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This topic has moved here: Subject: Second Forerunner book revealed :DDD
  • Subject: Second Forerunner book revealed :DDD
Subject: Second Forerunner book revealed :DDD
  • gamertag: qirahs
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Madara, Tobi....call me whatever you want. I'M NO ONE. I DON'T WANT TO BE ANYONE. ALL I CARE ABOUT IS COMPLETING THE MOON'S EYE PLAN."


Posted by: hotshot revan II

Posted by: qirahs
I read the first novel to get a clear picture of how awesome the forerunner were, instead i found myself too stunned for words after learning about how bad@$$ the ancient humans were, as well as the timeless one.

Dont get me wrong i loved born's character, and the didact's stature. But now i am much more interested in the human story; i would love it if greg bear elaborated on the technology that the humans created using reverse engineered precursor technology, and how the forerunner "had very little defense against it"


They didn't reverse engineered Precursor tech,they combined their tech with the san shuum which led to powerful weapons against the 4runners


they didn't exactly state that the humans reverse engineered it, but in the novel, the didact stated that the humans figured out how to slip through precursor technology and communicate with the timeless one, the didact was amazed as he said that they did something the forerunner were not able to do.

And they combined their technology with their understanding of precursor technology, like the unbending filaments and augmented their own technology. This is what happened at the battle of charum hakkor, and how the humans held of the entire forerunner fleet for 50 years.

Although greg bear was very vague when describing their technology, he did say that the humans had some sort of super-advanced orbital defense platforms back then, similar to the ODP's in 2552, just much more advanced and virtually indestructible.

But what really got me thinking is the fact that the didact said some of the new weapons the humans developed were deadly against the mighty forerunner, as they "had very little defense against" them. What could those weapons possibly be that the forerunner could barely defend against?

I doubt they were conventional directed energy weapons, as the forerunner pretty much had that sort of tech figured out, ( its a given when you realize that both humanity and the forerunner were tier 1 level)

My own hunch is that the humans using their massive concentration of precursor technology and crude understanding of neural physics made some sort of neural physical weaponry, and used it on the forerunner. Their platforms probably used this sort of technology too, how else could the humans, fend of the didacts entire fleet for 50 years on one planet, with 1/3 of their population gone b/c of the flood, and their supply routes cut off.

  • 07.23.2011 11:02 AM PDT
  • gamertag: qirahs
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Madara, Tobi....call me whatever you want. I'M NO ONE. I DON'T WANT TO BE ANYONE. ALL I CARE ABOUT IS COMPLETING THE MOON'S EYE PLAN."

sorry about the double post, i forgot to quote you hotshot revan II

  • 07.23.2011 11:04 AM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

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

The humans didn't reverse engineer the tech, they just built on top of it.

  • 07.23.2011 12:01 PM PDT
  • gamertag: qirahs
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Madara, Tobi....call me whatever you want. I'M NO ONE. I DON'T WANT TO BE ANYONE. ALL I CARE ABOUT IS COMPLETING THE MOON'S EYE PLAN."


Posted by: grey101
The humans didn't reverse engineer the tech, they just built on top of it.



that's sort of what i was getting at. . .

  • 07.23.2011 12:05 PM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

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


Posted by: qirahs

Posted by: grey101
The humans didn't reverse engineer the tech, they just built on top of it.



that's sort of what i was getting at. . .


your first post clearly says the opposite though.

  • 07.23.2011 12:16 PM PDT
  • gamertag: qirahs
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Madara, Tobi....call me whatever you want. I'M NO ONE. I DON'T WANT TO BE ANYONE. ALL I CARE ABOUT IS COMPLETING THE MOON'S EYE PLAN."


Posted by: grey101

Posted by: qirahs

Posted by: grey101
The humans didn't reverse engineer the tech, they just built on top of it.



that's sort of what i was getting at. . .


your first post clearly says the opposite though.


My first post was based off of my opinion, the second was based off of what was officially stated in the novel.

Allow my to explain my reasoning.

The humans had their san-shyuum alliance based on the planet charum hakkor, a precursor planet. This planet was explained as having the most massive known concentration of precursor technology yet discovered. Now the humans lived on this planet for quite a long time, and during the flood war, they came into contact with the timeless one deep under the surface of the planet.

It was explained that the humans and san-shyuum struggled to communicate with the timeless one as the technology encasing him was precursor in origin. However eventually to the didact's surprise, the humans somehow invented technology to slip through the barricade and consult with the monster (the small device that the didact holds in his hand towards the end of the book during the flashback).

Now, this leads to a basic principle of engineering that has been in effect for nearly a century all around the world. When people come into contact with the technology of some kind, lets say some sort of advanced jet that malfunctioned and crashed into a 3rd world country, then the technology is usually too advanced to at first understand.

Now this principle dictates that, after playing around with the superior technology, you eventually gain some crude insight into how the technology works. This crude knowledge is then applied and built upon. After a considerable amount of time tinkering, the 3rd world country now has some knowledge of how this technology works, and this paves the way for new technology to be built in the future.

This my friends is known as reverse engineering. It is a tedious effort, but the results are always worth it.

Now this brings up another interesting point, if the humans should have been able to this, then why not the forerunner? who have been in the galaxy for far longer and have had their miners discover precursor technology all the time.

The answer is that the forerunner lacked the curiosity of the humans.

Whenever the miners came into contact with precursor technology, they recorded them but rarely ever held any interest in them. http://www.halopedian.com/Precursor

This also explains the didact's disappointment when he asked born what he knew about precursor technology, after finding out that even after his 1,000 year exile, the forerunner still had not progressed in understanding neural physics.

Of course, this is all conjecture, and i won't know for sure untill hopefully it is discussed in Primordium.

January 3rd is a long wait.



  • 07.23.2011 12:42 PM PDT