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Your Favorite SF Author Is Making The World A Safer Place
Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery

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Jack_Burton
05/23/09

In reply to Your Favorite SF Author Is Making The World A Safer Place
Strategic Defense Initiative, anyone?
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ticktockman
05/23/09

In reply to Your Favorite SF Author Is Making The World A Safer Place
Hey, it worked Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in Footfall. You have to love a science fiction novel where Science fiction writers save the world.
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Grey_Area
05/23/09

@ticktockman: Both of them are actually on SIGMA.
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Don't Make Me Ang Lee. You wouldn't like me when I'm Ang Lee.
04/07/09

In reply to Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery
Forerunners = crew of BSG.

duh...
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Belabras Voted 5: See, I read the book and fell in love with the universe, played the games and decided they were fun, but had nothing at all to do with the books. also, I was trying to figure out what anything I was doing had to do with any of the overarching plotness, and whether the Halos were deathstars or stargates.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

In reply to Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery
I love the Halo mythology. Many others hate it. But in any case, for a storyline for a shooter game, it's come pretty far.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Pessimippopotamus is at 0% productivity: I love the mythology, I hate that it is not explored in the games.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

@ggodo: That's what the books were for, silly.
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Slatz_Grobnik
04/07/09

@Pessimippopotamus is at 0% productivity: I get funny looks when I say it, but I totally agree. Even the tone and feel of the SF is spot on, and something somewhat rare for the form.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

@Slatz_Grobnik: It's the tone. Fo sho. It's the tone.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

In reply to Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery
Wasn't it implied that the Forerunners were just humans a Long, Long time ago? They went through the ringworld to a new Floodless universe. Maybe? I only read the first book and played the games, none of them made any sense after the first.
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Johnny Dactyl
04/07/09

@ggodo: They created the flood, built the rings to contain them, stored all the DNA to all life in the galaxy into said rings, built uber death laser into rings so when activated it would wipe all life (now flood infected), including themselves from the galaxy and seed it anew.

The one huge flaw is why bother to preserve the thing you're trying to kill?
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

@Finstern: The biggest flaw was that despite destroying all sentient life in the Galaxy, the Flood still survived, making the Halo event pointless. Maybe they could only be contained, and not destroyed?

I'm sure he'll delve into the origin of the Flood as well.
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TehLastTimeLord
04/07/09

@Finstern: It's theorized they had the flood in containment while studying them, but ran out of time to eliminate the few they had locked up due to unforeseen reasons (maybe they had to activate the rings sooner than they anticipated?). This of course resulted in the flood escaping and running rampant on Delta Halo (from Halo 2) well before humans/Convenant landed there, though how a Gravemind formed and then sat waiting for thousands and thousands of years on that particular installation is something I still don't quite understand....
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Johnny Dactyl
04/07/09

@TehLastTimeLord: I think gravemind probably started out as an infected sentient and then over the thousands of millennia he fed off plants (constantly regenerating) and stuff to survive. what is crazy is that he formed on delta halo and once you gets off it hes suddenly in command of all the flood in the galaxy.

If you read all the terminals in halo 3 you get a glimpse of an AI that seems to be infected by the gravemind, really interesting stuff.
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TehLastTimeLord
04/07/09

@Finstern: I thought the Gravemind could only form after infecting a significant amount of sentient life? Also, it's not surprising that it's in command of all the Flood, I suppose - they basically went right on the warpath against the Covenant and then Earth as soon as they got off the Halo, never having time to really sit back in one spot/spots and create multiple creatures (unless I missed something, or I'm completely wrong).

I also thought the AI came to the conclusion itself to do what it did during the Forerunner's Great War, and then had 100,000 years to repent and feel remorse and stuff. Hm. I'll have to re-read those terminals.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Finstern: Then what happened in Halo 3? where the hell did the Chief go? Where did you get that information? I don't recall it being anywhere in the games, but they really aren't known for they're storytelling.
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Johnny Dactyl
04/07/09

@TehLastTimeLord: I think you definatly understand the gravemind more than I do lol but I'm definitely sure there were two A.Is in the game and one was going to the dark side.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Finstern: you guys got the terminals to work? I found three, an only one did anything.
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Slatz_Grobnik
04/07/09

@TehLastTimeLord: I don't know about the Gravemind issue, but there's at least a narrative logic to the Flood's survival. When there's a weapon meant to destroy all of life, probably the safest place you can hide is on the weapon itself.
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zenpoet
04/08/09

@Finstern: They didn't create the flood, only succumbed to it.

[blog.ascendantjustice.com]
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