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Subject: Shouldn't Cortana be dead?

Deal with it.

You guys should also take into consideration the possibility of an automated recording, similar to the one Cortana left on the covenant cruiser that was infested by the flood.

However it is completely possible that Cortana is still alive, albeit living in rampancy, this would make since because her appearance has clearly changed since our last encounter with her.



My personal theory is that halo 4 takes place some where in the 26th century. It would be rude for 343 industries to completely skip the covenant-separatist civil war. The ancient evil talked about is most likely the flood as they are in fact an extra galactic species.

  • 06.20.2011 11:13 AM PDT

Didact's Reprisal -
Now is the time of our unworlding
One final effort is all that remains
And I am not afraid
We shall fulfill our promise
We fight for the grace of the Mantle
And this time none of you will be left behind

Has it even actually been established if rampancy leads to the death of an AI "naturally," or if UNSC "kill" the AI after rampancy occurs?

  • 06.20.2011 11:28 AM PDT


Posted by: Im SteelAssassn
Has it even actually been established if rampancy leads to the death of an AI "naturally," or if UNSC "kill" the AI after rampancy occurs?


I;'m pretty sure that it's been stated that they're deleted after about seven years for fear of Rampancy, that's the average for when an AI starts to show the signs. They can be rampant and still be running just fine as both Contact Harvest show with Sif and Mac (by the end both had gone Rampant, pretty sure anyway, I know Sif had), and the AI Juliana in the Cole Protocol was showing clear signs of Rampancy, though she functioned just fine.

  • 06.20.2011 11:41 AM PDT

let me start with what we know
we know that if an AI has something very important to do that it can temporarily push off rampancy (not meta-stable yet)
we also know that cortana is 7years old and is either rampant or is at the very most a week from rampancy (from halo legends)
she is the only thing keeping John alive so she maybe pushing off rampancy this could give her time to become meta-stable but more likly the halo 4 trailer is somewhere close to 1 month after halo legends so she still could hold off rampancy through the new game

  • 06.20.2011 12:05 PM PDT

We Are The Meta.

It is possible for an AI to recover from rampancy, it's just a matter of deleting corrupted/old data memories or adjusting to the amount of information.

Since Cortana is not only a smart AI, she is also made from Halsey (a strong mind), she was infused with forerunner tech on Reach and Halo (could have extended her life although it did slow her down a while in the novels) and she partly went rampant due to the Gravemind.

Also, she was in High Charity and that Covenant AI in the novel. Who knows what that alone could have done. It's more than likely a combination of everything that's happened to her. Also the obvious is that the UNSC & ONI never let AI over 7 years, probably to stop them turning against humanity.

  • 06.20.2011 12:54 PM PDT

Adepto In Meus Campester
Posted by: ParagonRenegade
You were totally and absolutely correct in every way, I don't know why we were arguing, you're so amazing I should never have doubted you.

Posted by: Badseed_666
Halo Legends
Well there's your problem!

  • 06.20.2011 2:41 PM PDT


Posted by: agent wash282
let me start with what we know
we know that if an AI has something very important to do that it can temporarily push off rampancy (not meta-stable yet)
we also know that cortana is 7years old and is either rampant or is at the very most a week from rampancy (from halo legends)
she is the only thing keeping John alive so she maybe pushing off rampancy this could give her time to become meta-stable but more likly the halo 4 trailer is somewhere close to 1 month after halo legends so she still could hold off rampancy through the new game


Imo, I think she's most of the way to Meta-Stability, I wouldn't class her as Rampant at least, I think your post is very accurate in its line of reasoning and is rather akin to my own thoughts on the matter. I do not believe she is Rampant though, not what we'd consider it anyway, she is most likely still recovering, but I think she is practically Meta-Stable by this point.

  • 06.21.2011 6:46 PM PDT

MC should be dead because of everything he's been through too

  • 06.21.2011 8:49 PM PDT

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

Rampancy is a sign of an AIs impending death. It is not the cause, but for simplicity's sake, Rampancy = Death.

Halseys Journal. May 3rd, 2526.
As smart AIs age they make more interconnections within their neural matrix, increasing their cognitive abilities and expediting their demise.

Cross-linkages continue with two possible outcomes: the sheer density of connections causes a cascade of irreversible quantum transfer (a "short circuit" in rustic parlance), eventually halting all functions or the AI takes extreme corrective action, eliminating connections via pre-emptive voltage overload. The latter often leads to aberrant personality manifestations, or "Rampancy".


Halseys Journal. November 10th, 2533
Third-gen AIs pre-emptively sever neural linkages to circumvent their terminal phase.

Accelerated link severing leads to increasingly poor choices of which links to cut - i.e., the AIs become so consumed with self-preservation that they ultimately self-terminate.


I don't know where people are getting the idea that AI can survive past the 7 years. It is not due to the UNSC simply deleting them, they will eventually burn out in a time period that Halsey estimated to be no more than a few years. It is just that in the process of terminating they tend to be harmful, thus why the UNSC pre-emptively deletes them before that happens.

Metastability means falsely stable. An AI that is cutting connections would be able to stave off its death and so would appear to be stable. However, the truth is that it could cut the wrong connections and kill itself at any time, thus it is falsely stable.

Metastability is a general scientific concept which describes states of delicate equilibrium. A system is in a metastable state when it is in equilibrium (not changing with time) but is susceptible to fall into lower-energy states with only slight interaction.
So basically the AIs transition to a "short circuit" is halted (and not changing with time) due to the AIs severing of connections. However, as the wrong connection could be cut at any time, which would cause the AI to plunge right into its death (Final most state), it is metastable. Here, a metastable AI would be in state 1; stable for now but not the most stable state, and any outside interaction (Such as a wrong connection cut) could push it down to state 3. State 3 being most stable and also being the AIs death.

Juliana is probably severing the right connections somehow, maybe by destroying all information not relating to the Rubble and its safety.

Cortana is shafted, unless she is somehow the product of Halseys slipspace matrix. (Which she probably is. It is too much of a co-incidence that this wonder solution to the AI problem emerges this late into the story just as one of the series' main characters enters the final stages of her life.)

  • 06.21.2011 10:08 PM PDT

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