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This topic has moved here: Subject: Why do the Flood feel the need to infect EVERYTHING?
  • Subject: Why do the Flood feel the need to infect EVERYTHING?
Subject: Why do the Flood feel the need to infect EVERYTHING?

-bow chicka brown cow-

T4R. Would'nt it be better to infect things that arn't sentient and then modify the body so that it can speak with other sentient species. Then they could barter for the items the need to leave the galaxy and then go infect other non-sentient species to repeat the same process all over again?

[Edited on 06.25.2011 2:36 PM PDT]

  • 06.25.2011 2:36 PM PDT
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Rawr Im a dino!

No. That wouldn't be fun and the Flood don't need items. They need more mass. The Gravemind wants power. SO the more sentient beings he eats the more powerful he gets and the more he controls.

  • 06.25.2011 2:38 PM PDT

Posted by: CultMiester4000
I'm not really an Apple person (Bananas forever) but damn, that's kinda sad.

They're a macro-sized virus, which infect everything they can, then find someone/something new

  • 06.25.2011 2:39 PM PDT

-bow chicka brown cow-


Posted by: PETEYENG
No. That wouldn't be fun and the Flood don't need items. They need more mass. The Gravemind wants power. SO the more sentient beings he eats the more powerful he gets and the more he controls.
so..... why not infect planets that dont have any sentient species but plenty of biomass? And can i voice what i thought about what you said? So the Gravemind is like some super dictator who has brainwashed all his subjects into a hive mind society?

  • 06.25.2011 2:41 PM PDT

They can, and do infect non-sentiant beings. Halo Wars. Thrasher and flying forms are made from infected animals.

  • 06.25.2011 2:46 PM PDT

Join the best group of all time Last Refuge!

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Posted by: crumpster212

Posted by: PETEYENG
No. That wouldn't be fun and the Flood don't need items. They need more mass. The Gravemind wants power. SO the more sentient beings he eats the more powerful he gets and the more he controls.
so..... why not infect planets that dont have any sentient species but plenty of biomass? And can i voice what i thought about what you said? So the Gravemind is like some super dictator who has brainwashed all his subjects into a hive mind society?

Eh more like the gravemind gives a mindless society a mind.

  • 06.25.2011 3:21 PM PDT


Posted by: crumpster212
T4R. Would'nt it be better to infect things that arn't sentient and then modify the body so that it can speak with other sentient species. Then they could barter for the items the need to leave the galaxy and then go infect other non-sentient species to repeat the same process all over again?


I think infecting sentient beings is the overall goal, not conquering the galaxy. What they want in the end is to infect all sentient beings. And arguing with the Gravemind about the way to reach that goal is exactly like trying to explain to a monkey why it's better to have five bananas tomorrow than one today - it goes against animal instinct, which the Flood are obviously not above.

  • 06.25.2011 3:26 PM PDT

The gravemind wants to infect everything, because controlling everything and taking away individual choce is the only way to stop war and bring peace to the universe.

He's a nice dude really. Just a big fluffy teletubby who is sick of everyone being a bunch of meanies.

  • 06.25.2011 4:26 PM PDT

Break down, every single one of you.


Posted by: crumpster212

Posted by: PETEYENG
No. That wouldn't be fun and the Flood don't need items. They need more mass. The Gravemind wants power. SO the more sentient beings he eats the more powerful he gets and the more he controls.
so..... why not infect planets that dont have any sentient species but plenty of biomass? And can i voice what i thought about what you said? So the Gravemind is like some super dictator who has brainwashed all his subjects into a hive mind society?
Not quite. The Gravemind is built by the Flood once enough biomass has been gained. A Gravemind allows the Flood to coordinate its movements. The Gravemind is but a higher functioning member of the Flood.

Why the Flood infect everything is because that is what it needs to do to survive. We eat plants and animals, the Flood consumes entire civilizations. It is the purpose of their existence. Why the Flood infects sentient creatures is to gain their knowledge and technology, allowing them to travel farther and consume more races.

  • 06.25.2011 4:57 PM PDT

I started up the heated debate on whether the SPARTAN-II in the cryo tube near the end of Reach is really Linda.
I created the Moa XING avatar pic.
Also I earned the All Star nameplate with this submission to Week 14 All Stars http://www.bungie.net/images/News/Inline11/bwu_0415/art/likea boss.jpg

Why does Smith infect people in the Matrix?
Why do living things eat?

  • 06.25.2011 5:10 PM PDT

Show Faith/Defy Fate

I thought you were talking about how people from the flood or reach forum were infecting this forum. *Sigh*

  • 06.25.2011 5:26 PM PDT

We will know soon enough, but it will require thought. Deep thought. Mendicant Bias must be found. The Mantle will soon follow.

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001001 01110010 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101011 01100101 01111001 00101110

Posted by: crumpster212

Posted by: PETEYENG
No. That wouldn't be fun and the Flood don't need items. They need more mass. The Gravemind wants power. SO the more sentient beings he eats the more powerful he gets and the more he controls.
so..... why not infect planets that dont have any sentient species but plenty of biomass? And can i voice what i thought about what you said? So the Gravemind is like some super dictator who has brainwashed all his subjects into a hive mind society?


Almost.

The Gravemind could be considered a sort of collector of knowledge. When an infection form infects a sentient being, it performs an action similar to what we do to back up a memory storage device such as a hard drive - it makes a copy of every single fragment of knowledge ever known, everything that being was ever taught or experienced, then somehow either stores it within itself until it can be "transmitted" (what is believed to be through a telepathy-like ability) to a Gravemind or Proto-Gravemind, or (if a form of Gravemind is already available) "transmits" it directly to the Gravemind (via said telepathy). It then performs the equivalent of a "wipe" to the victim's brain, erasing all original knowledge.

The Gravemind can be considered omniscient, due to the fact that Graveminds theoretically share the knowledge of the Graveminds which come after and before them. The Flood super-cell is so versatile that it can function as a place to store this knowledge where it's needed - therefore, theoretically, if even just one infection form were to be left alive to store the collective knowledge of a Gravemind (and, subsequently, nearly every other Gravemind to exist) and the present Gravemind were to be fully destroyed or obliterated, all that would need to be done is reconstruct another full, physical Gravemind (most likely through said infection form) and everything the destroyed Gravemind would have ever known could simply be transferred over to the newly-constructed one from the infection form, and it'd be almost as though the destroyed Gravemind were never even destroyed. It seems the Gravemind doesn't care about power, dominion, possession, or emotion - it simply believes that all sentience must be consumed. It may not even understand why, even though it knows far more than any other sentient being. It simply believes its purpose it to infect and assimilate everything.

The reason it stores its knowledge throughout not only its own memory cells, but the entire Flood "network", is due to the fact that the Flood runs out of "food" eventually. When a sentient being (notably, a space-faring one) is assimilated, all that it knows of its colonies - every world under the species' control, or knowledge of how to correctly pilot ships to get to said places under control - was almost immediately "told" to the Gravemind through the Flood "network". This is how the Flood would gain the coordinates to new, uninfected worlds, or learned of new uninfected places in general for the rest of the Flood to spread to.

The Cole Protocol, for instance, wouldn't be effective against the Flood. It doesn't require coordinates from a navigation system, because it pulls information directly from the victim's memory. In order to enact a sort of Cole Protocol against the Flood, we'd have to go around either burning bodies, or destroying brains of the dead in particular. Sound fun?

The Flood is extremely interesting, the Gravemind in particular. It's no wonder why the Forerunners studied this ruthless enemy so closely.

  • 06.25.2011 6:15 PM PDT
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Posted by: Carl BOS

The Cole Protocol, for instance, wouldn't be effective against the Flood. It doesn't require coordinates from a navigation system, because it pulls information directly from the victim's memory. In order to enact a sort of Cole Protocol against the Flood, we'd have to go around either burning bodies, or destroying brains of the dead in particular. Sound fun?
.


Not Too hard to do if you know what to do. For Example, The Naar Directive, the Homeworld's Somtaaw MO for Beast Infection on larger vessels.

What is the Naar Directive? Vent Drive Plasma into the Infected Decks and then vent that into space. Sure it will kill a good portion of your crew and gut your ship; But it keeps your ship in the fight on the good side and outside of the Beasts control. Also, considering what the Alternative is, Incineration by Plasma is peferable.

Kinda makes you wonder why the Forerunner(Let alone the other Sci-fi's that deal with "Unstopable infections") didn't do something like that.

  • 06.25.2011 7:08 PM PDT
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Realistically speaking, it wouldn't be interesting (profitable) if they were peaceful, would it?

  • 06.25.2011 7:09 PM PDT

Don't worry, you're still your mom's favorite Bnet member.

It's their biological and natural instinct to consume all.

  • 06.25.2011 7:15 PM PDT

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Posted by: Pewter

Posted by: Carl BOS

The Cole Protocol, for instance, wouldn't be effective against the Flood. It doesn't require coordinates from a navigation system, because it pulls information directly from the victim's memory. In order to enact a sort of Cole Protocol against the Flood, we'd have to go around either burning bodies, or destroying brains of the dead in particular. Sound fun?
.


Not Too hard to do if you know what to do. For Example, The Naar Directive, the Homeworld's Somtaaw MO for Beast Infection on larger vessels.

What is the Naar Directive? Vent Drive Plasma into the Infected Decks and then vent that into space. Sure it will kill a good portion of your crew and gut your ship; But it keeps your ship in the fight on the good side and outside of the Beasts control. Also, considering what the Alternative is, Incineration by Plasma is peferable.

Kinda makes you wonder why the Forerunner(Let alone the other Sci-fi's that deal with "Unstopable infections") didn't do something like that.


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  • 06.25.2011 7:21 PM PDT
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Posted by: MegaMuffin16
It's their biological and natural instinct to consume all.


Just as it is our Biological and Natural Instinct to either set them on fire or fill them with lead or a combination of the two. :)

  • 06.25.2011 7:24 PM PDT

Pity he doesn't look as friendly as the Teletubbies, he'd have no problem with the masterchief if he lost some of the slime and tentacles.

  • 06.25.2011 7:34 PM PDT
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I may seem to come across as a -blam!-, but I'm really just trying to help.


Posted by: ashton287
The gravemind wants to infect everything, because controlling everything and taking away individual choce is the only way to stop war and bring peace to the universe.

He's a nice dude really. Just a big fluffy teletubby who is sick of everyone being a bunch of meanies.

Just want him to hold me with those big teddy like tentacle arms and squeeze me tight!

  • 06.25.2011 7:36 PM PDT

"I am Scourge, Leader of BloodClan, and I have won!"


Posted by: ashton287
The gravemind wants to infect everything, because controlling everything and taking away individual choce is the only way to stop war and bring peace to the universe.

He's a nice dude really. Just a big fluffy teletubby who is sick of everyone being a bunch of meanies.


It all makes sense now.

  • 06.25.2011 10:35 PM PDT