Cortana is one of thousands of AIs which populate the computer networks of the Human worlds. She is, however,
somewhat unique; she is a direct copy of a human being, Dr. Halsey, and lacks behavioral inhibitors of any kind. She is free
to do as she pleases, unlike most other military AIs, such as the ONI AI Beowulf, which is strict, sullen, and by-the-book.
Cortana, on the other hand, is strong-headed, noisy, and somewhat off-the-wall.
However, her freedom comes at a price. As a "smart" AI, she has an unextendable life-span of approximately
7 years, at which time they become too smart, suffering from exponential attenuation of function; they think so much they
forget to breathe.
At her choosing, she and the Master Chief were specifically paired together for Mjolnir/Spartan II proving
trials, in preperation for her placement aboard the Pillar of Autumn for its covert infiltration mission (which was cut short
by the Covenant invasion of Reach).
Cortana possessed that most precious piece of information, the location of Earth. In the midst of the Pillar
of Autumn's fiery descent to Halo, her safety could be assured in only one place- the suit of the Master Chief.
However, since her time in Halo 04's Control Center, Cortana has found herself laden with vast amounts of
hastily compressed data, the contents of which would surely initiate consequences beyond anyone's wildest expectations. There
simply has not been a chance or location to unload and analyze it, something that has frustrated her to no end. The additional
burden of carrying this inaccessible information has considerably dampened her prowess and as well, as her abilities of concentration
and multitasking, as she noticed on several occasions in contact with the Covenant AI aboard the Ascendant Justice.
In spite of this, her spare time has already allowed her to exceed the Covenant's knowledge of their own
technology, refining them to create focused streams of plasma energy, a Slipspace system capable of jumps much closer to gravity
wells, and enabling her to make copies of herself (further proof of the Covenant's lack of comprehension and ignorant reverence
towards their stolen ordinance), allowing her to reek further havoc during fleet engagements.
As her temper shortens, and her absent-mindedness increases under the load of the Forerunner data, the
urgency to find a place to dump and resort her cargo has been coupled with the strain. Let us hope that her former primary
objectives of protecting Humanity cannot be willfully circumvented with the ease that she manipulates her own ethics protocols....
Cortana Theories:
Wouldnt it make sense that when she was interfaced with the Halo mainframe, Cortana
became rampant (or maybe just bitchy)?
The Halo Mainframe definitely is a huge opportunity for Rampancy. And despite
the fact that she continues helping you through the game...AI's do not always display signs of Rampancy, sometimes for years
(My references)
Two phrases from; James B. Miller, 2320, "Life and Death of Intelligence".
(Actually:
Marathon Story page, "Defend This!
Terminal 2)
"Rampancy is accelerated by outside stimuli"
"Rampant AIs need a planetary sized network of computers
in order to grow"
(Again from Marathon story page)
AI's can be "Rampant for years" as Tycho says in "Marathon":
Durandal showed no signs until the Phor attacked. So if thats true, Halo 2 will be VERY interesting indeed. Especially
considering that she can control your suit. (The MJOLNIR suit's architecture "Is very similar to the Autumn's"...."Don't get
any funny ideas")
----------------
Odd indeed. It's unknown how
closely Halo's AIs resemble the AIs from Marathon...are there any hints of AIs going rampant in the Fall of Reach? It would be interesting to find out.
-Ape Man
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craZy (Drow780@aol.com) writes:
I'd hate to disagree with anybody, but I have to in this instance. When Mr. Yun said that Cortana could control
the Master Chief, he was somewhat incorrect.
In the Fall of Reach, page 252, third paragraph from the end. The Master
Chief was being introduced to his new battle armor, which had two major updates from the last one. The first was shields.
The second was the spot for Cortana. The Master Chief was worried that Cortana would be able to control the armor, and Dr.
Hasley said "No."
So even if Cortana was rampant, the very worst was a voice in the Master Chief's head telling him
to KILL KILL KILL.
-craZy
During all of our ponderings,
it's important to keep in mind the Fall of Reach. This latest submission is a reflection of that. Halo is the story; Fall
of Reach is the framework. At least, that's the way it falls out for US: we've got to interpret away, completely unknowing
what Bungie put into Fall of Reach and what Eric Nylund did. But that's the fun part. :)
-Ape Man
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TI Programs (Alan Wu) (ti_programs@yahoo.com) writes:
The issue of whether or not Cortana is rampant was brought up on a few occasions. In Marathon, on Level 13, Colony
Ship for Sale, Cheap, Durandal says, "Bypassing my thought control circuitry made me Rampant." However, Cortana does not
have any thought control of any kind. Therefore, she is a) Already rampant b) Unable to become rampant Which one she is is
open to interpretation, although I tend to believe that she is unable to become rampant.
Or, rampancy is possible only
after having had thought control circuitry, and then having it removed. Cortana
never had any, so she never gets that "thrill".
-mnemesis
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It's almost as if Marathon fans are storming the Halo Story Page castle-armed with
big pointy teeth. Those connections just keep rolling in. Bring 'em on. :)
Bill Gililand (billg@ucdavis.edu) writes:
Hello;
I just finished reading Fall of Reach, and one thing struck me that I hadn't seen mentioned anywhere.
The relevant passages are near the end of the last chapter.
The arrival at the Halo system was indeed the result of
a blind jump. But it WASN'T a random jump. Cortana had, without telling anyone else, deciphered the meaning of the crystal
that the MC recovered from Cote d'Azur, realized it was probably an ancient navigational
map, and deliberately took the Pillar of Autumn there. The outcome was very favorable to humanity, since the Covenant armada
was destroyed, but Cortana precipitated the entire encounter at Halo.
Sound familiar? This is strikes me as very analagous
to how Durandal, on his own volition, summoned the Pfhor to Tau Ceti. In doing so he undoubtedly saved humanity -- stealing
Pfhor technology allowed Earth to survive. But he also got a ship of his own to tool around in. Cortana went to the Halo system
in order to find out more about the Forerunner, not just to follow the Cole protocol -- in doing so, she got to spend hours
immersed in the Forerunner's computer. Who knows what technological information she harvested in there?
Interesting to wonder whether
Cortana is always on our side. After all...would you trust this face?
-Ape Man
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On the possible Rampancy of
Cortana.
Christopher Johnson-Amritt (syburwulf@mac.com) writes:
I noticed that Cortana seemed to be a lot more confrontational after she was in Halo's computer system for
a while... Could it be that she went rampant while she was in the system? Since she is effectively immortal, and she can control
the MC's electronic parts ( I'm guessing, but it would make sense) then what if she wants to take over a ring without the
interferance of the Covenant et al...
-mnemesis
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mthorne (mthorne@maildrop.srv.ualberta.ca) writes:
Obviously, there have been some substantial hints that Cortana was, or became, rampant during the events of
Halo. The Cortana Letters, and the line in the Jason Jones interview "Do we know anyone who can work magic in fleet engagements
against odds like that?" would be the best candidates.
If the rules of rampancy follow from what was given in the Marathon trilogy, then AIs "need
a planetary sized network of computers in order to grow", and that when capable of doing so, rampant systems "expand with
exponential vivacity." So if Cortana became rampant at any point, it was most likely when she was connected to the Halo's
control room. But this raises a very interesting question: Why did she voluntarily leave?
Cortana was left alone in
the Halo's systems for some time while the Master Chief was sent to prevent the release of the Flood. If she became rampant
during this time, she would have expanded rapidly, far exceeding the capacity of the storage medium she lives on in the Master
Chiefs suit. Cutting herself back down to her original size for travel again would have meant throwing away huge portions
of her new self, almost certainly not a pleasant experience. From what we know of rampancy in Marathon, rampant AIs generally fight to the death
rather than allow their growth to be limited, and this is certainly not the route Cortana takes.
The obvious objection
is that Cortana needed to abandon the Halo since it was going to be destroyed, and so losing most of her newfound power would
be preferable to suicide. But since Cortana herself precipitated the destruction of the Halo, this doesn't hold up. A truly
rampant AI would be more likely to allow the Halo to be activated, or at least allow the Flood to escape, than voluntarily
reduce their size and destroy the largest available computer network. Perhaps Cortana's choice reflects the fact that she
is based directly on a human brain, and so has human values that supercede even her own desire for growth.
So either
Cortana did not become rampant in the Marathon sense when she was connected to Halo, or else she exhibited a remarkable degree
of self control, since we never notice anything like pain or even regret when the Chief removes her from the control room
at the beginning of Two Betrayals. Personally, I favor the theory that Cortana did not become rampant.
-mnemesis
permalink
In response to some earlier
speculations about Cortana's possible rampancy, jds makes a good point.
jds (cacktrot@yahoo.com) writes:
According to "The Fall of Reach," the life-span of "smart" AIs is seven years. The AIs don't die, rather they
get to a point where they just spend all of their time thinking.
She is in no way just a ship's AI. She has no restrictions
placed on her personality. No inhibitions when it comes to speaking her mind. She has only one mission: Help John, which she
is naturally inclined to do. Remeber, she was created from Dr. Halsey's cloned brain.
So, what would Cortana rebel
against?
What, indeed.
-mnemesis
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Noah "migraineboy" Brimhall (noahb@mac.com) writes:
I noticed when I was playing through Halo again today that Cortana mumbles something on Level 3 (Truth and
Reconciliation) in Part 2 ( Into the Belly of the Beast). It is right after this part.
(As you run around killing
things inside the big docking bay)
CORTANA:
Wait a moment. I'm going
to access the Covenant battlenet and locate an override code to open a door. Working on it.
I think it
goes something like this.
CORTANA (mumbles):
I'd like to see you open
up a 28,000 bit modulating encryption key.
This seems like another sign that Cortana doesn't really respect
the Master Chief (along with the barbarian quote on Assault on the Control Room). Maybe she can even read his mind. I know
I was thinking that she sure as heck better hurry up and open those doors.
She's reading your mind, after
all... ;-)
-mnemesis
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David Bergland (manoflaslomas@yahoo.com) writes:
Oh the last level 343 GS performs a "local tap" on Cortana's "data arrays" and gets really excited about human
history, which is all well and good, but he continues to scan the ship's systems for more, even after Cortana is unpluged.
If Cortana really did purge the ship's computers in accordance with the "Cole Protocol" 343 GS shouldn't find anything interesting.
He seems shocked that the Chief would destroy "this ship and this record" when there shouldn't be any data in the ship at
all.
Here goes. What if Cortana realised that humans have no chance, and that continuing to aid their doomed cause
might get between her and her goals (what ever they may be). Perhaps Cortana left the data in the POA for the Covenant to
find so that humanity would be destroyed completely. With no one to fight for, the Master Chief would become a better pawn
and vessle for her to use.
I want to believe Cortana's a friendly AI like Leela, but she seems too much like SOMEONE
ELSE.
Tyrannical AIs. They're Everywhere!
-mnemesis
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Scott Meyers (scmeyers@telocity.com ) writes:
I was reading the halo story page and I realized that something was odd about one of 343 guilty spark's lines.
At one point, Spark asks, "Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?" This however creates a problem. Spark
must know that if any organism (e.g. master chief) activates halo, they would be immediately destroyed by it. Therefore he
knows that if master chief ever activated it in the past he would be dead. Therefore it wouldn't make sense for Spark to say
this even if he only recognized the suit of armor, or if there were any bizarre time travel shenanigans. The answer must be
that it is not MC or the Mjolner the Spark recognizes... it's the other person in the room. Spark may be refering to Cortana,
its the only conclusion I can come up with. I read "the fall of reach" and I know that Cortana is the supposed replica of
Dr. Hasley. But if there is one thing I learned from Marathon, its to never think you know everything about a computer named after a sword.
Not sure how Cortana could have
fired the Halo before, but definitely sure about computers named after swords.
Can't trust 'em.
-mnemesis
permalink
Over on the HBO forum, a very lively discussion erupted over Cortana and her dialogue with Foe Hammer. It's a pretty big thread but give as much of it as you can a look.
If you've got any ideas, post 'em! Thanks to Mark Simmons for the initial thread. Oh, yeah, and Louis Wu for putting it in the news and ensuring that it would grow and mutate. ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Swords, stones, and outright
virulence: So many forum posts, you'd think we monitored the thing ;)
An Arthurian perspective on character roles.
To provide a bit of an 'Index', the post officially starts here, gets a shot of inductive reasoning here, and then Wado SG steers into the topic at hand:
This brings a strange picture to my mind. Cortana and the MC are the sword in the stone. The sword (Cortana)
is in the stone (the MC), whomever draws the sword from the stone becomes king (ruler of the galaxy).
This seems all too "Bungie"
to ignore. (Thanks to Louis Wu for the heads up.)
-Finn
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Tristan Wolfe (Xan_117@laracroftmail.zzn.com) writes:
Too bad the MC doesn't know what he's gotten into. The poor guy thinks he is only trying to save Humanity,
while, in reality, that bitch in his head is getting him to do whatever she wants him to do.
Harsh words, but they may prove
to have more truth than we realize.
-Finn
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Cortana and the digital epiphany
Travis Sisti (tsisti@stonehill.edu) writes:
I, like other submitters of information to the site, would like to believe that Cortana is a benevolent, caring,
digital version of Dr. Hasley. It would be comforting to know that she is infallible in her attempts to do what is best for
humanity. We all loved Leela, and we all hated Durandal. [Note: We do? We did? ;) ]
There seems to be a sudden and drastic point-of-no-return for Bungie's AIs. Let's call it a digital epiphany. It's
probably rather like the human experience of a religious revelation, or the sudden understanding of a calculus problem: it
hits us. We get it. Well, Cortana got it.
Cortana is just as perplexed as we are through the first stages of the game;
she wants to know what the Halo is all about. Maybe she has suspicions that she needs to confirm for her own purposes. If
we look at it that way, Cortana seems to be rather manipulative. She uses the MC, so to speak, to get her to the control room.
Maybe she means well by it, maybe not. Hard to say. But at any rate, she finds what she's looking for on Halo's network. And
it's probably a safe bet to say that she finds a lot more, as well.
Cortana's experience inside the control room was
her digital epiphany. Exactly what information she stumbled upon is impossible to say. I mean really... who knows. Use your
imagination. But whatever she discovered was probably beyond the means of immediate human comprehension or explanation. And
it undoubtedly made her reconsider and re-evaluate the important issues on her agenda. Either she felt it was beyond our understanding,
or she simply failed to care anymore. And who can blame her? Who cares about saving humanity when she has perhaps the most
capable human of all time at her disposal as a transportation device (and as a trigger-man)?
Epiphany? Rampancy? What's a
little manipulation when you've got a 7 year effective life span to extend and the closure of the universe to evade?
Hmmm,
won't we be the fools if, when all is said and done, her intentions end up having been the purest of us all.
-Finn
permalink
Matt Cannon (ramrod4th@msn.com) writes:
On Two Betrayals Cortana says " I've been COUPED up in here for twelve hours....". That would imply that HALO's
network although huge wasn't a planetary sized network which is needed for A.I.'s to become rampant.
As per the old house rules at
least. ;)
-Finn
permalink
M Scope (metroscope@hotmail.com) writes:
Why wouldn't Cortana communicate with you the whole 343 gs and library level? i mean some nav points would
definitely have helped on 343 gs. what was she up to in that computer? she says in 2 betrayals that she watched you toady
about helping 343 to slit our throats...something like that, anyway the key word is watched.
Perhaps she was unable to. Although,
with access to so many of Halo's systems, and considering Cortana's knack for multitasking, it would seem that some assistance
would not have been out of the question. The Master Chief's observation that she felt larger after being reinstalled into
the suit and mind no doubt portends to something yet.
-Finn
permalink
A synopsis has been added to
the Random House page for the upcoming Halo novel, Halo: First Strike, and it seems that a few little details were spilled to the public that caused
a spontaneous eruption of Cortana speculation over on that most disreputable of community gathering places, the HBO forum. Has Cortana lied to us? Is she evil? Read, and decide for yourself!
-mnemesis
permalink
A Vote of Confidence... from
a ::gasp:: girl! ::shudder::
Neskalug (karndan@hotmail.com) writes:
Cortana teasing the Master Chief and vice versa means nothing. Boys! Don`t you do that all the time with friends
and girls and stuff? Heck, I think teasing is my way of flirting.
I don`t think she is rampant. If she is, she reacts
different to it than other AIs. her being rampant might even be a good thing.
Might her "rampancy" (I use
the term loosely at this point), however it manifests itself, allow her to, among other things, outlive her 7 year effective
life span as a "smart" AI? Who's to say, but one thing is for certain: female AI's have exponentially more cooties than the
real thing. John had better be on his guard ;)
-Finn
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Chris Barrett (chrisb@roosteredge.com) writes:
Just wanting to get something off my chest. I find Cortana's choice of words interesting in Silent Cartographer:
"....We can't proceed unless we can disable this installation's security system."
Cortana instructs you to disable
this installation's security system. You do so. A cutscene shows a previously locked door open. But in doing this, did all
other locked doors in the installation unlock? More specifically, did Cortana make you unlock every security door in installation
04?
To put a few phrases into context:
"I'll try Sir. But it looks like these Covenant worked pretty hard to lock
it down." So how does a handheld door decoder so easily force open a security door engineered by the most advance race in
the known universe? Either it contains a dedicated code-breaking AI (of Cortana prowess, no less), or...the Covenant tried
to lock it down, but the security system was disabled, and they failed to stem the spread of the Flood.
"....no, that
can't be. Oh, those Covenant fools...they must've know, there must have been signs!" What signs? Were all the doors in the
Flood containment facility wide open, allowing a mass of Rangers to pour out? Perhaps not, but if an Elite or two opened a
door and strolled in, the Flood would have found a satisfactory vector or two and used them to open other doors and infest
the rest of the facility. Which explains, "We've got contacts...lots of them...but they're not covenant..." Contacts before
the apparent release of the Flood by Jenkins and his crew. Many Flood have already found a means to escape.
This could
provide an explanation for the apparently Flood-infected Hunters in AotCR, though the Flood would have to have spread extremely
fast (a feat not beyond them), as the security systems of the containment facility have been disabled and the Flood has already
found a means to escape the containment facility. Also, taking into account the fact that the control room seems to be on
the opposite side of Halo to the map room, and thus presumably would have taken Echo 419 some time to get there ... the time
frame seems reasonable enough.
While admittedly this theory doesn't explain the security doors in the Library (perhaps
they are not connected to the rest of the network, thus the Monitor must access them himself. A reasonable enough security
measure), it does go a long way to explain the circumstances in which the Flood were released (though this could be explained
in Halo: The Flood. I haven't read that yet).
I suppose this could also add more fuel to the theory of Cortana being
an 'escaping convict'. Cortana essentially released the Flood, or at least used you to do it.
One flick of that little switch
on the Silent Cartographer. One little flick...
;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Nick Hlatky (dr_xcraft@hotmail.com) writes:
i dont know if anyone has noticed this before, but i havent seen it mentioned on your website. when cortana
is on the pillar of autumn she is colored purple. however, when she is in the control room and inserted into the mainframe,
her color is different. im not sure what this means but it could mean that something has changed about her.
Actually, I don't think I have seen that pointed out anywhere before (Okay, maybe once, but my decrepit mind tends to repress things sometimes, especially from Ross ;-)). Now that you mention it though, she does
look a little bit green when she first gets a taste of the Control Room. Envy,
perhaps? Rampancy theorists, arise! ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Nick Turner (stay@townhouseinternational.com) writes:
Has anybody brought up the point of Cortana still having possession of the Index from Halo 04?
Could
this be a factor in Halo 2? There is meant to be another Halo installation in the sequel and maybe the index can operate other/all
Halos, I may be throwing an idea way into the air but if I were to already have the key to a super weapon It would make my
enemies think twice about pissing me off.
I can't take credit for having
the slightest idea of what possibilites percolate madly away in the heads
of Jason, et al, as they feverishly populate the Halo universe with conundrums wrapped in riddles wrapped in enigmas wrapped
in bacon and sizzling at the hearts of alien suns, but I am willing to lay
heavy money on the Index coming back in Halo 2. It's just too interesting to leave in Cortana's increasingly cramped and disorganized
databanks. ;-)
-mnemesis
