unforum

[turbov21]

Don't forget that prior to landing on Halo, Cortana left a portion of herself on the Pillar of Autumn to help Keyes land it. If memory serves, GS343 found this portion of her later in the game (and The Flood) while trying to disable the explosion.

Not really sure what it means, but it sounds like AI's can copy parts of themseves without any Covie software.

[Epic1980]

[CoffeeJedi]

maybe cortanna just needed the covie AI copy util to copy herself onto the Ascendant Justice because it was a cov ship (correct me if i'm wrong, is that one that UNSC took over?), on a human ship's computer she would not have needed the copy utility
maybe?

[Kali]

[krystyn]

D'you think Durga would want to share her tech with Cortana, considering the people they once were?

[Lurking_Kouzou]

[krystyn]

Maybe she'd gladly share, but offer up catty comments while doing data transfer: "Grrrrrrrl, you look so much better now that you got that sassy haircut, and got rid of that stupid coffee-stained coat! You were a mess and a half! Now sing me some happy birthday, or I'll play some of the old-timey music again!"

[Daddy]

[Lurking_Kouzou]

that was a very amusing mental picture. And then my brain shifted it to flea++

style:
Cortana > !haircut proc >> success
Cortana > !clothes proc >> success
Cortana > !labcoat proc >> fail

reveal:
Durga > !sing "happy birthday" >> !transmit "Old time music"
Durga > !net travel > Cortana >> Mall.

And then my brain exploded.

[fugitivesoldier]

There is a difference between full-fledged "copying" and leaving subroutines on the Pillar of Autumn's nav computers.

Just wanted to point that out...

[guantes]

Not that I know alot about it but I'd say AI's have a certain ability to copy themselves, after all Cortana moves from the Pillar of Autum to that chip, then into the Master Chief's armour..... and then into the Halo control center.... etc.

As a Computer Engineer (and therefore probably not accepting fiction as it should be) there is little difference between moving and copying..... in a move you just clean up after your done.

But I'm still not convinced. The SF fan in me yells an AI is hard to duplicate, even if it's a bunch of commands and data files. I'd have thought Durga would have left some sub-routines running at Jersey's place and moved into the Chwala base system..... which'd beat the duplicate but I can't argue with the inside/outside comment.... maybe Jan just has it wrong?

Personally I think it's about being able to seperate up an AI, since we fleshy meat bags can't really do it we don't think about it, but I'd expect an AI program to be able to split up with relative ease. Meaning most could reside happily seperate from a few choice parts.... what that'd mean in the end is debateable, but it might not be a clone.... just a selective move.

Wow... [/rant]

[thebruce]

well this much I know - it would take some consider power to copy an AI, form what I'm guessing an AI is... you know how windows locks dll's that are in use, so you can't delete them until they aren't in use... because for all the system knows, a command could be executing from it at the exact time you delete it, and it could crash your system, so it protects the file.

Now imagine an AI. If an AI is flashed from a human brain, a neural network, I'd assume that just like a brain, the entire thing is active all the time... In a sense, the AI would have to lock certain portions of their functionality in order to copy, then cycle through their entire system, and in the end, write a standard subroutine that can run while the central core of the AI was being copied last, which would then reactivate the core at the new location. Then yeah, it's a matter of either reactivating the original source, or deleting it (copying it or moving it). I'd assume that is the ability that the forerunner artifact in copying AIs. But I fully believe that an AI is capable of writing, very quickly, similar subroutines to leave behind, or run in another location - these aren't copies of the AI itself, but in a essence, a child of the AI.

The quesion I guess is, is an AI smart enough, or powerful enough, to write another sentient AI program? Or is an AI as complex to itself as DNA is to us?

You could think of it like, the forerunner artifact is to AIs what the flash cloning equipment is to humans. And flash cloning is not flawless, just like copying an AI is not flawless.

Interesting parallel...

[Nova]

Don't forget that there are some discrepancies between the first Halo game and the story told in the novels, simply because the game was done before the novels.

For instance, at the start of Halo the following is said when MC inserts Cortana into his armour (paraphrased):

Cortana: Hmm, your architecture isn't much different than the Autumn's.
MC: Don't get any funny ideas.

Now that sounds like Cortana's never been in contact with the Mjolnir armour before. However, in Fall of Reach she's in there before the Chief ends up on the Pillar of Autumn.

[darkmoonz]

yes, but she could have just been messing with him since she just came off the autumn's systems...
cortana's cool like that... (:

[BeeNetter]

Durga is possibly in the early stages of Rampancy. Rampant AIs can do things that sane AIs can't do. Possibly including copying themselves.