unforum

[ThaJinx]

This may seem like a really dumb thing to say, but I've always been of the impression that Cortana can't go rampant, mainly because of the first Cortana letter, as well as the fact that she's a neural copy of a human being as opposed to a person that had to die to give up their brain for it.

I don't, however, know a whole hell of a lot about anything outside of the games since I haven't read the books. Anybody want to kind of give me an idea of Cortana's lifespan?

[Eclipse]

Excerpt from The Fall of Reach; pages 235-236

Cortana was a "smart" AI, an advanced artificial construct. Actually, the terms "smart" and "dumb" as applied to AIs, were misleading; all AIs were extroadinarily intelligent. But Cortana was special.

So-called dumb AIs were engineered to function only were misleading; within set limits to their dynamic memory-processing matrix. They were brilliant withing their fields of expertise, but were lacking in "creativity." Déjà, for example, was a "dumb" AI-incredibly useful, but limited.

Smart AIs like Cortana, however, had no limits on their dynamic memory-processor matrix. Knowledge and creativity could grow unchecked.

She would pay a price for her genius, however. Such growth eventually led to self-interferance. Cortana would one day literally start thinking too much at the expense of her normal functions. It was as if a human were to think with so much of his brain that he stopped sending impulses to his heart and lungs.

Like all other smart AIs that Dr. Halsey had worked with over the years, Cortana would effectively "die" after an operational life of seven years.

But Cortana's mind was unique among all the other AIs Dr. Halsey had encountered. An AI's matrix was created by sending electrical bursts through the neural pathways of a human brain. Those pathways were then replicated in a superconducting nano-assemblage. The technique destroyed the original human tissue, so they could only be obtained from a suitable candidate that had already died. Cortana, however, had to have the best mind available. The success of her mission and the lives of the Spartans would depend on it.

At Dr. Halsey's insistence, ONI had arranged to have her own brain carefully cloned and her memories flash transferred to the receptacle organs. Only one of the twenty cloned brains survived the process. Cortana had literally sprung from Dr. Halsey's mind, like Athena from the head of Zeuss.

So in a way Cortana was Dr. Halsey.

It could be that they are basing Cortana's lifespan on what they know from the other smart AIs. Possibly her neural pathways give her a natural failsafe, so that her "lungs and heart" can't shut down. They do say blatantly that Cortana will die after seven years.

Then, there is this quote from above;