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This topic has moved here: Subject: It's not just one Cortana
  • Subject: It's not just one Cortana
Subject: It's not just one Cortana
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Think about it Gravemind being the flood could connect to high charity's mainframe and copy cortana several times, the Cortana on the video seems a lil bit diferent every time she apears, besides on the level gravemind or halo 2 she says theres some kind of precence fighting back "for a covenant construst it's quite formidable", that or she's just on the stage of becomimg rampant. What do you think? (just a supposicion, not a theory)

  • 05.13.2006 8:01 PM PDT
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What I mean is that gravemind copyed Cortana, maybe to get easy acces to earthes coordinates, or to extract information that only she could now. Or that Cortana is becoming rampant.

  • 05.13.2006 8:18 PM PDT
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"You must face the truth squarely and without flinching from duty. Our enemies are mortal no longer. Mercy for such as they is a chimera, self-deception is its only ally. Dedicate this weapon, given unto your hand at the behest of the Emperor, to their destruction. Regard its function as your only duty: you live only to bring cleansing fire."

or maybe he took her over, or coaxed her into working with him

  • 05.13.2006 8:19 PM PDT
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Or became an AI himself and kinda fusioned with her. who knows?

  • 05.13.2006 8:24 PM PDT
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I don't know about any of that but I do subscribe to the idea of that not being the Cortana we all know an love, but another Cortana, and I don't mean a copy. I mean two Cortana's. How? I'm not sure but perhaps it has somthing to do with time or some grand design by the Forerunners, In any case I'm guessing that the AI Cortana was dealing with onboard the Forerunner ship in Halo 2 was herself only much much MUCH older.

[Edited on 5/13/2006]

  • 05.13.2006 8:30 PM PDT

I have no idea about th Cortana stuff. She could be going rampant, she could be infected (virus) under the influence of Gravemind, she could be just plain evil.

We just don't know and won't until Halo 3 is played by the public.

  • 05.13.2006 8:32 PM PDT


I have furthered my theory by using various analysis of Cortana's lines. I am now about 99% sure that Cortana will die in Halo 3. Here is my analysis:

"I have defied Gods and Demons"
Cortana has fought, and is fighting, very powerful foes in the Covenant. She is baffling the Prophets and...

"I am your shield, I am your sword"
Cortana is an essential part of MC's success, she has helped him fight in both earlier Halo games via tactics, map plans, etc etc.

"I know you, your past, your future"
Cortana is processing far beyond normal AI capacity. She is knowing events from the past, before she was created, and predicting future events with her probability simulations. (Standard AI use)

"This is the way the world ends"
Because Cortana is doing this much thinking, she is dying. Cortana's world will end because she is doing all of this work, since AI die when they think too much, such as predicting the future while analyzing the past and fighting/defending against Gods and Demons...

  • 05.13.2006 8:33 PM PDT
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Posted: 5/13/2006 8:30 PM

Subject: It's not just one Cortana



I don't know about any of that but I do subscribe to the idea of that not being the Cortana we all know an love, but another Cortana, and I don't mean a copy. I mean two Cortana's. How? I'm not sure but perhaps it has somthing to do with time or some grand design by the Forerunners, In any case I'm guessing that the AI Cortana was dealing with onboard the Forerunner ship in Halo 2 was herself only much much MUCH older.


I read the other day that there could be a possibility that there was a time anomaly, because in halo CE guilty spark recognized the chief and asked him something. Maybe the chief and Cortana traveled through time.

  • 05.13.2006 8:36 PM PDT
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I have just finished reading the Cortana letters and they made me believe that 1.she is holding a secret for herself 2.she is using gravemind not gravemind using her. 3.-She speeks in the letters just like in the trailer.....evil. Lets face it she has gone rampant.

  • 05.13.2006 8:52 PM PDT
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I don't believe Cortana can GO rampant. After all, she's unlike any other AI - she has no controls in place over her emotions, etc.

Notice that at one point she looks computer animated, at another point she looks filmed?

Cortana is travelling through time.

  • 05.13.2006 8:54 PM PDT

After 7 years (Was it se7en?) Cortana's due for rampancy.

  • 05.13.2006 8:56 PM PDT
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Cortana is "Special"... she's unlike any other AI. She won't go rampant, she's just got an attitude.

  • 05.13.2006 8:59 PM PDT
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If you read the books she can and will go rampant. And she already copied herself remember? At the end of the books its not Cortana he has it is a copy.

  • 05.13.2006 9:00 PM PDT

July 15, 2008... The day the timer stood still.

Posted by: Octhilias
"This is the way the world ends"
Because Cortana is doing this much thinking, she is dying. Cortana's world will end because she is doing all of this work, since AI die when they think too much, such as predicting the future while analyzing the past and fighting/defending against Gods and Demons...
Kinda scary to know that you could "think" yourself to death... :-/

  • 05.13.2006 9:01 PM PDT
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I never really trusted Cortana but since I was first introduced to the character I became kind of attached

  • 05.13.2006 9:02 PM PDT
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Posted by: xTr1GGeR HaPPYx
After 7 years (Was it se7en?) Cortana's due for rampancy.


Yes....After 7 years, "Smart" AI's such as Cortana "overthink" themselves and begin to fail/"die"
It must be near 7 years....plus all that time in Covenant and Forerunner technology couldn't have been good for her systems.
Also, AI's chose how they look..notice how the Cortana in the trailer is missing parts of her face....she has gone rampant and is begining to fail

  • 05.13.2006 9:04 PM PDT
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Ok what if the Cortana we saw in halo 2 is a rampant copy, and is the same one in the beggining of the trailer, and the last Cortana we see in the trailer is the real one trying to link up wiyh the chief.

  • 05.14.2006 9:55 PM PDT
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If you've read the books you'd know she knows how to copy herself.

  • 05.14.2006 10:04 PM PDT
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I say instead of two cortana's, and her voice all screwed up, might be from her copying herself, or a covenant AI screwing her up in high charity. Both of these thiories are from first strike, the book.

[Edited on 5/14/2006]

  • 05.14.2006 10:07 PM PDT
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When she says "demons" in the trailer you can hear Gravemind kinda speaking along with her; maybe they fused or something. And yeah in the books she copies herself and MC's teacher I think said that AI's could die after absorbing enough information, and Cortana has a crapload of Covenant info and data on Halo on top of everything else.

  • 05.14.2006 10:39 PM PDT
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I think since at the beginning of every sentence she stutters the word "I" It's because the mutiple copies of herself are saying it at different times, only to be catching up or slowing down in mid sentence to catch up or leave slack for the real cortana talking, i know, it sounds stupid, lol

  • 05.14.2006 10:44 PM PDT

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No they are more than likely just copies(according to your theories)...(or added drama to the trailer)...

To the statement that it is not the original Cortana...the Cortana in Halo 2 is the Authentic Cortana...not a copy...she found a Covenant AI that had a program to copy itself...(stolen human tech) But as you book readers now you cant copy an AI without creating defects from the original, thus you have faulty copies...and when the Unyielding Hierophant blew there were millions of copies dedicated to specific tasks, and all were faulty...in the description the copies didnt feel normal to Chief (the icy cold feeling in his head, they are linked through his nuero transponder, but empty)...the real cortana was back on the the stolen Covie cruiser... shes fine...just stuck with Gravemind until we find out in H3 what happens...

  • 05.14.2006 10:52 PM PDT
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well the first one, "i have defied gods and demons"

I think she is talking about the covenant's gods and demons. She has defied the gods, either prophets or forerunners, by destroying halo.

But defying their demons, master chief is referred to constantly as a demon in halo 2, but how has she defied the MC? Perhaps she is defying everyone, working on her own to achieve someone's purpose. Perhaps she knew about grave mind all along

  • 05.14.2006 11:00 PM PDT