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This topic has moved here: Subject: Decoding the data pads
  • Subject: Decoding the data pads
Subject: Decoding the data pads

That's something that has been in the back of my head for a while, it's very obvious they have the capability to end the war, but doing so would more than likely result in the end of Humanity.

Perhaps it would involve some sort of sacrificial tactic that would result in massive loss of human life? Perhaps even the destruction of planets(Similar to what the Forerunner attempted to do to the Flood)?

Not sure.

  • 10.22.2010 1:12 AM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: SP4RT4N 070
Just throwing my two cents in here...

"And if we brought these weapons to bear, if we too became wolves, would there still be a human race to save when we were through?" From the way this one is talking it seems like he's confident enough in the ability of these 'weapons' to not say "if we were through?" but instead to say what he says, that being "when we were done?". That usage of words makes me ask the question: does this "assembly" have the ability and means to annihilate the Covenant? And if so, why haven't they chosen to do so?

The last line gives a little bit of relief to the last question: either their 'weapons' are so powerful that they would destroy Humanity along with the Covenant, or they would not be fast enough, despite the power of these weapons, to prevent the extinction of Humanity.

Posted by: Hysterical Joker
That's something that has been in the back of my head for a while, it's very obvious they have the capability to end the war, but doing so would more than likely result in the end of Humanity.

Perhaps it would involve some sort of sacrificial tactic that would result in massive loss of human life? Perhaps even the destruction of planets(Similar to what the Forerunner attempted to do to the Flood)?

Not sure.

@ HJ:

Perhaps a tactic of utilising NOVA warheads. 2 per planet (one on each side I would imagine) would pulvarize it. Sure, it does not prevent the Covenant from attacking and killing the population, but it will sure as hell make sure that the Covenant never leave. Any ships that they commit to an attack would be lost. It may in time be a suitable deterant. How much time though? And after how much Human lives lost?

Just an example really, of what you suggested.

@ both of you:

Perhaps it suggests another kind of death. The death of what it would mean to be Human. If they brought to bear these weapons, if that implies that they would give them to Humanity, Humanity may slaughter the Covenant races for what they did, or at the very least ensure that they can never bother us again by pummelling their civilisations back into the stone ages. Humanity would sink to their level. Judging by these AIs lack of compassion though, it might not be so likely. They seem obsessed with just keeping the species going, and not necessarily what it represents.

  • 10.22.2010 12:00 PM PDT

Been posting this in a few threads whenever i see it mentioned. Haloreachplanet.com. and Strengthgamer.com have edited their datapad transcripts as a form of advertisement. nowhere in the actual datapads, while playing the game, will you see STRENGTHGAMER, or HALOREACHPLANET.

  • 10.27.2010 9:46 PM PDT
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  • Honorable Legendary Member

bungie.net is very minxy

i thought it was the heretics that wrote them i mean they are in firefight

  • 10.27.2010 10:06 PM PDT

Halo is one of the most important part of my life.

Nice work man. Really. now theres something else hidden on the Data Pads... Theres voices on the background, a guy just the First Data pad backwards... link soon...


Fixed!
This

[Edited on 10.28.2010 6:48 AM PDT]

  • 10.28.2010 6:44 AM PDT

~

19 sounded like Halsey.

  • 11.01.2010 2:54 AM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member


Posted by: Hamedolk
Nice work man. Really. now theres something else hidden on the Data Pads... Theres voices on the background, a guy just the First Data pad backwards... link soon...


Fixed!
This


I may be mistaken, but I think this was also in the audio for the terminals in Halo 3. This would lead me to think there is some connection to the Forerunner here(or they just reused audio to save time, but that doesn't seem like Bungie).

Unfortunately there is really nothing else in the Data Pads that would seem to link them to ANYTHING Forerunner aside from the audio bit there. I wish there WAS some kind of other link though because (aside from giving a reason for that audio being used)the one data pad where the AI discuss taking a population of their creators and secretly isolating them on another planet to conduct some kind of genetic resiliance expirement seems like a really, REALLY plausible scenario for how humans could be related to, and such a point of interest to the Forerunner when they first discover the humans. Humans could have started off as Forerunner that the Forerunner's own AI seperated to an unknown out of the way planet (Earth) and conducted a similar genetic resilency test on to the point that humans became what we were when the Forerunner found us 100,000 years ago. It would explain what seems to be an inherited memory on how to operate their equipment (As demonstrated all over the games and even almost outright stated in the books), and why we were DISCOVERED by (and unknown to) the Forerunner even though we were seemingly related SOMEHOW, but clearly different and more primitive than them. It would give a plausible reason why were still called Forerunner by Guilty Spark and chosen as Forerunner's Reclaimers, even though we weren't them in a traditional sense.

It COULD explain a lot of that, except unfortunatly it seems like there is really no way to connect ANYTHING in the datapads to the Forerunner, so I'm not sure how that audio fits in at all really either... otherwise I'd have that Forerunner/Human theory all over the place :)



[Edited on 11.01.2010 6:32 AM PDT]

  • 11.01.2010 6:28 AM PDT

[url*=http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=167323][i mg*]http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp351/Vrai_2/toxicpurp leuserbar.png[/img*][/url*]

Just something that pooped into my head. I remember reading somewhere in this thread a theory that suggested that Mendicant Bias may have scattered pieces of himself across the galaxy. (link soon). What if the committee is pieces of Bias that don't have memory of the Forerunner-Flood War? That could explain their ability to break into ONI with minimal resistance and , if true , hints at a genetic connection between Forerunners and Humans

  • 11.27.2010 7:07 AM PDT

GC boochi

Maybe the AIs are precursor AIs
This could go along with the theory that Humans are in fact Precursor descendants and that is why the forerunners look to them as reclaimers

  • 11.27.2010 9:44 AM PDT

Posted by: FSV Firehawk
OOC: nature is fuking ghey

So how have these AIs stay active for so long? I thought the lifespan was 7 years. Unless they ALL surpassed rampancy like Mendicant Bias and (perhaps) Cortana, which is very unlikely, there has to be a way they can stay active.

  • 12.05.2010 7:29 PM PDT

Fight to the end, and give it your all.

Very interesting.

  • 12.06.2010 7:20 PM PDT

Nice man, very interesting.

  • 12.06.2010 7:54 PM PDT

"Concise and devoid of elegance...what I have come to expect from human communication"-Endless Summer

It's obvious that they are Forerunner AI's the only 2 I can think of is Offensive and Mendicant Bias

  • 12.06.2010 9:08 PM PDT

*reminisces when the Bungie/Halo community wasn't made up of CoD kids*
*sighs*
*activates time-machine and sets the clock back to Nov. 9, 2004*
glory days here I come..
*vanishes*

This thread got unlocked?

[Edited on 12.20.2010 1:55 PM PST]

  • 12.20.2010 1:52 PM PDT

United States Military Academy Class of 2015


Posted by: JDYeash937 MkII
The parts that make me think they could be Forerunner is their ability to endlessly infiltrate ONI, the way they want to shape humanity's future, and also that point 'opening themselves up for humans to examine'. That really speaks something about an unknown origin intelligence.



I'm pretty sure though that the Forerunner left the galaxy in order for a natural rebuilding of the galaxy. Why would they try to shape the way what humanity would go on to live? Answer: they wouldn't.

  • 12.23.2010 10:29 PM PDT
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If you think nobody cares about you, miss some car payments.
Hard work never hurt anyone, but why take the chance.
The first sign of maturity is that the volume knob also turns to the left.

New Gamertag and profile: SHENANIGANS4780

Since it seems that the account didn't transfer, that's my new account everyone.

This is possibly stating the obvious, but if you look and see, you'll notice the numbers in the (human part of the) transcripts report the number of the data pad you picked up. for instance...

I've been tryng to f1nd a back d0or into the spook house forever and ever and then I did but what did I find and why is this what I found?

f1nd a back d0or

f1nd door

10

Thus, data pad #10.

  • 12.23.2010 10:43 PM PDT
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UWG Great group, you should check it out.

BungieHUB


Posted by: JDYeash937 MkII

Posted by: kippa
They can't be Smart AI's by any measure.
I can't remember which book it is in (probably TFOR, when Cortana is introduced on the 25th August), but it says that the first "smart AI" (exact words) was created at the mid 21st Century.

After this they were worried that they would be too capable and render humans 'obsolete' (lolwut?), so from then on they decided they needed human personalities and most importantly speech.
I remember that as well. I'm 99% sure they're smart AI.

  • 12.24.2010 6:04 AM PDT

Blarg.

Yo, I'm a bit late to the party, but anyway..

Posted by: Mysterioso2006
So how have these AIs stay active for so long? I thought the lifespan was 7 years. Unless they ALL surpassed rampancy like Mendicant Bias and (perhaps) Cortana, which is very unlikely, there has to be a way they can stay active.


Please do tell me if this was already covered in an earlier discussion, but i haven't seen any. I was wondering this same question as well, and i believe that the Assembly is constantly changing. As many people have agreed it's made out of many, many (if not every single one) AIs, and they're obviously still faced with the problem of rampancy/death. So I think that all of the AIs who originally started the Assembly are actually long deceased; all the new AIs just keep all the data and records of previous meetings, or maybe even bits of the older AIs' memories/thoughts, somehow saved, and everyone has constant access to that data, so even though the individual AIs keep dying, so many more are being made, and all of them are equally brilliant geniuses with all that record of the past AIs' doings, that they can essentially continue their conversations for hundreds of years.
I feel like i could have stated that in a more comprehensible way, but idk that's the best i could do (english is my 4th language), hopefully you can figure out what i'm trying to get across.

[Edited on 12.26.2010 2:47 PM PST]

  • 12.26.2010 2:24 PM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

i got the feeling that these were forerunner AI's tasked with steering humanity in a certain technological point. Mainly with the pushing of the combat armor (forerunner skins) and the whole fact on saving thier creators.


but that was just me i guess.

  • 12.27.2010 12:42 PM PDT


Posted by: the One Free Man
Yo, I'm a bit late to the party, but anyway..

Posted by: Mysterioso2006
So how have these AIs stay active for so long? I thought the lifespan was 7 years. Unless they ALL surpassed rampancy like Mendicant Bias and (perhaps) Cortana, which is very unlikely, there has to be a way they can stay active.


Please do tell me if this was already covered in an earlier discussion, but i haven't seen any. I was wondering this same question as well, and i believe that the Assembly is constantly changing. As many people have agreed it's made out of many, many (if not every single one) AIs, and they're obviously still faced with the problem of rampancy/death. So I think that all of the AIs who originally started the Assembly are actually long deceased; all the new AIs just keep all the data and records of previous meetings, or maybe even bits of the older AIs' memories/thoughts, somehow saved, and everyone has constant access to that data, so even though the individual AIs keep dying, so many more are being made, and all of them are equally brilliant geniuses with all that record of the past AIs' doings, that they can essentially continue their conversations for hundreds of years.
I feel like i could have stated that in a more comprehensible way, but idk that's the best i could do (english is my 4th language), hopefully you can figure out what i'm trying to get across.



It's qutie possible that the AI who started the Assembly could have saved their data for other AI to use. I think that with every generation of AI, though, would have to actually do something, not just tend to the records and data bits.

If your theory is correct, then the Assembly is like a knowledge pool, with every generation of AIs reviewing the previous generations records and acting upon them. (then the succeeding generation would then review and act upon that generation's etc.) The only problem is that the AIs have to keep the humans interested in manufacturing AI technology, and that is what the Assembly is currently trying to accomplish. (that and the survival of Humanity)

  • 12.27.2010 2:07 PM PDT

i can only count to jagermeister.

Sounds a lot like a Gravemind to me...

  • 12.28.2010 9:25 AM PDT

Thats what I thought.

Posted by: cowguy
i thought it was the heretics that wrote them i mean they are in firefight


  • 12.29.2010 2:49 PM PDT

What intrests me aside from the voices in the data pads is the dates. With the first DP being dated at 2310, well before the first smart AI, and the lifespan's of smart AI's being 7 years, and the mention of "Now, on to new business." meaning their was old business, how could these multiple AI's even be around unless...
A) ONI dident release the information of the AI's in general for whatever reason. ( flaws, security, ect... )

B) the assembly could have been made up a group of humans before ( propagating the shadow government theory ) and when they died they used their brains to create smart AI. This one certainly is a leap but it makes some sense is you kinda combine A and B

C) bias's fragments forming the assembly and somewhat nudging humanity in the right direction. The voices in the DP's it makes me think its possible....mabe......could be his fragments, but thats a very small possiblity.

Side note: these AI's possibly trancended rampancy ? or just focused on one thing for a very long time ? or you could possible link this to AdjutantReflex ? mabe ? no ?


unfortunetly this is only one piece of the puzzle.


[Edited on 12.29.2010 9:25 PM PST]

  • 12.29.2010 8:46 PM PDT
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  • Elder Heroic Member

Get it roon' ye!

Wow I'm absolutely stunned by this work. Excellent stuff. Well, obviously we are dealing with UNSC AI's. My main question is how did they get so advanced whilst still being able to hide it from ONI? I suspect Cortana would have had a very deep involvement, and the idea that they have cured Rampancy is to give 343 Industries an "out" of sorts for when it comes to picking up Cortana and the Chief's story. She may have suffered rampancy, especially whilst in the grip of Gravemind, and somehow humanity's research saved her.

We know human AI's are the most advanced, and given we are the Forerunner's "children", is it too much of a stretch to say we have - if even by accident - managed to create something the Forerunner's couldn't, a rampant-proof AI?

Between human advancements adnCortana's exposure to the knowledge of Installation 04, and Mendicant Bias itself on the Covenant homeworld, I think not!

  • 12.30.2010 9:42 AM PDT

Perhaps these AI's were able to advance to far, and therefore gain influence in almost everything, by having feigning death/rampancy and being "decommisioned" by ONI. Basicly dropping off the grid.
Thats what i would think, but then again these AI's could just be so far up in ONI itself that almost noone knows of their exsistance.

its all speculation at this point due to the lack of evidence

  • 12.30.2010 12:07 PM PDT