearly shown examples of this assumption’s fallacies, an example being the Class M3.5V Star Gliese 876. Gliese 876 b is a gas giant 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter that orbits this star with closer than the orbit of Mercury. Its local year would be more along the lines of 60 Terran Days. However, it is my personal belief that placing a nearly 2 million Terran year time-frame between the firing of the Halo Rings rather than the previously suggested roughly 100,000 Terran year time-frame provides a much more feasible timescale for the Covenant races to re-evolved from small life forms to the superior space-faring races that we see them as in 2525.

However, I present this theory for the review of my Halo peers. I look forward to hearing what others may have to say.

I thank you for the time you spent reading this,
WhitestarAnpu

[Edited on 10.01.2007 7:13 PM PDT]

  • 10.01.2007 6:14 PM PDT
Subject: Apendix 1.1

Gamma Ray Burst: Halo's True Weapon?

While browsing Halopedia today, specifically the article on the Halos, I came across the section regarding the function of the Halos. In this section, it was speculated that the primary weapon of the Halos was, indeed, a Gamma Ray Burst. Installation 04's maximum effective radius is 25,000 light years, as stated by 343 Guilty Spark in the opening cut screen to the level Two Betrayals. Given that the Galactic Disk of the Milky Way Galaxy is somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 light years in diameter, the area of the overall galactic would be roughly 1.53e10 and 3.14e10 square light years while the total coverage area of seven Halo rings with an effective radius of 25,000 light years, assuming no overlap, would be in the neighborhood of 5.5e10 square light years. Given the presence of a galactic bulge in the center of our galaxy, it is far more likely to assume that the largest and most powerful of the Halo installations would be located at roughly the galactic center in order to cover this bulge and the remaining six installations would be spread out amongst the arms of the galaxy to provide optimal coverage. We know that the Halo rings are more than capable to obliterating all life in the galaxy as this has happened once before. The reason these figures are shown here, however, is to illustrate that a radius of 25,000 light years would be all that is required to cover the galaxy as a whole. It's also worth mentioning that this number, though possibly arbitrary, is roughly the distance between the Earth and the galactic center which is currently estimated to be between 26,000 +/- 1,400 light years.

The point for this discussion is a reference to the "soft gamma repeater" that is known as SGR 1806-20. More specifically, this is a type of neutron star known as a magnetar (Source). On December 27, 2004, a gamma ray burst from this magnetar reached Earth and had enough of an effect to show just how horrible such a burst could be. These gamma rays temporarily expanded the ionosphere and saw 1.3e39 Joules of energy, released in one tenth of a second, impacting our atmosphere at once. The calculations show that this is more energy that the sun will release in 100,000 years, which shows an interest connection to the number of Threshold years since the last firing of the Rings. This blast, had it been within 10 light years of Earth, would have completely eradicated the ozone layer with the same amount of explosive energy as a 12 kiloton nuclear blast 7.5 kilometers away from the blast site. Of course, since the power levels of the three Pulse Phase Generators from the Halos are unknown, it's possible that the amounts of energy are even greater that this magnetar, bringing the levels of destruction seen in 10 light years to the 25,000 effective radius of the Halo Rings.

  • 10.02.2007 2:23 PM PDT
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you really need to get out more dude

  • 10.02.2007 5:10 PM PDT

Posted by: spawnkiller
you really need to get out more dude


Truth by told, this was the result of me being bored at work.

  • 10.02.2007 5:21 PM PDT
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I didn't read the whole thing it's too long.

  • 10.02.2007 5:36 PM PDT
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Heh, it seems your thought process is far too advanced for anyone here as Ive seen no other posts other than "too long didnt read". In that case, I thought Id throw out what I think and something I read that might explain that the cycle of 100,000 might have been sufficient. Assuming your year-year calculations are correct (I was honestly too tired to try to validate, but I probally will later) you have an outstanding argument as all your other information seems to be correct. I was actually amazed that I was reading something like this on these forums. Now to my small but perhaps critical point of evidence. It says in the Limited Collectors Edition book that Tier 0 of Tech Advancement is the theoretical cap of exploration. That being intergalactic travel as well as being able to accelerate the evolutionary process. Now I have yet to read the 4th book of the halo series but I will when Contact Harvest comes out on the 30th on Amazon I think it said, so there might be something in there that disputes or validates the above info. So in theory, if these Tier 0 creatures did exist, they could have something to do with the evolutionary process after the firings of Halo due to the massive amount of damage they caused. How those creatures were able to survive is something else, after all what Ive said is all in theory :) . I hope to hear about any thing you can add as It was enjoyable to read your post.

Also, I did just wake up so feel free to edit mistakes I made about anything and Ill gladly fix them.

  • 10.03.2007 10:31 AM PDT
Subject: Re:

Thank you very much for your response. I also thank you for the information on the Tier 0 Tech Level on the Limited Collector's Edition book. I wish to apologize for not providing a more fitting response at this time; however, I need to get access to this information to provide you with such a response. I feel it would be wrong not to do so, but I did want to make sure that you knew I appreciated the information.

  • 10.03.2007 11:49 AM PDT

I hope this proves to be a fitting rebuttal to your theory, DeathRow. Again, I thank you for the constructive criticsim. Feel free to rebuke any points I have made here, if you feel it needed, as ever revision and rebuttal brings this theory either one step closer to being proved either true or completely false, just like any other proper theory.

Precursors: The Tier 0 Argument

The Beastarium found with the Limited and Legendary Editions of Halo 3 defines the “Zeroth Tier” of technological advancement thusly:

Tier 0: Transsentient
As the [Forerunners] had no examples of civilizations with technological achievements greater than themselves-with the exception of the Precursors-this is a theoretical ceiling. They can travel intergalactically and accelerate evolution of intelligent life. The may be creatures of legend.

The suggestion has been made that such a race may still exist and possibly accelerated the evolution of life within the Milky Way Galaxy following the initial firing of the Halo Rings. I believe it would be unwise to completely ignore such rational as anything is indeed possible. If such a race did still exist, then the previously assumed 100,000 years would be more than enough time for the Human, San 'Shyuum, and Sangheili races to advanced from Tech Level 7 to Tech Level 3. At this point, I wish to state that the reason I use Tech Level 3 for the latter two races is because their advancement to Tech Level 2 was made through the reverse-engineering of technology that the Human race did not have access to until recently. Given the fact that the San ‘Shyuum and Sangheili races were not from the same planet and at war until the discovery of Forerunner technology by the San ‘Shyuum, it is very likely to assume that they both reach Tech Level 3 sooner than humanity and of their own accord.

However, I am personally of the opinion that a Tier 0 civilization was not involved with the recreation of the galaxy for two primary reasons. First and foremost of the reasons why is the fact that the Beastarium makes no mention of such a race existing in the galaxy at this current time. This can be disputed, of course, due to the fact that the Beastarium is not completed. However, it is written from the perspective of the Forerunners and so is most like being formulated by a construct left behind by the “[Librarian]”, specifically whatever introduces itself as “Alexandria Before The Fire”, when 343 Guilty Spark accesses Terminal 3. Furthermore, the list of sources for information for the Beastarium states that Installation Monitor 343 Guilty Spark is one source, but is currently “Under Investigation”. The reasoning for this investigation is possibly due to the obvious rampancy he shows at the end of the game.

The second reason deals with the Precursors themselves. At this point in time, they are the only “known” “Zeroth Tier” civilization to have ever had a place in our galaxy. Also, the Forerunners themselves appeared to revere the Precursors, as is evident by the fact that they are placed in this “Zeroth Tier” of technological advancement. However, very little else is known about them. At this point, I wish to point towards the Covenant to make a simple parallel by pointing out that the Covenant revere the Forerunners and have elevated them to a god-like status. We know, of course, that the Forerunners did indeed exist, as it made prevalent by their scattered remains of a civilization across the galaxy and beyond. However, there are no artifacts known at the present time that even point to existence of the Precursors unless some artifacts were mistakenly attributed to the Forerunners instead of the Precursors, such as the time-shifting crystal found in Halo: First Strike. But, even then, there are no guarantees that the Precursors even obtained the completeness of the “Zeroth Tier”, perhaps only obtaining the intergalactic travel and left this galaxy never to return again. This is manifest in the fact that the Beastarium states only that the Precursors had technological achievements greater than those of the Forerunners, rather than explicitly stating they were had reached the "Zeroth Tier". As such, though acceleration of the evolution of species by a “Zeroth Tier” civilization that is currently unknown to us is indeed a possibility, I wish to take a leap of faith on my own theory here and use one paraphrase of Occam’s Razor. “We should not assert that for which we do not have some proof.” With little to no solid proof of the existence of a “Zeroth Tier” civilization, either at the current time or in the years following the firing of the Halo Rings, the likelihood of such a race accelerating Human and Covenant evolution appears slim.

[Edited on 10.03.2007 3:25 PM PDT]

  • 10.03.2007 1:42 PM PDT
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Indeed, a very fitting rebuttal. I have nothing at this moment to refute your statements. Perhaps in time one of our theories will be deemed true.

  • 10.03.2007 4:43 PM PDT

Indeed. If you happen to notice anything else you wish to refute down the road, please do so. Or, feel free to pass the theory along to your friends so that it can be heard. :)

  • 10.03.2007 5:12 PM PDT

Appendix A: Orbital Mechanics

Appendix A-1: Strengthening The Class G Argument

One of the key initial arguments for the orbit of Threshold lay in the fact that Soell was a Class G star, much the same as the Class G2V star that our homeworld of Earth revolves around. Rather than get into a series of discussions as to why it was more likely to be Class G than the extremely common Class M (Red), I merely took that to be an assumption to make calculations easier. However, the purpose of this appendix is to provide mathematic proof for the distance that Threshold is from Soell. As such, we shall begin by showing that Soell is, indeed, a Class G star.

Click for Image
Source

The previous image of Burial Mounds was found while surfing the net for such images. The reason for this is simply due to the fact that the description for Burial Mounds states that it is a Heretic camp built within the wreckage of Installation 04 on Basis. The star is showing up as a yellow color in the atmosphere, which I believe successfully classifies Soell as a Class G star. However, I can understand that some might assume this coloration to be closer to white which would signify Soell as a Class A or Class F star. In order to be fair, I will provide computations for a planet of Threshold's size orbiting these two stars as well. However, it is worth pointing out that 8% of the Main Sequence Stars in our Galaxy are Class Gs, as opposed to the 3.6% that are either Class A or Class F stars. Given the whiter shade of the apparently color, I feel it safe to say it does not fall into the yellow-orange range of Class K (which accounts for 13% of all Main Sequence Stars) or the red-orange of the common Class M (which accounts for over 78% of all Main Sequence Stars in the galaxy).

I would state is as being possible to pin down the exact location of Soell. However, Class G stars with single planets are, apparently, rather common throughout the galaxy as a quick wikipedia search proved (Source). Research of this list shows that planets as large, or larger, than Jupiter do indeed exist within a distance of less than 1 AU from their star, much closer than the 5 to 10 AU calculation used to determine the location of Threshold. However, before my assumptions are thrown on, it is worth noting that many of these confirmed planets have orbital periods of less than 100 years. If this were the case, then the last firing of the Halos would have occurred less than 27,731 years ago. Evolution to current levels in a matter of 100,000 years is, for me, rather hard to believe. Evolution to current levels in about a quarter of that time is even harder. Rather than seek out a Star/Planet combination from the list that fits my theory, I shall endeavor to use other mathematical and scientific calculations to settle the matter.

  • 10.04.2007 2:42 PM PDT