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Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?
Posted By: Free Weights <the_human_wick_effect@yahoo.com>Date: 5/8/08 6:33 a.m.

In Response To: Re: Can Flood Infect Machines? (MJOLNIR7)


I'm not playing devil's advocate, I swear. What about in the HGN where in the "Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor" there are various covie wildlife who are turned, or at least added, to the flood infestation? They show little piggies mixed with wolves or something such. It's probably just an inconsistency, but I just wanted to point that out.

: I'm sorry but on that point you are dead wrong. Not about your definition of
: sentient, but by your understanding of what sentience or consciousness
: means. The power of perception by the senses a.k.a. consciousness a.k.a
: self awareness, is something that (as far as humans can tell) is a very
: rare trait in life. For example the only truly sentient beings on earth
: are in fact humans. Other animals may have "awareness" but not
: "self-awareness". In other words no other life form on earth
: except humans "know" or are "aware" of their own
: existence. This was only made possible for humans by the evolutionary
: development of our frontal lobe. And with fear of sounding like a
: Victorian-era scientist, the frontal lobe is truly the primary factor
: separating man from beast.

: In the halo universe the only artificial life form we know ever reached true
: sentience was Mendicant Bias. Cortana, being a smart AI, comes close but
: as far as we can tell she (like all other human AI's) can only mimic
: sentience at best. I suppose this would raise a somewhat meta-physical
: question of whether or not the ability to mimic sentience in fact yields
: self-awareness? Regardless, though sentinels certainly do not maintain any
: semblance at all of consciousness or self-awareness. They simply do not
: have the capacity to independently reason and are most definitely not
: aware of their own existence.

: This brings up another point that I often seen misrepresented or
: misunderstood on this forum. The Flood can only infect sentient life
: forms. That means they can only infect advanced life forms who are only
: considered advanced because they have some degree of self-awareness which
: also implies the cogitative capacity for reason, memory, and emotion. The
: halo array therefore, as stated numerous times in the game, only destroys
: sentient life in the galaxy. The Halo effect does not harm any other life
: forms besides those who have achieved consciousness or awareness of their
: own existence. So that means others animals would not have been effected
: by the Halo effect. In the terminals the librarian refers to
: "post-cataclysm extinction events," which are a reference to the
: devastating ecological consequences of removing the sentient species from
: the planets habitat. The word "post-cataclysm" confirms this is
: an extinction resulting from some factor that will be relevent after the
: array has already been used (i.e. the removal of a species from the
: harmony of that planet ecological system. A removal either by that species
: getting saved by the Forerunners or by death from the array).

: Finally, again as it is stated numerous times throughout the games and books,
: the flood can only infect sentient or self-aware life forms. This means
: that anything else, like dogs, cats, elephants, tigers or whatever, no of
: those are threatened by infection by the flood. This is something I see
: people misunderstanding all the time on the forums. And yes I know the
: flood spores have an effect on the atmosphere and seems also to corrupt
: plant life and other forms of vegitation. That is clearly because if the
: flood were ever categorized they would most likely be considered some
: crazy evolved variation of a fungus crossed with a parasite. The spores
: and growths as well as the reference to them as "the parasite"
: and infectious nature all point to this being the case. Either way for
: whatever reason the game, books, and canon make it pretty clear that they
: can not infect non-sentient life, which is in fact the overwhelming
: majority of life in our world and the Halo-verse.

: Sorry for the rant but I see this mistake all the time and I guess I finally
: wanted to set the record straight.


Message Index




Replies:

Can Flood Infect Machines?Honestly 5/3/08 4:07 p.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?SgtSatin 5/3/08 4:21 p.m.
           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?elpolloguapo 5/3/08 10:56 p.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?SgtSatin 5/3/08 4:36 p.m.
           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Honestly 5/3/08 4:58 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Honestly 5/3/08 5:00 p.m.
                       Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?GatchamanUK 5/3/08 5:21 p.m.
                             Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?InnerRayg 5/3/08 6:19 p.m.
                                   Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?SgtSatin 5/3/08 6:38 p.m.
                                   Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?scarab 5/3/08 6:40 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?MJOLNIR7 5/8/08 5:00 a.m.
                       Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Free Weights 5/8/08 6:33 a.m.
                             Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?mendicantbias00 5/8/08 7:05 a.m.
                       Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Louis Wu 5/8/08 10:16 a.m.
                             Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?mub 5/8/08 10:33 a.m.
                             Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?MJOLNIR7 5/8/08 11:44 a.m.
                                   Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Louis Wu 5/8/08 11:55 a.m.
                                         Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Don 5/8/08 12:06 p.m.
                                               Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Louis Wu 5/8/08 12:12 p.m.
                                                     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Simpsons Rule 5/8/08 12:20 p.m.
                                                     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Crackshot53 5/8/08 12:21 p.m.
                                                           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Louis Wu 5/8/08 12:28 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Crackshot53 5/8/08 2:18 p.m.
                                                     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?SinisterSamurai 5/8/08 2:55 p.m.
                                                           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Don 5/8/08 3:36 p.m.
                                                           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Louis Wu 5/8/08 3:43 p.m.
                                                                 Yeah. And Duel Weilding became "legal," too. *NM*SinisterSamurai 5/8/08 5:41 p.m.
                                         Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?MJOLNIR7 5/8/08 6:46 p.m.
                                               Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Louis Wu 5/8/08 8:43 p.m.
                                   Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Honestly 5/8/08 6:25 p.m.
                                   I've always taken sentient to mean self-sentient *NM*elpolloguapo 5/8/08 6:29 p.m.
                                   Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Cthulhu117 5/8/08 7:42 p.m.
                                   Humans are NOT the only sentient creaturesangrymob 5/9/08 12:18 a.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?mub 5/3/08 6:15 p.m.
           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?scarab 5/3/08 6:44 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Honestly 5/3/08 6:46 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?SgtSatin 5/3/08 6:55 p.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?scarab 5/3/08 6:37 p.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?ACEfanatic02 5/3/08 7:50 p.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Vincent 5/3/08 8:19 p.m.
           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Stephen L. (SoundEffect) 5/3/08 8:36 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?SgtSatin 5/3/08 8:48 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Ragashingo 5/4/08 9:39 p.m.
                       Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Stephen L. (SoundEffect) 5/5/08 4:22 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Omega 5/4/08 11:15 p.m.
                       Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Stephen L. (SoundEffect) 5/5/08 4:24 p.m.
                             Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Jinno 5/5/08 9:25 p.m.
     Yes.Anton P. Nym (aka Steve) 5/4/08 10:01 a.m.
           You know...stan 5/4/08 11:22 a.m.
           Re: Yes.elpolloguapo 5/4/08 4:15 p.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Cthulhu117 5/4/08 12:19 p.m.
     Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?SinisterSamurai 5/6/08 5:03 p.m.
           Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Bryan Ojeda 5/6/08 8:38 p.m.
                 Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?angrymob 5/7/08 4:01 p.m.
                       Re: Can Flood Infect Machines?Bryan Ojeda 5/7/08 4:13 p.m.
                             To define 'infection'Jillybean 5/7/08 5:34 p.m.
                                   *Bows* *NM*Don 5/7/08 5:41 p.m.
                                   I wish...elpolloguapo 5/7/08 6:10 p.m.
                                         Re: I wish...Bryan Ojeda 5/7/08 9:20 p.m.



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