- Wolverfrog
- |
- Fabled Legendary Member
Here's a stab at a theory. I was going to wait until the release of Cryptum but I'm bored, so here it is now. I'll update it/scrap it (depending on what the book contains) accordingly once I've read Cryptum.
Okay, so, the Halo: Reach datapads. Curious things, seemingly detailing some of the exploits of a group of AIs who seem to be ensuring humanity's survival behind the scenes.
A proper summary can be read here.
Now before we carry on, let's jump back 100,000 years or so in the fiction. As recently revealed, humanity was once an interstellar race who colonised multiple worlds, until we got into a war with the Forerunners for some unknown reason and were devolved and exiled to Earth.
Now, I'm assuming that this 'ancient' humanity, for want of a better term, was more advanced than the humanity in 2552. Perhaps even matching the Forerunner's technological level, maybe even surpassing it (it's possible that the Forerunners won only due to superior numbers, after all.)
This ancient humanity would no doubt have AIs more advanced than the ones we see in the Halo games. AIs advanced enough to, say, have achieved full sentience, reaching the theoretical state of meta-stability.
When I first heard about the AIs in the datapads I was a little confused, reading the conversations that took place. The AIs were doubtlessly created by humans, referring to us often as their creators, but their knowledge far surpassed that of humanity in 2552. So they can't be Forerunner either.
This puzzled me awhile. It all makes sense now, in light of Cryptum's revelations.
The AIs were created by the ancient humanity, and were tasked with watching over us after our devolution and exile. They have done so for over 100,000 years.
Now that all is said, I'll explain my reason for believing this.
The AIs far surpass anything humanity in 2552 could have created. They seem even more advanced than Forerunner AIs, acting almost as gods guiding us. They identified the Covenant long before any humans did, hinting again to technology beyond our grasp in 2552.
One of the AIs also suggests that the humans being allowed to examine them. If they were created by 2552's humanity, why would that need to be the case?
They instigated the Spartan II program, again alluding to some prescient knowledge surpassing our own. Indeed, I think it a possibility that the Forerunners affect the "genas" of some humans 100,000 years ago (as shown in Cryptum), and the descendants of these affected humans are the ideal genetic candidates for the Spartan program. Were the AIs remnants of the ancient humanity, they would know this.
The fact that they are willing to make huge sacrifices to ensure humanity's survival in the long term (it is implied that they bombed Haven, for example) hints to the fact that these AIs have been doing this for a very long time (this also leads to interesting questions about what else these AIs have done throughout human history; could they have, for example, set World Wars in motion to advance our technology and culture?)
It's also shown that this committee of AIs possess weapons that could threaten the human race. Perhaps these weapons are remnants of the technology ancient humanity possessed? It's also stated that the AIs know of planets containing technology that would be dangerous for humanity to possess in 2552; I had assumed it was Forerunner but it could in fact by ancient human, some technology that was not razed by the Forerunners.
Anyway, until Cryptum is released we won't know for sure, maybe not even then. But I thought it would be fun to discuss the, in my opinion, likely possibility in the meantime. If this theory were true then it would explain much which does not make sense in the data-pads.
tl;dr version - The AI assembly in the Halo Reach datapads were created by the ancient humanity which warred with the Forerunners, and were tasked with ensuring our long-term survival.
[Edited on 01.01.2011 10:51 AM PST]