#Volantis friend tag

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

What would you think about the idea of merging the former collective data of a Dumb AI with a newly generated Smart AI in an effort to "uplift" it? There's a big moral issue there, since the Smart AI is synthesized from the remains of an actual person, and there may well be some internal conflict between the vague concept their former self and the prepacked personality of the old Dumb AI. If the data of the Dumb AI is prioritized in this case, does this new consciousness come to accept the lingering donor's experiences as a sense of 'false memories' that they recognize are not their own? Or do they think that these are newly observable emotions attached to their own previous experiences that they were simply unable to conceptualize at the time? There are some very extreme ethical concerns here obviously, and nothing I'd ever personally condone, but it seemed like a procedure ONI wouldn't feel shy about trying. I am not a techy person myself, so if I had to make up some loose-sciencey sounding reason? Maybe some very fringe effort to retrieve vital unique data stored in a badly damaged Dumb AI's matrix that is so dangerously corrupt that attempting to save it manually would definitely result in loss. So this idea forms of- what if we merge what little is left with a more capable AI as a sort of operator who can attempt to retrieve and extrapolate the data at a software level? And suddenly you have ONI techs synthesizing a hydra. What really led to this was that I always loved how many Dumb AI, while lacking true sentience and capacity for emotion still tended to display a lot of it, supported by familiar imagery or personalities. It made it so easy for people- like Spartans and ODSTs, who are very used to interacting with Smart AI- to project their own feelings onto them and anthropomorphize them to a point that the lines separating the Dumb AI's own limitations blur into the negligible. Alas, my truest intentions here, Stumpy, because I am a predictable beast: in Retribution, Fred was perfectly aware of Damon's restrictions, but over time began speaking to him as someone without those barriers. What most interested me, is that Damon himself (shortly before his sudden demise) takes it upon himself to offer Fred comfort and condolences over a presumed death of Veta, saying he knew and understood how fond Fred was of her. It was still a canned response essentially, but the applied observations probably hit remarkably close to emotion for a person suffering a sense of loss, and the moment helps to really endear Fred to Damon. When Damon's chip is damaged, Fred expresses hope that he can be saved, and just I love exploring the depth of empathy that people can have for AI, all the while well aware of their capacity. In Damon's case, the collective data from his time with Fred probably would have been of extreme value to ONI for both in determining the scale of the growing threat of the Keepers, as well as for covering up their own internal corruptions and involvement in nearly losing control over a virulent parasitic agent. Of course just letting Damon die is also a great option, and safest, but let's let ONI be dangerously over-confident instead.

First off, thank you for the AI related ask. It is taking everything in me not to answer this like a discussion board, which is very funny to me.

Secondly, addressing your point of morality. Morality in Halo is so fluid especially when it comes to ONI and the UNSC; AI are not people, they are tools, and if ONI needs to do some body snatching to make the next very expensive lil computer guy to run a city or a spaceship, they will do it. So your point about the morality of merging two AIs or having one subsume the other is awesome, but I don’t see it as an issue for the humans.

What happens to the AI involved and their feelings about it would be so interesting, cannibalizing one of your own out of duty, or merging two different but similar souls/cores to make something new while preserving the old? How much lingers from the brain engram besides what they’ve already given us? 

Someone should write something about that. Makes me think about Cortana and Aine and the Cryoraeth Dialogue. Much to think about.

So much to think about that apparently I spent 800+ words doing just that! More below.

You pointed out Damon’s limited but still touching capabilities and canned responses. They still had the drive to aid and comfort humans despite not truly being freethinking or creative to the extent of Smart AIs, but I would argue that the Dumb AI deserve more credit to what extreme emotional depth they have shown across many pieces of Halo media.

I am still technically writing a paper right now so I will limit my wiki diving and my screen shot collection, for now.

However examples that immediately come to mind are Deep Winter(who is apparently Smart, sorry I thought he was a dumb AI. I haven’t read Ghosts of Onyx yet, in my defense he lived a long time.), Deja, and the Superintendent, all Dumb AI who get attached to their charges, demonstrate emotions, and attempt in some ways to help or comfort their chosen humans. 

Third, before I start talking about all the funny sci-fi words I must admit. I am a fake sci-fi fan, I dig past the topmost layer and attempt to understand the science but to be completely honest, I am not entirely sure what I’m writing or reading about half the time. The good news is that it is the same for every Halo writer. 

I do want to dive into the comparisons between Rampancy and Dementia because there’s a lot to be said there but I want to do it justice, but focusing on the basis of AI, the Riemann Matrix, and the points about thinking themselves to death, hardware failure, and the matrix itself which is software and their actual brain. The matrix is the program that lets them think non-linearly and transfer from hardware to hardware in either nano-assemblages or the crystal data chips. Halo makes up its own rules and handwaves them so often it’s hard to tell what’s allowed and what’s not. Especially when we have so many examples of Cortana doing incredible and terrifying things like splitting and shedding her rampart shards. 

The thing is, if they had some temporary housing for Damon, like say for example, the Mjolnir armor of a Spartan-II,  I don't see why they couldn’t transport them. Mjolnir has that whole layer to help a starship grade AI help a soldier in the field, I did have to look at the wiki for this one, I don’t have all my armor layers memorized. The part of the outer layer called the memory processor superconductor layer: “AI can then aid the soldier in software intrusion, hardware hacking, and espionage by listening to enemy chatter.” 

Come on, having a snarky voice in your head giving you waypoints and opening doors is a cornerstone of Halo. 

It would also have been interesting to see Fred carry an AI as he’s the most likely to be suspicious of the after Intrepid Eye and his experiences with AI and armor failure. The character growth of him allowing an AI, no matter the ability, into his armor, in an extended hand to help this being not die would have been interesting to see!. And then he could play it off as saving an asset!  

Okay I never read Retribution and looking at the events that led to Damon’s cracked datachip, it could be argued that Fred’s armor was too damaged to fully carry an AI, even a dumb one. Maybe. 

However, I have a solution that’s neat and if you’ve read literally anything I’ve written on here then it’s obvious. Let the AI into the wetware! 

There’s a big metal spike in most UNSC members’ brains called the neural interface and I’m sure if Damon asked politely and didn’t look too close and maybe compressed themself into a nice little kernel, Fred would have no serious lasting side effects. 

Probably.

Someone should read Retribution and write something about that.

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

For the writer ask - I will absolutely never forget the way Morbid Curiosity made me feel, Stumpy. That fic is still one of my favourite of your's and it effects me in a profound way each and every time I read it. Also, I would be remiss to not also mention Like a Force to be Reckoned With, which I fully accept as canon without argument. I hope you will always keep writing, because your talent and passion is something so beautiful. That you share it with us is our very great privilege indeed! Love you! 💙

You're too sweet! I'm going to fall over this is so kind of you to say. I will never stop writing, it’s too much fun and I love being a nuisance and reading tags.

I put a lot of thought and effort and probably too much of myself in that first chapter. I'm still really proud of that fic and I will get the rest out eventually, I swear. There's outlines and scenes and just a lot of choices to make. It’s also a lot of fun to give depth to characters that people pigeonhole into the funny sassy character or the rules guy.

And it’s not my fault Halo gave us a cool universe with brain theft and pseudo-people and no one stopped me from taking it and running.

As for Like a Force to be Reckoned With, it’s what we needed. Halo is a great playground to write in because of how much could be fixed or changed. If they’re going to give us fun characters only to send them to a farm upstate the Ark, then I’m going to take them and do something else.

Thank you so much for the ask! It’s great to hear from you!

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

; U ; Oh! Oh, me too! Here is ⭐star⭐ for you, Stumpy! Please, any work you'd like to talk for. What a treat for us! 💙

You're too nice! ; o ;

I could hardly decide what to talk about so I’m going with Invent My Own Family.

It’s from last August and it’s the first ever fanfic I wrote and posted. It took months and even then I didn’t know what I was doing or what I wanted. I was attempting to write in the middle of 2020 while many things in my life were falling apart around me and I was using poor Alyx Vance to express some doubt about quick solutions to a problem that was too big to think about.

Also, I had just replayed half life 2 again and had started a funny little sideblog and was talking to these nice people online who were very encouraging whenever I shared my ideas.

I wouldn’t have had the guts to finish it and publish it without the lovely @kogo-dogo who is an incredible human being and wonderful writer who took the time to hold my hand and help me fight the english language into a semi-coherent work. Seriously, without them I don’t think I would have started writing and then I wouldn’t have met most of the people I’m very fortunate to call my friends. This is getting very sappy for a fanfic ask game, but it’s true.

Invent My Own Family is also from a line from a mountain goats song, Hebrews 11:40, from one of their most depressing albums. It was almost named something from Romans 10:9 but that was planned for a more gordon-centric fic that never got written. (Yet.) Surprisingly it’s 1 of only 2 fics named after goat songs.

The link to the ask game post is here if y’all want!