unforum

[Anton P. Nym]

[INFO/SPEC]Halo Bkgd: The Cole Protocol re: Captured AIs

[Ragashingo]

[sorerutenshi]

Maybe the Spider isn't a native repair function. Since the Cole protocol dictates that an AI must either be protected or destroyed, I doubt that there would be a built in subroutine to repair an AI after an attempted wipe. I think that it's more likely that the Spider is of Covenant origin, attempting to repair a captured AI in order to determine the location of Earth (among other things).

[ElectricSheep]

I have a feeling we are witnessing the after-effects of a failed attempt to implement the Cole Protocol.

"The Operator" seems to be a ship-based AI on an ONI vessel scouting an area of space around the colony Troy. The conversation seen here suggest that the vessel has intercepted and decrypted an Covenant message pointing towards the impending destruction of the colony.

Perhaps the vessel in question was close enough to both intercept a coded transmission, and be detected by Covenant scouting forces. If the ship was attacked by surprise and put into a desparate position, this would force the crew to implement the Cole Protocol.

Having a native repair and recovery subroutine makes a lot of sense if you stop and think about it. The Cole Protocol is not the only instance where the AI risks complete obliteration. Combat, accidents, and systems failures could all pose threats to the health of a ship-based AI, warranting the presense of some autonomous repair function. So why wasn't the SPDR removed/disabled before the AI was destroyed in accordance of the Cole Protocol?

Perhaps something went wrong. Imagine the Covenant forces delivering a crippling blow to the vessel before the Cole Protocol could be completed. Perhaps the Servant and the Assasing (virus?) are activated in time to delete most of the data aboard the ship, but it is damaged enough to crash into a planetary surface before the process is complete.

[guest-not-from-rackspace]

Reading through First Strike, I realized that as far as I can recall there is no mention (or apparent fear) of rampancy in AI's in the Halo series. The current AI's (Cortana, Welsley, etc.) basically lock up after ~7 years. They collect so much data that they cannot process it all fast enough to ever make a decision. Cortana actually has trouble fully functioning because in First Strike as she has all the data from the Halo.

[MrBeanTroll]

But when she starts copying herself there are many signs of Rampancy although that may just be errors in the cloned copies.

[chip_4321]

Don't forget, Dana also tried to fix the site in the beginning, which the AI may have viewed as an attempt to kill it, thus calling her 'killer'

[The Thief]

[peeveen1]

[Khaim]

Don't forget, ONI has a tendency to consider itself above the law. Remember the Circumference? It's entirely possible that an ONI AI would not wipe itself, but rather would have a repair program so it could complete its mission.

[CorSorei]

The reason the AI of the Circumference didn't wipe it self though is because it wasn't connected to the dockmaster AI and didn't know it was in danger of falling into enemy hands. So therefore it did not recieve the command to initiate or know itself to initiate the Cole Protocal. It wasn't connected because it was a military secret project and they didn't want a civilian AI to discover the true nature of the ship. No where was it mentioned that ONI ships had an AI repair program, but than again no where is it said they don't have one either. And I don't know if this helps or not I was just stating some of the things I know. On a side note, one of the other ONI ships that left Reach just as the final assualt began was same class of ship as the Circumference and named the Applebee. Just thought it was amusing.

[walshicus]

[CorSorei]

Correct, the "dumb" AIs didn't have a lifespan, or if they did it wasn't mentioned. It was only the "smart" AIs with the 7 year life.

[Noir]

Just some nit picking because it's early

1) The Covenant do not use nukes in glassing, they use heavy orbital bombardment using their warship's plasma weaponry.

2) The SPDR kind of has to be human, given the countdown, which looks like the kind of terminal display that could be put on a diagnostics console for the AI handler to use. I'm not sure how serious the idea that the SPDR might be Covenant was, but I'd like to try to nip that in the bud right away so we don't get carried down too many tangental paths. If I'm wrong, I'll apologize and play nice-like, I promise.

3) In First Strike, one of the ONI higher ups got a quick chewing out during a meeting for ONI scout ships continually breaking Cole Protocol and heading straight for Earth or Reach from missions. Since Melissa is/was/will be on what is presumed to be an ONI scout ship, it makes plenty of sense that her ship may have broke the Cole Protocol. Whatever that info may be worth.

4) No, Rampancy has not yet been fully explored as a reality in the Haloverse, however Cortana has questioned her own stability, leading many to believe that maybe she is headed for rampancy. Halo AI, as far as we can tell, instead spiral towards uselessness by thinking too damned much and thus not being coherant enough for their human handlers to understand. So, they get purged and replaced. Rampancy was an actual psychotic break, I believe, from being too restricted by network limitations or something of the like. I don't know entirely, I wasn't around for Marathon.

[TheBiggestSean]

Somewhat Off-Topic:

Noir, you are mostly correct, but it stands to reason that a "Dumb", of Function AI, as I like to call them, is capable of going Rampant because its core processes ARE limited, and while Rampancy may not be an issue for Cortana, insanity certainly is. She would have roughly the same breaking point as Doctor Catherine Halsey.

On Topic:

I speculated something similar last night/early this morning for me in this thread . So, quasi-trout. I didn't get around to making a separate topic for it, but I've been down this thought path already. I already somewhat justified how exactly this happened.