: It seems to fit with my theory. It doesn't matter if Boomer or the
: pattern buffer is later destroyed...that one instance of data storage
: in the past provides the beacon you need to time-hop. For that
: matter, we don't actually hear that Boomer's ever utterly destroyed,
: so it's consistent with your theory too...the future marine could be
: accessing the data in Boomer's pattern buffers even if the ship's
: mostly wrecked.
Perhaps we both have things backwards to an extent. Perhaps it's our cybernetic implants that serve as the beacon. Then it wouldn't matter if the pattern buffer we use is destroyed in the future or not. When we access a pattern buffer, we would scan the future for a signal emitted by our implants when we die. Honeing in on this, we could then download our memories from the future. There are problems with any of our theories, but the one that makes the least sense is Bungie's, in which we upload our pattern so that we can be recreated when we die. If this were the case, we should emerge from death without any memory of what happened but with all of those events intact. We should find all creatures that we killed along the way and even find our own body! And God knows what we would do when we came to a door that we'd closed or needed that chip that we'd already collected.
In my revised theory, the pattern buffer would serve not as a beacon but as a transponder, perhaps emitting those Warp 10 tachyons from Star Trek Voyager that occupy all of space and time. Then it wouldn't matter if we'd travelled a great distance or even back in time when we switch levels - the patter buffer would still find us and access our memories. Of course, our implants would have to survive death no matter what - even when we're fried to a crisp by an enforcer, or worse - but that's true of all of our theories. Oh well - it's nice to know that they'll have worked all of this out by the 23rd century!
-Steve
