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This topic has moved here: Subject: Cortana used to be a human?
  • Subject: Cortana used to be a human?
Subject: Cortana used to be a human?
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Was Cortana based on a previous person? In the beginning video to the level Halo, she says," If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed."

  • 05.23.2005 8:36 PM PDT
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All the books say are that cortana was created by ONI i dont think it gives anymore informatioon than that.

It also said that cortana was similar to Dr Halsey but im not sure if that was cortana or deja

  • 05.23.2005 8:45 PM PDT
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Wow, I never knew that. I should buy the books.

  • 05.24.2005 3:20 AM PDT
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Cortana 'used' to be a human.
Kind of...
Smart AI's are created after the brain pattern of humans, and usually, those are either already dead, or die after such operation.
I don't clearly remember why or how, but Dr. Halsey, or however you spell it, survived the operation... I'm probably mistaking, but I think they had 'cloned' her brain of something like that... I'd be able to tell you more if I had the first novel with me, but I'm at school at the moment.

This is all explained int he first one, if you want to check it out.

  • 05.24.2005 6:14 AM PDT
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"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."

i think when she says ," If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed." She is talking about her Holografic Fingers, witch she does not have while inside your helmet

  • 05.24.2005 10:18 AM PDT
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cortana is considerd a "smart" AI, because she was programmed after Dr. Halesy ( i think thats how u spell it.) Read the books if you want to find out more. Their pretty intresting


[Edited on 5/24/2005]

  • 05.24.2005 2:03 PM PDT
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when she says ''if i still had fingers theyd be crossed" she means in the holo projecter you could "see" her.

  • 06.01.2005 6:56 PM PDT
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or she was talking to the marines that were in the lifepod...you know they might have lost a hand or something.

  • 06.01.2005 11:05 PM PDT
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Cortana is basically the A.I form of Dr Halsey, and when cortana says "if i still had fingers they'd be crossed" i'm pretty sure she says that because she is no longer in a viewing form and is just inside the mc's head.

  • 06.01.2005 11:09 PM PDT
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man how stupid. ok when crotana is in a holograme she has a whole body and fingers. When she is in the master chief she is in his mind so she can only crose here fingers as a hologram!

  • 06.02.2005 6:11 PM PDT
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One, well cortana wasnt a human but she is based on Dr. cathrine halsey(the one who made the SPARTANS. and two, why does everyone think that Master Chief is a cyborg? hes not! hes just an augmented human. If you guys ever get the chance read all three of the hao books, it really fills you in where the games left off.

  • 06.08.2005 4:16 AM PDT
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He who makes a beast out of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man.

The type of AI that Cortana is classified as only has an operational life span of 7-years, after that, it basically collapses in on itself like a star when it goes from a red supergiant that has used up all of its possible fuel sources so it implodes and dies. But when Cortana absorbed all of the info from Halo's Control Room in Halo: Combat Evolved, it severley shortened her lifespan because of the amount of information it was and because of its volume. It was hundreds of thousands of years of data and Halo's performance chart or whatever you would like to call it. It forced to Cortana to function and a extrememly low rate of speed caompared to her full abilities. Doing so "hurt" her programming, it will be interesting to see what happens to her in the latter portion of the Halo series.

  • 06.08.2005 4:29 PM PDT
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Posted by: Recon Number 54
Posted by: Sniper Elite
All the books say are that cortana was created by ONI i dont think it gives anymore informatioon than that.

It also said that cortana was similar to Dr Halsey but im not sure if that was cortana or deja
recon seems like 343 guilty spark monitor of installation zero4
According to my recollection of the novels.

AI's are just programmed.

Smart AI's are patterned after the cerebral engrams (brain circuitry) of recently deceased people. As such, they are adaptive, learn, grow and have a "shelf-life" of 7 years. After that time, they essentially "think themselves" to death by becoming too complex to support their own reasoning.

Cortana is a unique Smart AI. She was modeled after Dr. Katherine Halsey's brain engrams. Obviously that makes Cortana unique in two ways, Dr. Halsey is easily classified as a genius, she is also not dead. In order to make Cortana, Dr. Halsey was flash cloned and AI patterns were "taken" from the living clones (killing them in the process). Many clones and AI's from this experiment were failures. Cortana was the only viable and successful AI. In this manner, she is a one-of-a-kind even among smart AI's.

  • 06.09.2005 2:18 PM PDT
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idk if any1 else got this i didnt really care to read but she means when she is like a person (visible) and pink or purple it looks like she has fingers but she was in master chiefs head so she wasnt a body

  • 06.10.2005 1:42 PM PDT
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Posted by: Recon Number 54
Posted by: Sniper Elite
All the books say are that cortana was created by ONI i dont think it gives anymore informatioon than that.

It also said that cortana was similar to Dr Halsey but im not sure if that was cortana or deja

According to my recollection of the novels.

AI's are just programmed.

Smart AI's are patterned after the cerebral engrams (brain circuitry) of recently deceased people. As such, they are adaptive, learn, grow and have a "shelf-life" of 7 years. After that time, they essentially "think themselves" to death by becoming too complex to support their own reasoning.

Cortana is a unique Smart AI. She was modeled after Dr. Katherine Halsey's brain engrams. Obviously that makes Cortana unique in two ways, Dr. Halsey is easily classified as a genius, she is also not dead. In order to make Cortana, Dr. Halsey was flash cloned and AI patterns were "taken" from the living clones (killing them in the process). Many clones and AI's from this experiment were failures. Cortana was the only viable and successful AI. In this manner, she is a one-of-a-kind even among smart AI's.


Ah, very well explained. But

Dr. Halsey was flash cloned and AI patterns were "taken" from the living clones

Her brain was flash cloned 20 times.

  • 06.11.2005 8:06 AM PDT
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i always thought she was a spartan lovin slut but i could be wrong.........

  • 06.11.2005 10:17 AM PDT
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ummm...HOW THE FUK DO YOU GUYS KNOW ALL THIS CRAP THAT ISNT EVEN STATED IN THE GAME, it just ceases to amze me

  • 06.12.2005 6:49 PM PDT

July 15, 2008... The day the timer stood still.

We read the books. Do you know what books are, or have you been playing video games too much? Books are a bunch of pieces of paper with writings that you read. It makes you smart. There are halo books out there. Read them.

  • 06.12.2005 9:20 PM PDT
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I should really re-read the books. their better than most other books based on video games ive read

  • 06.13.2005 11:14 AM PDT
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In reading all the things posted, there were about 6 times where people said, "She probably meant when she was inside his helmet........" So, thats probably it.

  • 06.13.2005 7:03 PM PDT
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Kind of off-topic, but what is the third book focused around? I have the fall of reach and the flood, is the third the Halo 2 story? or a prequel to fall of reach?

Oh, and I guess people suggest that the Master Chief is a Cyborg because:
1. Cortana was implanted into his head, which means he has some form of machine in him. People with Pacemakers could be considered cyborg's, if you wanted to get technical.
2. When the cutscene of master chief and keyes/cortana finishes on the Pillar of Autumn, the next portion of the level is titled "AI and Cyborgs first!" or something along those lines.

  • 06.14.2005 5:55 PM PDT
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You can stick with your 6's, but I'll stay with the 7.

"Don't worry about what people think--they don't do it often"

Cortana is the Pillar of Autum's( dont think I spelled it right) intelligence. it says so in one of the halo books. she's just a hologram that gets data from stuff. not a human

  • 06.16.2005 2:08 PM PDT