The floating blue orb
better known as 343 Guilty Spark is the AI Monitor, caretaker, and historian apparently left to keep watch over Halo Installation
04 and its contents when the Forerunner departed. In a similar fashion as most human AIs, he has several blocks on him which
do not allow certain behaviour- for example, he cannot retrieve the Index from the Library or unify it with the Core. He needs
the Master Chief, Mobuto, or another being fitting the somewhat mysterious requirements of "Reclaimer" to do this for him.
343 is quirky and good
humoured, though at the same time detached and by-the-book. Protocol is king; the slight emotion shown for those who die along
the way seems only to truly mourn the inconvenience of finding another to assist him. "Having had considerable time" to check
and recheck the systems of Halo in his masters' absence, the possibility has grown exponentially that his isolation has given
more than slight opportunity for insanity to bubble to the surface.
His exact objectives,
now free from his commitments on Installation 04, are unknown.
The Cortana Letters and an early 343 reference
Dave C (Shpydir@daintyrhino.com) writes:
I went to
the Marathon Story page to reread the speculation on the Cortana letters and I found that on March 23, 1999 Jonathan Andrews dug up something in the email headers. He found that the subject changes to be "Re:
Mail consternation request (MR-343)". Hmmm...343? Same number as Guilty Spark.
Dave C
Coincidence? I think not. It makes you wonder how long Bungie had the
story for Halo written out, even to the point of quasi-sub-characters like 343 Guilty Spark.
Bungie..."They're
everywhere!"
Apologies for the lack of updates over the past week or so; I've been out of town,
we're still getting pounded by technical problems, and to top it all off, my cat just bit me. Ow.
-Ape Man
permalink
Martin Thorne (mthorne@maildrop.srv.ualberta.ca) writes:
Dave C observes
that 343 appears in the early Cortana letters, and points out that this is the same number as Guilty Spark. However, I don't
think there is a direct correlation or reference between this number and 343 Guilty Spark. 343 = 7*7*7, so 343 was bound to
crop up somewhere, and the fact that it does so at more than one point in Halo's development is more likely evidence of Bungie's
continuing obsession with the number 7 then evidence of far-reaching early character development.
Then again, the
a character like 343 Guilty Spark may have been around for quite some time, since before the game was announced (and likely
before the Cortana letters). In the Truth and Reconciliation Jason Jones Q & A, he mentions that at some point in development,
"the fortress worlds were planets and not rings." Since Guilty Spark is the guardian of a fortress world a similar character
might have appeared in the embryonic, planet-based Halo story, and would definitely have preceded the Cortana letters, which
clearly imply a ring.
Just a few thoughts.
-Martin Thorne
Perhaps 343 Guilty Spark also played a much larger role in later versions
of the game; we learn most of the story of Halo through 343 Guilty Spark and Cortana, bantering back and forth, and as such
it seems quite possible that whatever gaps exist in Halo's story due to time constraints would likely have been filled in
with much of the same banter. Also, 343 Guilty Spark's comments in The Library seem to be in reference to something much larger,
about which 343 GS assumes we have some prior knowledge. Of course, this could merely be even more evidence to show that 343
GS thinks he has met us before, somewhere, somehow.
More to ponder.
-Ape Man
permalink
More forum mining from the early days following Halo's release.
This thread starts an interesting discussion on the intended function of the Halo. As has been observed in the game and sent in to us
here, the Halo was built by the Forerunners to contain and study the Flood, as well as fight it if it ever spreads. Kanen
Faud'r makes an interesting observation in this post:
Kanen Faud'r writes:
...If the
Flood doesn't exist in the rest of the galaxy obviously it was either created on Halo or contained there. Clearly they therefore
had the technology at the time to have destroyed it. I'm back to the library tomorrow in hopes of finding my precious Spark
quote, but we're still lacking a logical explanation for Halo's massive destructive capability... I think the only thing that
makes sense is to "contain" the Flood if it leaves Halo, and that only makes sense if there is a reason to keep the Flood
around.
A reason to keep the Flood around? 343 Guilty Spark hints at this with
this quote:
The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood - their survival as a race was dependant on
it. I am grateful to see that some of them have survived to reproduce.
Survival of which race?
Forerunner or Flood? Does Guilty Spark think that the MC is a Forerunner and is thus glad that they have reproduced? Or, upon
seeing the Flood, is he somehow glad that they still exist (even though they, or rather, their food, must be destroyed)?
-mnemesis
permalink
Rob Miller (B5RobMan@aol.com) writes:
Just something
I noticed while playing through Halo again..In the Library level, 343 Guilty Spark mentions that the Flood are repairing your
vessel. Now, I've always taken this to mean that the Flood are repairing the PoA, but, doesn't it seem like the Flood seem
more prepared to steal the Truth and Reconciliation? It's in better shape, the Keyes-Flood is on the bridge, and they seem
to be more..Er..Possessive, of it. This seems to point more and more towards 343GS thinking of you as a Covenant, which points
to the Covenant being Forerunner.
Once again, Who does 343 Guilty Spark think you are?
-mnemesis
permalink
Young Kim (ycompnerd89@hotmail.com) writes:
On the last
level, 343 GS is reading the information on the Pillar of Autumn. ... At the very end of the credits, it shows 343 GS floating
away into space. On the ship he might have stumbled across the location of Earth. If he did, he might go to Earth or maybe
even "sell" the location to the Covenant.
Interesting thought. If 343 GS were "alive", and he knew where Earth
was, what do you suppose would happen? ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Ryan Murray (murrayrj19@mail.uww.edu) writes:
The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood - their survival as a race was dependent on
it. I am grateful to see that some of them have survived to reproduce.
When I heard this the first time in game, and read it again on your site, which I, by the way,
love, it was a clear and concise statement with a definite meaning. That meaning? I'll show you.
The installation (Halo)
was built specifically to study and contain the Flood - their (forerunner) survival as a race was dependant on it (the containment
of the flood). I am grateful to see that some of them (forerunner) have survived to reproduce.
Guilty Spark has already
called Master Chief the 'reclaimer', and it should be obvious that he has confused him for a returning forerunner.
I
don't know. Maybe it's just me.
It's not just you. ;-) The prevailing theory is that 343 Guilty Spark
does indeed think that the MC is of the Forerunner species, possibly because the Chief's suit resembles something the Monitor
has seen before. When had he seen it before? Who was in it at the time?
-mnemesis
permalink
David Bergland (manoflaslomas@yahoo.com) writes:
I believe
that 343 GS is called "Guilty" because he killed his creators, the forerunner. In Two Betrayals, reveals his creators "asked
me, if it was my choice, would I do it?"
This question was probably a test for GS, to see if he had the guts to destory
his creators if nessecary, which he did. This is why he's "guilty". GS was probably designed as a failsafe AI, like the robot
in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" which would act in the best interest of the universe and be beyond the control and authority
even it's creators.
A spark is all it takes to start a fire or explosion, so his name is really pretty appropriate
for a responcible, self aware computer designed to trigger galactic apocolypse.
Very good point. Why else would "The Monitor" have a name like "343 Guilty
Spark?"
-mnemesis
permalink
Oh, and what happens to an AI that has a whole lot of free time and access
to a planet-sized network?
Maybe he
went rampant?
Wouldn't be Bungie without that possibility out there... ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Guilty Spark. Why would a Monitor be named "Guilty Spark?"
Sippan (zorkar@yahoo.com) writes:
Could it
be possible that GS had done something, and as punishment he had to stay on the Halo when the Forerunner(s) left, to monitor
it and keep the Flood from being released? (A job he didn't do very well by the way) This would also explain his name.
It would explain the odd name, but more importantly, what other
duties does he have while he's waiting for the Reclaimer to show up? Studying the Flood? He must have learned an awful lot about them in the (potential) millenia he's been there.
He'd certainly be quite the find, floating out there in space...
-mnemesis
permalink
Corey White (the_trailerpark_kid@hotmail.com) writes:
However,
I don't recall hearing the name "Reclaimer" until after you 'reclaim' the index. Maybe I'm wrong and he does say it beforehand,
but even so, that could be becuase 'reclaiming' the index is what your trying to do. And when he says "Why would you hesitate
to do what you have already done" I think he just means 'what you have been trying to do.'
-mnemesis
permalink
"I" to "We": Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Convicts?
Wado SG (wyamauchi@msn.com ) writes:
In Halo:
The Fall Of Reach, we learned that the Pillar of Autumn had a shipboard AI named Beowulf. Not much has been said about him,
either in the book or in the game, but we've had a few people who wondered about him.
...I think, however, I'm on to
something more to support [the idea] that 343GS is not alone when he escapes the destruction of Halo. He could have the AI
[Beowulf] with him perhaps.
In Two Betrayals 343 GUILTY SPARK says:
"If you are unwilling to help,
I will simply find another. Still, I must have the index. Give your construct to me or I will be forced to take her from you."
The key words are me and I, but in the Maw 343 GUILTY SPARK says:
"Why do you continue to fight
us, Reclaimer? You cannot win! Give us the construct, and I will endeavour to make your death relatively painless and - "
Here
the key word is us. Notice he does use the I to describe himself only. Could he be referring to his Sentinels when he says
us? Perhaps, but the Sentinels were there in Two Betrayals too and 343GS said give me the construct, not us.
Perhaps when 343 GS found "our lost history" he found something else,
eh?
-mnemesis
permalink
Sean (another one) spies a tidbit of solid info over on Bungie's Tru7h
and Reconciliation site, in the Two Betrayals Legndary Walkthrough:
sean1 (sean1@qwest.net) writes:
...Well,
in the [Two Betrayals] walkthrough, it says, and I quote, "We also discover why the Monitor keeps calling you "Reclaimer."
Apparently he confuses you with someone who has done this before, and assumes you already knew what the index would do. When
Cortana reveals the key vital tidbit of information, you abandon your former allies."
So, it is clear that there was
a last outbreak, and that it was contained...
Good eye. But, who is he confusing you with?
-mnemesis
permalink
On the origins of the name "343 Guilty Spark".
Sean (modern_ra@hotmail.com) writes:
...I think,
but don't quote me on it, that it is the name given to some sort of theorized protocol given to a safety mechanism to be built
into any A.I. constructs that may be built by people today. Like I said don't quote me on it, and unfortunately whenever I
serach for it now on the web I just get halo references of no use in this field.
Yeah, the term "guilty spark" has been thoroughly co-opted by our community
here. :-) Anyone have any information on this term with regards to computer AI?
-mnemesis
permalink
golig 1 (golig1@hotmail.com) writes:
At the end
of the stage 343 Guilty Spark, the Sentinels purposely avoid Master Chief's Marine buddies. This implies that the Monitor
knows that you are Human and knows that it was the Covenant who released the Flood, which is contrary to some people's beliefs,
particularly when the Monitor says something about another species releasing the Flood and it seems as though it was the Humans.
Good point. If the Monitor were concerned primarily with getting you
safely to the Index and he didn't see the Marines as a hindrance to you, he wouldn't have the Sentinels attack them. But if
the Marines were seen attacking the MC, as the Flood fighters are, maybe he'd set the Sentinels on everybody. Anyone want
to give this a try?
-mnemesis
permalink
Kevin Frank (fog_cutter44@msn.com) writes:
...the sentinels
carry weapons that look like surgical lasers. The sents could have been made to just dissect flood, or to use the lasers as
tools to break and repair metals. They did contain the flood for long periods of time, so it would be logical the sents used
their lasers to dissect the flood. The forrunners probably didn't plan on fighting the flood, just planned to activate halo.
Something else is weird, the Monitor says," you brought such ineffective weapons to combat the flood." Could he have been
talking to the sents, or the MC. But the shotgun takes out in one hit! Pistil in like 3 or so! And frag grenades are more
useful against flood! Probably was the sents...
So, could 343 Guilty Spark have been talking about the Sentinels
with that comment? After all, your basic weaponry is much better for fighting the Flood than the Sentinels'...
-mnemesis
permalink
"While naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release, my mass sterilization protocols may have been in need
of being activated. Of course, samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak...for study. It seems that that
decision may have been an error."
His
mass sterilization protocol? You mean he has something other than the Sentinels up his sleeve? And the fact that he says that
samples were kept here seems to imply that Halo was a failsafe facility, not the primary Halo. I'll assume for now that the
catastrophic outbreak was when Halo, and the other ring-worlds were fired, after the Flood broke out....and what? Killed the
Forerrunner? What descicion?...
The protocols mentioned are most probably the firing of the Halo, but
James raises another interesting question. Note the way that 343 Guilty Spark's comment about the sterilization protocols
is structured. Why would he say that they "may have been in need of being activated?" Is there any way that the Flood can
be released that doesn't require the firing of the Halo and the subsequent sterilization of the galaxy?
-mnemesis
permalink
James Simone (jamirus9@bestweb.net) writes:
...just
wanted to start another orund of speculation aobut what the Monitor says about the Flood: "Your environment suit should serve
you well when the Flood begins to alter the atmosphere. You are a good planner"
What is he talking about?
Other than that one sentence, he never mentions that the Flood need to alter the atmosphere! I mean, they are trying to get
off planet, are they not? I've seen the note about the Silent Cartographer ocean levels low, and I'd like to note that this
is perhaps a sign that the Flood were releases before 343GS, or even Assualt on the Control Room...
That comment about "altering the atmosphere" fairly screams to be analyzed.
Altered for what? As James says, if the Flood just want to get a ship or two in working order so they can get off Halo and
out into the galaxy, why mess with the atmosphere? Modifying something as large as the entire atmosphere seems to imply that
at least some of the Flood are staying on Halo for some reason. I wonder why? :-)
-mnemesis
permalink
In a continuation of Ciarán's "Do AIs lie?" forum post , Wado SG writes :
343 GS is
quite vague about who released the Flood. I believe he could be covering up the truth when he says he "gathers the other species
released the Flood."
My reasoning is he has a motive: If he really considers the MC a superior (the Reclaimer) then
he might not want to admit if HE (343 GS) actually released the Flood.
He has demonstrated a liking to or fascination
with the Flood: He is "glad to see some of them have survived to reproduce" or something like that. Just whose side is he
really on?
He might be trying to kill off the MC (Reclaimer): In the Library, why not keep a Sentinel escort with
the MC at all times or why not just teleport the MC to the Index? What if 343 GS is secretly hoping the Reclaimer will get
killed by the Flood -- this way he has not explaining to do. His programming very likely prevents him from outright killing
the Reclaimer so that is out of the question (you don't program an AI monitor to kill you or your own people).
He
tries to explain how "we" followed containment protocol which means what? I mean if someone asks me to pay $1.00, I could
give them a $1 bill or 100 pennies or 4 quarters... etc. There are just many ways an AI could interpret the protocols and
twist them to other means.
In summary, 343 GS might have released the Flood on purpose or because of mismanagement.
I'm thinking that 343 GS just doesn't want to admit to his own inability to do his job (maybe he was surfing the galactic
web while the Flood made their escape). 343 GS knows that there will be hell to pay for his incompetence, to save his own
ass, he has to pin the blame on someone else and in the end look like the hero. If this doesn't look like it will work, the
Reclaimer must have a little "accident", I mean it's the Reclaimer's fault he didn't come prepared to fight the Flood, 343
GS tried to warn him.
Guilty, eh? He seems honest enough, and yet...
In addition, Guilty
Sparks's apparent enthusiasm and infatuation can be interpreted in at least 3 different ways:
1) He is, despite his
recent comments questioning the decision to keep samples of the Flood for study, happy to see this plague continue to multiply.
2)
He is happy to see that YOUR species (he believes YOU to be Forerunner, whether he thinks you to be Human, Covenant, or "Else"
on the ring) has managed to continue to reproduce.
3) He is happy to see that the Forerunner have continued to reproduce
and recognizes you as distinct from them. For example (feel free to swap the races between Humanity, Covenant, and "Else"),
he believes you to be Covenant and sees Humanity (the Forerunner) as the race you are trying to help, as though you are a
client race.
I'd pay a lot for just 5 minutes inside that Mote's head, but then, I'm not sure if I'd ever get the humming
out of mine ;)
-Finn
permalink
Nate Stilgoe (natestilgoe@hotmail.com) writes:
And how
come Guilty Spark 343 can speak English anyway?
Possibilities could include:
1) The language used in the story
is irrelevant and serves only to facilitate communication between characters.
2) Guilty Spark intuitively knows or
has the capability to translate all languages.
3) Guilty Spark has analyzed human language while monitoring them remotely,
previous to their landing on Halo..
4) Guilty Spark has analyzed human language since they arrived on Halo.
5)
English is a tongue of the ancients.
-Finn
permalink
Sephlock (sephlock@optonline.net) writes:
In reference
to the theory posted by Ryan Murray...
The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood - their
survival as a race was dependent on it. I am grateful to see that some of them have survived to reproduce.
-----
Question;
if the monitor thinks that you are part of the forerunner race -which I believe is the case,- then why would he refer to your
race that way?
If he was in fact referring to the forerunner race, of which you are asummed to be a part, wouldn't
he say something like:
"As you know, this installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood - your
survival as a race was/is dependent on it. I am grateful to see that some of you have survived to reproduce."
Besides
that, wouldn't he assume you would already know what your race's survival is dependant upon? Thats not exactly the sort
of thing you'd forget to tell your children.
Really, an alternate interpretation to that paragraph never even occured
to me, to me it seemed pretty obvious that 343 was referring to the flood. After all, why would he say
"The installation
was specifically built to study and contain the Flood -"
And then say
"their survival as a race was dependent
on it."
If he was referring to the forerunners in that second bit, why wouldn't he use a word other than THEIR, immediately
after the first bit? It makes no sense; this guy ain't Yoda, his grammar is fine. In the context, it seems quite clear
that he is referring to the flood.
The battle rages on...
-Finn
permalink
Playing to lose
Aida-kun (dkane@vom.com) writes:
Maybe 343
Guilty Spark had some agenda he wanted to pursue away from the Halo, but was forced to watch over it as Monitor by directives
programmed by the Forerunners. He couldn't directly go against his preprogrammed directives, but he COULD play to lose --
make "mistakes" at certain junctures, such as failing to activate the mass sterilization protocols until the Covenant freed
the Flood.
If you've read The Ringworld Engineers, you'll know what I mean with [SPOILER if you haven't] Teela's inability
to allow them to succeed -- so she fails, to achieve a more important goal than immediate victory. [END SPOILER] With the
Halo and (hopefully!) Flood destroyed beyond salvaging, 343 GS cannot continue his duties as Monitor, therefore is free to
do whatever he wants, within any other limitations he has. I think the assumption that he's angry about the destruction of
Halo is not one we can safely make...
True.
Speaking of programming, Darryl Henderson comments,
Could GS
343's insanity have been caused by a programming conflict? (Think of HAL-9000 in 2001: A Space Odysey and the resulting diagnosis
found in the sequel 2010: The Year We make Contact.) GS could have unknowingly comitted an act that was in conflict with his
programming, and it snowballed into insanity.
-Finn
permalink
Finally! An age old homework assignment finds its way to our desk.
Roy Vandewater (roy@ermaroni.net) writes:
I looked
up some references on Google with it set so the word Halo was excluded. I got some interesting results. The phrase 'guilty
spark' is used to describe the actions that fathers take when a tragedy occurs. A tragedy of a lost child, causing the father
to become insane and kill people. Perhaps the forerunners were wiped out for some unknown reason and GS has become insane.
GS want's to kill everyone because it thinks that it was the cause of the forerunner's extinction. That would explain his
great want to set off Halo.
Très intéressant.
-Finn
permalink
And again from Jonathan Latkowcer:
Finally,
"Guilty Spark"? Sounds like what you might name something that would fix an error by lighting a bomb, wouldn't you say?
-Finn
permalink
Elessedil 111 (Elessedil111@aol.com) writes:
Puzzling. You brought such ineffective weapons to fight the Flood, despite the containment protocols.
Human weaponry? GS is so surprised with it because
the forerunners, and most likely the covenant, gave up on high-velocity projectile weaponry because they believed it inferior
to energy weaponry. if the flood were created or at least contained by the forerunner, they probably would have believed wholeheartedly
in linear progression and never designed or tried to use high-velocity projectile weaponry against them because they were
so sure of their superior energy weapons, or that any race powerful enough to reach halo in the middle of space would have
energy weapons, like the covenant.
-Finn
permalink
Otto Mossberg (owm88@hotmail.com) writes:
I don't
think Spark "survived" the explosion in the way some would think. My guess is that he teleported himself to the far side of
the ring once he knew there was no stopping the explosion, putting him a nice 10,000 Km distant to stat with, then heading
off ring in the oppisite direction of the PoA (Ie, toward the "outside" of the ring). That would give him a good 15 minutes
of travel time, so depending on his maximum speed, he should be easily far enough away to survive the blast.
Well, we know he can teleport around Halo, and he's pretty indestructible,
but just how does he move around in deep space?
-mnemesis
permalink
In response to an earlier post by Young Kim, Sagar notes the observation
that 343 Guilty Spark might have "stumbled across the location of Earth," and observes that that shouldn't be possible.
Sagar Patel (spartansp@yahoo.com) writes:
Keyes initiated
the Cole Protocol, and it's even stated clearly in the book that every UNSC ship has to follow Cole Protocol if under capture/
abandonment, those type of threats. 343GS couldn't have found Earth b/c all of the PoA's mem banks on locations should have
been erased.
This raises what I think is a big question. When 343 Guilty Spark browses
"all our lost time," what is he reading? The location of Earth has supposedly been deleted, but has anyone modified
the remaining information? Cortana, maybe? Or someone else?
-mnemesis
permalink
Sean has a pretty good question.
Sean Durkin (screwsean@hotmail.com) writes:
Where is
GS actually going after Halo 04 is destroyed??
To earth? Unlikely. Why would he go there? He would powerless...no sentinels,
nothing. Sure he can interface with human technology, but why bother when u would have hundreds of AI's working against u?
Plus he wouldnt want to destroy earth because he says he was so glad to see 'some of them survive and reproduce'.
So
where is he going?
Well, there are those other Halos he alluded to...
-mnemesis
permalink
Corey "manic" White (the_trailerpark_kid@hotmail.com) writes:
One thing
that always stunned me was the neutron bomb. It's along the lines of the Atom bomb, but instead of a massive explosion that
vaporises everything, it emits radiation that only effects living things. For example, drop a neutron bomb on a city, kill
it's occupants, but keep all the building and all the goodies instead of having to rebuild everything. Doesn't this sound
a little like "this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the flood."
Maybe the Halo is like a giant neutron bomb explosion.
Now if this were the case then anyone still on the installation
at the time of the detonation would die (which has been a point in question for some time), and I would specualte that the
flood warriors and carriers would be susceptible to the radiation caused by the explosion, but the spores themselves may have
some sort of natural resistance.
Whilst there may have been immense amounts of radiation throughout the galaxy, there
has been many millenia since the detonation, and thus this may no longer me an issue. And whose to say if the radiation would
necessarily have any adverse effects on any evolving micro-organisms. It might affect their evolution, but you could not really
be sure how.
Good points.
-mnemesis
permalink
The enigmatic utterances of 343 Guilty Spark perplex another unsuspecting
victim, yet another case is made for our indestructible little lunatic being but one of many.
Damien Kellis (dkellis@neo-anime.org) writes:
I have just
obtained a copy of Halo, and I've been playing it fairly religiously for the past week or so.
What interested me greatly
were the actions and words of the Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark. I'll have to use your level transcriptions for reference, as
343 GS is rather inaudible in my game.
343 Guilty Spark is supposedly the Monitor of Installation 04, and, as he says,
"My
function is to prevent it from leaving this installation." (end of the 343 Guilty Spark level).
Later,
in the Library level, he says a lot of other interesting things. Namely:
"Pardon me. A plasma conduit breach in section
5-5-2-4 has disrupted power flow to a gravitic maintenance assembly."
and
"Flood activity has
caused a failure in a drone control subsystem. I must reset the backup unit. Continue on. I will rejoin you when I have completed
my task."
Apart from wondering what is this drone control system that must be reset, one may also speculate
on 343 GS's job scope. Is his duty simply to prevent the Flood from escaping (in which case, where was he when the Flood were
first released?), or is he the odd-job AI of Halo?
When you journey through the corridors of the Library (why is it
called a Library, when there are no records of any sort?), very often 343 Guilty Spark either proceeds on a course that you
cannot possibly follow, or he asks you to wait in one place while he fiddles with the security overrides. Why would an AI
supposedly in charge of the entire Halo installation require any overrides? Where does he go when you cannot see him?
Not
counting the obvious superweapon, does 343 Guilty Spark actually have full control of Halo's systems in the first place?
One
more quote may shed some light onto this speculation.
"The installation was specifically built to study and contain
the Flood. Their survival as a race was dependent upon it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce."
I
understand that 343 GS may not be talking about the Flood when he speaks of reproducing, but let us assume (for the sake of
this argument) that he is.
Which leads us to a problem: the way he phrases it ("I am" as opposed to "I was") would
indicate that he did not know before a recent accounting whether or not the Flood had actually survived.
Either the
Monitor is remiss in his Monitoring duties, or he was not the one specifically in charge of scrutinizing the Flood.
Leela,
Durandal and Tycho, perhaps?
Is it possible that 343 Guilty Spark is not the only AI left behind by the Forerunners?
Could there be some others that we just haven't met? If so, what could their fates post-Halo-destruction have been?
-mnemesis
permalink
Tikiman (tikiman0@bellsouth.net) writes:
In the beginning
of Two Betrayals, 343 GS mentions that MC must insert the index into the master control panel, because units of his classification
do not have the priority to reunite the index with the core. Is he hinting that other Forerunner robots, obviously more important
than he, exist(ed)? Definetly so!
Where are they? Can we look forward to multiple Sparks in Halo
2? It is our fervent hope and desire that, if so, not all of them have spent the last 101,217 years going slowly insane.
-mnemesis
permalink
Colin "kojimyuu" Burch (kojimyuu@hotmail.com) writes:
It's my
speculation that he is actually hacking into Cortana (she is in the PoA's computers by that point, trying to activate the
countdown to the engine detonation). She does say, after all, that, "He's in my data arrays --- a local tap."
Cortana
could easily hold information like the location of Earth, plus much, much more. She holds tactical information for use in
battle. Maybe she holds records of age-old battles for later use in modern battles? Don't forget the quote, "History repeats
itself."
Theoretically, Cortana would purge the location of Earth from her own
data banks, as per the Cole Protocol. However, as we all know, one can never be to sure when it comes to shipboard AIs.
-mnemesis
permalink
Sagar Patel (spartansp@yahoo.com) writes:
Why keep
the bloody bastards [flood]?
In the 343GS discussions someone mentioned 343 killing the forerunner. Maybe 343 decided
that for some reason (either by example or reasoning of future possibilities) the Forerunner were planning on/ or were destroying
the Flood. So in order to keep them, he killed the Forerunner to preserver the Flood.
Why kill them and then keep
the Flood?
The "research", whatever it is.
Research so important that though the monitor may not entirely understand
its full potential or nature, it exterminates its organic partners in order to preserve it.
Daisy, Daisy, give me your
answer true, I'm half crazy all for the love of you...
-Finn
permalink
In refference
to a post by Colin "kojimyuu" Burch about the Monitor hacking into Cortana, why would he hack her for the information about
where earth is located? Seriously. I'd think the only reason why he'd be trying to hack into her, is to recover the index,
and on top of that, disable her. Then again, when she says that, he might just be tapping in to speak over the loudspeaker.
::Shrugs:: Never know.
Well, if he is just a maintenance drone of sorts, he might not
think to scrutinize Cortana for information, but then there's the whole insanity thing. Because, you know, the little guy's
completely off his nut. He might think he's on a mission from God, which makes me wonder: If we run into him in Halo
2, what will he be up to?
-mnemesis
permalink
Or...
Sam K. (biomissle@yahoo.com) writes:
Saying "our
lost time" makes me think that Human and Forerunner history were at one time one in the same (the same race, or like a mother
country-colony relationship). He also said that Halo was used before, and that's why I think it's "lost time". If Halo was
fired, that could have wiped out, or nearly wiped out the Forerunner and blasted us back into the stone age. With all
the records destroyed by Halo, humans wouldn't have any recollection of their Forerunner origins.
Either that, or the lost time spoken of could merely refer to the joy
of finding a record, any record, spanning the time of 343's solitary duties, independent of species or point of view.
Need
more input!
-Finn
permalink
Or...
Zap_98 (zap0000@hotmail.com) writes:
I don't
believe that the Forerunner are genetically related to us. I believe that the Forerunner were watching us, that they
observed us evolving. They kept records of our advancements. Then, they disappeared. Because of that, they could no longer
observe us. "Lost time" refers to what they missed of our development. So now, they get to catch upon the history they missed.
-Finn
permalink
Lost Time, Schmost Time
Freedin (flamingrune@hotmail.com) writes:
"You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all of our lost time! Human history, is it? Fascinating."
I think Guilty Spark when he said "our" is he
is referring to him and the Forerunner; that he and the Forerunner had actually missed the development of mankind.
-Finn
permalink
And continuing on the subject of Guilty Spark/Human relations:
AOClaus ( AOClaus@msn.com) writes:
Something
else I find a rather large coincidence if it is one, is that 343 GS specifically refers to the Chief as human in The Library.
It could be argued that he learned of the name through some sort of database, but if the Cole Protocol was properly executed
then he would have no way of obtaining such information prior to his tapping Cortana's database. He may also have heard it
from a marine, but GS is only ever written as having been seen by another human being other than the Chief in the persons
of Foe Hammer and her co-pilot just as he was about to meet the Chief (he stared at Foe Hammer through the cockpit window
while she was in the dropship. The only other possibility would be that the other "reclaimer" [Mobuto]. Even if the first
reclaimer [Mobuto] was to have told GS the name of his race GS would still have no reference by which to gauge the Chief's
behavior when he tells him to "stop being human" etc.
Considering the selective nature of the Cole Protocol, there a more than a few possible explanations of 343's knowledge of Humanity:
2) 343 has monitored Human activity
prior to their landing on Halo: Hmmm...
2) 343 has monitored Human activity since their landing on Halo: ?
3)
343 has learned about Humanity through a reading of Human computer systems: True, but as mentioned by Ryan, he is in the know
before his pilfering on The Maw.
4) 343 has been informed of Humanity through a reading of various Covenant databases,
perhaps on a downed ship or as Covenant Engineers scoured Halo's systems: ??
5) Humanity is old school. We may not
know it, but whether we are Forerunner, a client race, or an old arch rival we have been around for a long, long time.
Inexhaustive
I'm sure :)
-Finn
permalink
Safety First!
Ryan (ryan@dreamops.com) writes:
Somebody
else noted that the GS 343“s Sentinels were pretty damn weak compared to what it was actually facing, but consider this×He
wasn“t allowed to handle the Index and maybe he wasn“t allowed access to the bigger toys either without, um, Forerunner
intervention. After all, you don“t give the Marine Private free reign of the armory, nor did Cortana have certain access
codes to make a certain ship go boom. Then again, Halo seems to have only one purpose. To stop a galaxy-wide flood infestation.
Otherwise you figure it“d be equipped with heavier local weaponry.
On that note, I tend to disagree that
GS343 is as devious as popular opinion seems to dictate. GS343 assumed one highly flawed fact×That MC was THE Reclaimer, someone
or something it had known in the past. And with that assumption goes an entire line of logic; That the Reclaimer should be
given access to the vital systems (the Index) and he knows what he“s doing. He should even know what he“s about
to do will not only wipe out the flood, but all life as well. After allÅ He“s done it once before. GS343 even suffers
a certain amount of disillusionment once his buddy the Reclaimer starts acting funny. Nothing necessarily sinister or tricky
here, just a massive misunderstanding.
But it goes deeper than that. Even as you“re attempting to detonate the
PoA, GS343 is running rampant through the human data banks, enjoying every moment of it“s assimilation that will fill
in their lost time. So consider the facts nowÅ GS343 has access to a large store of human data. He has made the correlation
between the MC and this Data. And he STILL thinks the MC is his Reclaimer, albeit a malfunctioning one. I would venture that
GS343 knows what a human is and has seen them before. It knew that the MCs armor was merely armor with a self contained environmental
unit, not the body itself. Somehow, I don“t think GS343 is making any mistakes as to MC“s race, simply his identity
and role on Halo. Could Humanities separation from Halo have to do with the last Flood outbreak? Inquiring minds want to know.
Indeed they do. Desperately so. Alright, obsessively.
-Finn
permalink
Zack Stambo (legendofyams@yahoo.com) writes:
I've always
been interested in your site since i first stumbled upon it but i've never wanted to get too complex with my thought on the
halo storyline future, but now im turning over a new leaf with this idea being submitted to you. So, 343 Guilty Spark is an
Artificial and/or Actual Intelligence based creation, but he does not seem to resemble any of the artistic signatures of forerunner
or covenant creations: 1) he is just a plain metal and has no other present colors on him such as the usual purple and dark
blue. 2) he does not seem to be powered by any unusual alien power source and seems to rely on an electrical field to both
float and interact which is obvious on the Maw when he is accessing the computer information from remote ports.3) not as important
of a point but his language seems to be based on english seeing as he does not communicate with the flood(who could though)
or the covenant. And if he is an artificial intelligence based creation then he would have advanced scanning/formula based
recognition techniques and he would recognize the master chief as not wielding any forerunner/ covenant symbols and he would
recognize him as a seperate life form. My opinion from all of these facts are that 343 Guilty spark was brought to Halo from
a past incident in which the humans were overrun and killed and 343 Guilty Spark was left to float around in Halo and absorb
it's information, developing his behavioural blocks from accessing the Halo information, probably a failsafe created by the
Forerunner.
Forced insanity as a fail-safe? Deucedly clever!
-mnemesis
permalink
Nick Regnier (evil_natured_robot@yahoo.com) writes:
I've been
wondering just what Guilty Spark's relation to Halo and the Forerunner are. After pondering on it for some time, a thought
struck me:
What if Guilty Spark isn't the Forerunner-designated monitor of Halo? What if another race put him there
to study, or fire the ring?
Whoa. Though not the most likely situation, that would certainly put
a strange spin on things... Who would such a system of surveillance or control advantage?
-Finn
permalink
De-Mote-ed
Over
on the forum, Mark Simmons has posted what is, so far, the definitive analysis of 343 Guilty Spark's highly ambiguous dialogue. Enjoy a careful read or two, take note of the clear and concise format, and if you feel so led, qualify or add to the discussion.
Go to it folk .
-Finn
permalink
John Hanan (deltaflyer21@hotmail.com) writes:
Considering
that this is around the time that GS begins using the "we" to refer to himself ("Give us the index"), is it possible that
somehow someone else (Cortana, Beowulf, Wellsley, another AI?) is hitching a ride and is reviewing records of of the time
they missed while disconnected? Hmmm...
Well, he has demonstrated a severe disdain for those he refers to as
"constructs," but could there be some other entity (or entities) that might be monitoring his duties?
-mnemesis
permalink
Diego Pezua (altoboy_63@hotmail.com) writes:
Guilty sparks
to me is just a rampant AI that is out of place in halo, like he was left behind and abandoned. I doubt the forerunners would
make such a perfect intallation knowing that their AI in charge would go insane in a couple of thousand of years. he treats
the Forerunner as distantly as he does the human and the covenant when he refers to them.
Their decision to keep samples of the Flood may have been in error; may
their trust also have been misplaced when they selected/constructed their Monitor for the Installation?
To focus more
on Diego's particular angle here, is it possible that 343 Guilty Spark's role as Monitor is a fabrication of his own mind?
What if he was... just another Forerunner construct, abandoned in the Forerunner exodus/extermination. Is his assumed role
a way to deal with the stress of being left on the Halo 04 by those he trusted? Hmm...
-Finn
permalink
Rob "GuiltySpark" Berwick (guiltyspark@silentcartographer.com) writes:
This is
just speculation, but the alpha-numeric equivalent of 343 is CDC. Could this be representative of the Flood's parasitic nature
and CDC as a reference to the Centers for Disease Control?
The 7x7x7 always seemed to be enough, but why not? Good eye :)
-Finn
permalink
343 Guilty Spark: manipulative historian or benign observer?
Cam
Cowles (uoarkile@earthlink.net) and Dylan "elfum" Crawford (elfum@lycos.com) write:
I noticed
343GS values records of history and past events very valuable. He says so on occasion in the game. He gabbles about how valuable
the information on human history he aquired from the PoA was. Perhaps he sees these records more valuable if the subjects
are terminated. Now my story tieing theory has a few assumptions.
1. There was a somewhat small population of
Forerunner on Halo. I am also guess machines they made did the labor of building "Halo" for them.
2. 343GS betrayed
the Forerunner population on Halo. Perhaps the Forerunner used sentiels or weather controls or the alike to kill the Forerunner.
I
believe that perhaps 343 eliminated the Forerunner on Halo so his records of their existance become much more valuable.
He seems to brag about what he knows all the time in the game, but never goes very in depth into what he knows. He just points
out FYI's here and there. He doesn't want to give away his precious records ;) Perhaps nothing interesting has come out of
the Flood and he wants them to create a story for themselves then eliminate them as well (activating Halo) and then making
another valuable history of an event.
---
343 Guilty Spark seems to me to be very similiar to Superman's
"real" archrival, Brainiac. Brainiac was a computer/AI i believe created by Supermans father on Krypton. When people began
to think that Krypton would eventally blow up because of a bunch of earthquakes and volcanoes, Brainiac said that it would
not (even though he knew it would). Therefore, everyone died on krypton except for superman and brainiac (whose escape is
simliar to 343 gs's after the credits). He also shares 343 gs's love for knowledge and how valuable it was; he would find
out everything he could about a culture by befriending it and acting as a god, then destroy it so the information he found
would increase in value. I guess you could call brainiac a "rampant" enitity. Maybe this means that 343 gs lied to the forerunner
about how dangerous the flood really were, and then they were wiped out by the flood.
The Forerunner, wiped out through
the deceit of 343 and his quest to manipulate further events to categorize and document? Possible, but I ask you, is his the
voice of a murderer?
”Exactly 101,217 local
years,‘ the Monitor replied cheerfully, ”many of which were quite boring. But not anymore! Hee, hee, hee.‘
Amidst the hectic arrival of his new "guests" he certainly seems to be
up to something. However, like a cat, it is difficult to tell if 343 has us right where he wants us, or is simply full of
complacent, ignorant bliss ;)
-Finn
permalink
Dylan Oldenburg (iarentdylan@yahoo.com) writes:
At the end
of Halo, 343 Guilty Spark is shown to be alive, in space. There has been speculation about what he will do now. After realizing
that your plan to neutralize the Flood was successful, he would hold no grudge against you, being an AI. It may be against
protocol, but the objective was accomplished, and he would quite possibly be grateful for avoiding what is an admittedly messy
sacrifice: wiping out all life in the galaxy along with the Flood. My evidence for 343 traveling to Earth is this.Look at the third sound file. It speaks of an easter egg that didn't make it into the game, of 343 paying a visit to the
Marine's medical tents, which are, of course, on Earth. Admittedly, it's just an egg, not a major story event, but do you
really think that Bungie would put in an egg that contradicted what actually happened in Halo history?
Could be a subtle hint, or just plain tomfoolery. Either way, there is
little doubt that 343 Guilty Spark will be showing up again in the near future, but just what his standpoint will be on the
whole "you blew up my installation" point, considering that the objective of neutralizing the Flood was theoretically still
accomplished, could be quite interesting.
-Finn
permalink
Stop Cyborg Exploitation Now! Fair Wages! Union Equity!
Nick Yacono (nyacono@yahoo.com) writes:
"Dylan Oldenburg once wrote:
At the end of Halo, 343 Guilty Spark is shown to be alive, in space. There has been speculation about what he will
do now. After realizing that your plan to neutralize the Flood was successful, he would hold no grudge against you, being
an AI."
Even though this goes back into Marathon history, I think my point is still quite relevant to the Halo story
line since it is about AI constructs.
If you recall poor, Tycho. Betrayed by Durandal, handed over to alien hands,
studied, probed and disected; he seemed a little upset after all was said and done. He forged P'fhor military IDs, called
in several vessels of the P'fhor navy and sent many, many soldiers to their death all for his revenge on Durandal.
I
may be out of step, but it sounds to me like Tycho may have been holding a bit of a grudge.
As for the flood being
neutralized...who said that? I saw Halo blow up, but his mission was to assure that they would never escape the installation.
It's quite clear how "adaptable" the flood are. And if simply blowing up the ring was enough to finish them, why rig the thing
to take out a whole galaxy?
Everyone seems to assume that 343GS left Halo because his mission was complete. I think
he failed. And if I was an ancient construct with a failed mission objective and a fervish interest in Human/Forerunner history,
I know where I'd go and I know the first person I'd look up when I got there. Bungie's AI's seem to have a nasty habit of
abusing cyborgs for their own means.
Plus...343GS is just what the MC needs to get from planet to planet quickly in
Halo 2. But that's just me dreaming again.
Not to mention that the Flood may be extant in more than a single location
in the galaxy. A disconcerting truth for us, and for 343, one that may require urgent monitoring.
343 can certainly
teleport around Halo with ease. Let's see what other tricks he has up his... ahem... sleeves ;)
-Finn
permalink
343's "lost time" and inquisitiveness during The Maw seen in a fascinating
new light...
Leigh Thompson (psyc@btinternet.com) writes:
"Cortana had to finally
admit to herself that she didn't have the power to contend with a possible enemy artificial construct. She had absorbed a
tremendous volume of data from halos systems: eons' worth of records on halos engineering and maintenance, the xenobiology
of the flood and every scrap of information on the mysterious "forerunners" the covenant revered so much. The information
would take her a week of non-stop processing to examine, collate, codify· let alone understand." -First Strike
P65 lines 24 - 31
Once Cortana downloaded all the data from Halo's core, she stored it for investigation later. This
download bloated her, and slowed down her operations. She had not herself however collated this data, which she stored.
When,
however, 343GS probed her in The Maw:
343 GUILTY SPARK: "Ridiculous! That you would imbue a warship's AI with such
a wealth of knowledge! Weren't you worried it might be captured? Or destroyed?"
CORTANA: "He's in my data arrays, a
local tap!"
343 GUILTY SPARK: "You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all of our lost time! Human
history, is it? Fascinating." ... "Oh how I will enjoy every moment of its categorization! And to think that you would destroy
this installation. As well as this record. I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words."
343GS appeared to have collated
some of this data contained within Cortana. What is interesting is that maybe Guilty Spark have never had the pleasure
of perusing the Halo's vast database: "Protocol does not allow units with my classification to· perform a task as important
as the reunification of the index with the core."
After all, he is disgusted when he discovers Cortana in the core:
"A construct?! In the core?! That is absolutely unacceptable!"
This was his first time he could put all of the pieces
together. He is shocked. Why? Has he realised that Humans are indeed somehow related to the Forerunner in some way, he understands
the Chiefs apparent irrational behaviour; i.e. why he has poor weapons to combat the flood and only has a class 2 battle skin,
and to top it off; that the reclaimer is about to destroy the installation along with the original record of the lost time.
By
the end of Halo the only person to fully understand what's going on is indeed 343 Guilty Spark.
A truly impressive interpretation of these events; that the data 343
was viewing were the very Forerunner records he was not able to access in all his years of monitoring Installation 04 and
its shrouded and ever revered Core. What other conclusions has he come to I wonder? Excellent thinking :)
-Finn
343: In Latin and Hebrew
Fraser Walker (runwiled@yahoo.co.uk) and g_cool2002 (g_cool2002@juno.com) write:
I too have
often wondered why 343GS is indeed called 343 Guilty Spark. What exactly is he guilty of? I ran a few shearches for biblical
references involving chapters with the combinations 343 (ie 3:43 or 34:3), since Master Chief's own name is perhaps derived from the same source. I found one quotation that stood
out, in the book Lamentations "3:43 Thou hast covered with
anger, and persecuted us: 'thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied." It seemed rather appropriate, both the quote itself, and
the title of the particular book.
On a whim I also translated 'guilty spark' into Latin, and got 'redarguo scintilla,'
as my answer. I know very little of Latin, so i'm not sure if this is relevant at all, but interestingly, when i translated
back into English i got: "I refute the spark." Again this seems either very tantalising, or just another dead end.
---
Also,
I just had a thought about GS 343. What if the numbers were a reference to a biblical book, chapter, and verse? The thrid
book is leviticus, chapter 4, verse 3 . . .
Lev 4:3 " 'If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he
must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.
Priests were keepers
of the law in ancient times and responsible for the religious state of the people. In Halo: FoR, someone mentions that the
children chosen for the Spartan II project were as close to being geneticly pure as humanly possible. Seems convienient that
a "bull without defect" just happens to show up and is willing led to an "altar." Only thing is I havn't figured out what
GS is guilty of. What do you think?
An AI fail-safe, emotional trigger, simple numerology, Latin derivative, scriptural allusion... As always, the origins of 343 Guilty Spark demand further analysis.
-Finn
Wade Yamauchi (wyamauchi@msn.com) writes:
Could 343
Guilty Spark have never actually met a reclaimer personally. What if he had just gone through simulations of firing Halo.
The simulations of course are not real, however, perhaps 343 GS is a bit confused and thinks the simulations were real.
Even
if Halo's superweapon was actually fired before for real, there is no positive evidence to support that 343 GS was the one
in charge of Halo when it was fired. He could have been put in charge after the last time Halo was fired. Simulations would
have been part of his training protocols.
Oh, he's "confused," all right. Interesting possibility that there might
have been another Monitor around, one who would have theoretically been 343's superior. Now, would that be 342, or
344? ;-)
-mnemesis
Håkan Alvner (hakan.alvner@tele2.se) writes:
When you
read Halo: The Flood, it mentions Sarge Mobuto, who made it quite far in The Library.
Apparently, the Monitor thought
as him as a possible Reclaimer too. I find that very, very odd. Take this into the equation: "But you already knew that. I
mean, how couldn't you?" and we have trouble.
In my opinion, it doesn't really matter what he was supposed to know,
the important things are:
1: Both John-117 and Sergeant Mobuto were candiates for being a (The?) Reclaimer. (Instead of
what many believe, that John was, in Sparks eyes, destined
to be a Reclaimer based upon one of 343GS's previous meetings, and that he confuses John with that Reclaimer.)
2: 343GS
just assumes that the Reclaimer know. How could that be if multiple persons are candidates for being a (The?) Reclaimer? Does
he assume that everyone who comes to "Installation 04" knows everything about its purpose, or that the one who manages to
pass the test of The Library must be in possession of that knowledge?
Questions, questions.
Title by proximity, eh? Interesting concept. I don't know if the Library
would be considered a "test", unless that were the only place that the Flood could go, once they were released. I suppose
it could be a test of your following skills, maybe. ;-)
-mnemesis
