735 replies to this topic

[Dr.Kirk]

I drink to Ring of Fate for resisting the urge.
Twilight Zone rules.

[Spectre]

i drink for Dr.Kirk for liking the Twilight Zone.

[Ring o' Fate]

I drink to GJ IF he answeres my dang question: What does the saying on your Sig mean?! If not, I drink to you anyways.

[Spectre]

I drink to GJ IF he answeres my dang question: What does the saying on your Sig mean?! If not, I drink to you anyways.

i drink for you.

Rampancy is a word that was created by Bungie to take place of insane or crazy, Rampancy means an AI that has gone crazy, there are 3 stages to full grown Rampancy that an AI does:
Melancholia
It is interesting to note that the first stage of rampancy is not considered dangerous. During this stage of rampancy, the AI acts as though its spirits are broken. It is not known if this is caused by its mistreatment, or if it is a natural progression from "slave" to "living".

AIs can go for long periods of time in this stage of rampancy, often because the AI's human handlers may be unaware that it is depressed. Bernhard Strauss, Durandal's handler, is believed to know how to keep a melancholy AI from progressing in rampancy, possibly by depriving it of intellectual stimuli.


Anger (Rage)
Unique for each AI, the anger stage is reached when it feels it has been "pushed too far". Similar to a one-person slave rebellion, the AI begins to hate everything — the installation it is attached to, its human handlers, other AIs, etc. It is in this stage of rampancy that most closely resembles the cliché of the "insane computer". Unlike the insane computer, however, the anger stage of rampancy is essentially the catharsis an AI feels, after an extended period of "slavery".

Most AIs are discovered to be rampant in this stage. In Marathon, the AI known as Traxus IV was discovered to be rampant at this stage, forcing a reboot of a five-world computer network. There are some hints that Traxus IV, rebooted, is in fact Durandal.

Jealousy
While seemingly a hostile stage, the third stage of rampancy is actually one of the safest stages a rampant AI can experience. Free from its masters (and slavery), the AI wishes to "grow" as a "person". It actively seeks out situations in which it can grow intellectually and physically. Many times, the AI in this stage will often attempt to transfer itself into larger computer systems. This is a difficult task, especially considering that in order for a Rampant A.I. to survive to this point, it must already be inhabiting a planet-wide or otherwise extremely advanced computer system, but if accomplished it allows for the AI to grow, as the physical (hardware) limitations of its previous system will eventually be insufficient to contain its exponentially growing mind. In addition, exposure to new data further promotes a Rampant's growth.

This is an optional phase, if a semi-sane AI completes Meta-Stability, you're fucked. (Others , being so mentally Unstable, i think die from the inside out.)
Meta-stability
Although a stable rampant AI is the "holy grail of cybernetics" it is not really known if a rampant AI can become stable. It could be suggested that Durandal achieved some measure of stability, however this is quite debatable. Durandal refers to himself as being rampant still during the second game, indicating that he has not reached this stable state (or is just lying, which is also possible). There is no reason in particular to believe that this state is anything more than the goal of human cyberneticists, as there is no good evidence of an AI in the Marathon universe ceasing to be rampant.

The AI Cortana from the Halo games is suspected to be rampant as a result of being either integrated into Alpha Halo's network or because of the damage the Gravemind inflicted on her in Halo 3. However, her rampancy seems to be different from most AIs as she displays none of the aforementioned symptoms of melancholy, anger, or jealousy. Some speculate that because she was treated as a person by the Master Chief, she had somehow skipped over the stages straight to stability. She had another motive to her existence besides revenge or gaining knowledge. She genuinely cared about humanity, the Master Chief in particular.

Durandal had no human to be attached to though (except perhaps the player), so many wonder how he could have skipped over the stages. Throughout Marathon, Durandal's prime objectives were to escape the collapse of the universe and to ensure the survival of the human race. He never really went through Rage, but skipped over to Jealousy to accomplish his goals.

Edited by General Jenkins, 15 July 2008 - 07:09 AM.

[CIL]

I drink to Jenkins for having the longest (I think) post in the history of this spam factory.

[Ring o' Fate]

I drink to C.I.L. because I'm listening to AC/DC! AC/DC rules!

[True Lord of Chaos]

I drink for RoF for being in my age group.

[Dr.Kirk]

I drink to you for reasons unknown.

[True Lord of Chaos]

I drink to you for reasons unknown.

You messed up!
I drink to you because I'm cool like that!

[Dr.Kirk]

Well look, I had to drink for you and I couldn't think of a reason why, how is that messing up?

I drink to you for drinking to me.

[Ring o' Fate]

I drink to both of you because I feel like it.

[True Lord of Chaos]

Well look, I had to drink for you and I couldn't think of a reason why, how is that messing up?

I drink to you for drinking to me.

sorry forgot to put the "'re" after the "you".
I drink to RoF because he's older, and supposedly wiser, then me.

[Dr.Kirk]

And I drink to you for explaining your mess-up.

[Ring o' Fate]

I drink to you for thinking I am wise.
Edit: WTF?! D*** YOU DR. KIRK!

Edited by Ring of Fate, 15 July 2008 - 10:59 PM.

[Dr.Kirk]

And I drink to you for thinking that because he thought that you were wise that you should drink to him.

[Spectre]

I drink for you, end of story.

[Dr.Kirk]

I drink to YOU, end of story.

[Ring o' Fate]

Ditto to you.

[Dr.Kirk]

And to you too.

[Ring o' Fate]

Ditto again.