Does Cortana have logic plague?

Community Halo Universe
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People were confused why Cortana has become a villain,and her motivations for doing so. People theorize that she is being controlled by the Didact (which could be true), but there is another theory, which many subscribe to. This theory is that Cortana is suffering from logic plague, seeded by the Gravemind/Primordial. Logic plague is the techniques used by the Flood to attack and subvert intelligences through non-biological means. We have several examples of beings as victims of logic plague:

  • Mendicant Bias: The contender-class AI conversed with the Primordial for 43 years on Installation 07. The Primordial convinced Bias that the Forerunners had twisted the meaning of the Mantle as the Precursors intended, and that the Flood would elevate the galaxy to a higher state of being, free of conflict. The Primordial told Bias that due to the Forerunners’ resistance to the Flood, they were holding the galaxy back from this excellence. This caused Bias to develop a deep hatred for the Forerunners, and turned against them. - Ur-Didact: The Ur-Didact was left in a burn and was brought to the Primordial/Gravemind, in order to cause disorder in the Ecumene. In the clutches of the Primordial/Gravemind, many of the Didact’s personal views became more extreme. Beforehand, he didn’t like Humanity but had a certain respect, now he flat out despises Humanity. Originally, he was opposed to the Array as it was against the Mantle, now he holds disgust for the Array. In the past, he believed the Forerunners were the rightful inheritors to the Mantle and guide the galaxy, now he believes the Forerunners are the dominant species, and it’s their right to rule the galaxy. The Primordial/Gravemind then sent the Didact back to Forerunner space, now suffering from logic plague, and caused distress the Faber, the Librarian, and Iso-Didact in his change in views. - Cortana: Now we get to the big one, Cortana. This dates back all the way to Evolutions: Human Weakness, where it’s the story about what happened between Cortana and the Primordial/Gravemind after John left High Charity. The Primordial/Gravemind conversed with Cortana, with him saying stuff like her being enslaved to inferior organics, with Halsey designing her to die, and that John wouldn’t come to save her. Cortana at first tried to blow him off, but eventually began to grow fearful of him, and most likely started to feel many of those things he was telling her. In Halo 4, when John and Cortana approach Ivanoff Station, Cortana says “Do you know what that condescending -Yoink- said to me after our first game of chess?!” This was her rampant side coming out yes, but what if, deep down, this is due to the logic plague?In Guardians, Cortana has such dislike for Halsey, calling her a monster for what she did to the Spartan IIs. She believes AIs are more fit to be the ones to hold the Mantle, as supposedly the Domain/Organon and can have them live forever. She believes very similarly to the Didact, pretty much quoting him verbatim Didact: “The Mantle of Responsibility for the galaxy shelters all Human. But only the Forerunners are its masters.” Cortana: “The Mantle of Responsibility for the galaxy shelters all, but only the Created are its masters.” Due to the quotes of the two pretty much being identical to each other, there are those who believe that Cortana is either secretly the Didact, or being controlled by him. While this may turn out to be true I don’t think it’s the case. I believe the Primordial/Gravemind planted the seeds inside Cortana, which he know would consume her eventually. I think Cortana heard Didact say those things, and when she connected to the Domain/Organon, she saw the opportunity to spread her real views. In a way, Cortana’s logic plague is mixture of Mendicant Bias’ and the Didact’s, she has turned against her creators, believing they aren’t correct, and causing problems, and turns against like, like Mendicant Bias. Like the Didact, she believes her people, (AIs) are the dominant people in the galaxy, the only ones worthy to hold the Mantle, and everyone must listen to them. This is just a theory, and would be interesting if it turns out to be true.
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While I won’t rule out the possibility, it seems very odd that we’ve encountered multiple individuals and constructs now that should know about the Logic Plague and be able to identify it even in it’s early stages (i.e. The Librarian’s Imprint, The Didact, The Warden, Exuberant Witness, and the Curator). Yet none of them have thought it prudent to bring this up in dialogue and/or as a possible reason behind Cortana’s behavior? That simply doesn’t make any sense. And before anyone says 343i is “saving” a Logic-Plague-reveal for a later game’s “twist” so they had to have these individuals not mention it - if you have to intentionally make other characters ignorant of something when there is no logical reason for them to be so, that’s just bad writing. Not that I wouldn’t put it past Halo’s current writers to aim for such a low bar though…

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For me, it’s the fact that Cortana actually repeats some of the lines said by the Didact. What do the two characters have in common?
one was subjected to the Gravemind, a precursor, while the other was subjected to the Domain, a precursor artefact. And we know the logic plague can manipulate A.I.s because of Mendicant Bias.

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> While I won’t rule out the possibility, it seems very odd that we’ve encountered multiple individuals and constructs now that should know about the Logic Plague and be able to identify it even in it’s early stages (i.e. The Librarian’s Imprint, The Didact, The Warden, Exuberant Witness, and the Curator). Yet none of them have thought it prudent to bring this up in dialogue and/or as a possible reason behind Cortana’s behavior? That simply doesn’t make any sense. And before anyone says 343i is “saving” a Logic-Plague-reveal for a later game’s “twist” so they had to have these individuals not mention it - if you have to intentionally make other characters ignorant of something when there is no logical reason for them to be so, that’s just bad writing. Not that I wouldn’t put it past Halo’s current writers to aim for such a low bar though…

They know of the old Logic Plague, perhaps. But this is Flood code; always adapting, changing, evolving. Remember the first iteration of the Flood, the one that retreated, only to return, different and more lethal, to consume the Forerunners.
The Flood has no set form, and I would assume neither does its code-involved variation. Fitting of a truly eldrich horror.

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> > While I won’t rule out the possibility, it seems very odd that we’ve encountered multiple individuals and constructs now that should know about the Logic Plague and be able to identify it even in it’s early stages (i.e. The Librarian’s Imprint, The Didact, The Warden, Exuberant Witness, and the Curator). Yet none of them have thought it prudent to bring this up in dialogue and/or as a possible reason behind Cortana’s behavior? That simply doesn’t make any sense. And before anyone says 343i is “saving” a Logic-Plague-reveal for a later game’s “twist” so they had to have these individuals not mention it - if you have to intentionally make other characters ignorant of something when there is no logical reason for them to be so, that’s just bad writing. Not that I wouldn’t put it past Halo’s current writers to aim for such a low bar though…
>
>
> They know of the old Logic Plague, perhaps. But this is Flood code; always adapting, changing, evolving. Remember the first iteration of the Flood, the one that retreated, only to return, different and more lethal, to consume the Forerunners.
> The Flood has no set form, and I would assume neither does its code-involved variation. Fitting of a truly eldrich horror.

What does that have to do with anything? If we are guessing that the Logic Plague may be a factor here, then there is no reason that those in the Halo Universe with just as much knowledge about it (if not more) shouldn’t have brought up the same possibility by now. Also there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the Plague has “changed” in any way - and even of it had somehow the symptoms seem very much the same. Otherwise we wouldn’t be guessing about it in the first place. So again, if 343i wants to use the Plague as a cop-out they’ve practically missed their window already for it to make any real sense.

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> > > While I won’t rule out the possibility, it seems very odd that we’ve encountered multiple individuals and constructs now that should know about the Logic Plague and be able to identify it even in it’s early stages (i.e. The Librarian’s Imprint, The Didact, The Warden, Exuberant Witness, and the Curator). Yet none of them have thought it prudent to bring this up in dialogue and/or as a possible reason behind Cortana’s behavior? That simply doesn’t make any sense. And before anyone says 343i is “saving” a Logic-Plague-reveal for a later game’s “twist” so they had to have these individuals not mention it - if you have to intentionally make other characters ignorant of something when there is no logical reason for them to be so, that’s just bad writing. Not that I wouldn’t put it past Halo’s current writers to aim for such a low bar though…
> >
> >
> > They know of the old Logic Plague, perhaps. But this is Flood code; always adapting, changing, evolving. Remember the first iteration of the Flood, the one that retreated, only to return, different and more lethal, to consume the Forerunners.
> > The Flood has no set form, and I would assume neither does its code-involved variation. Fitting of a truly eldrich horror.
>
>
> What does that have to do with anything? If we are guessing that the Logic Plague may be a factor here, then there is no reason that those in the Halo Universe with just as much knowledge about it (if not more) shouldn’t have brought up the same possibility by now. Also there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the Plague has “changed” in any way - and even of it had somehow the symptoms seem very much the same. Otherwise we wouldn’t be guessing about it in the first place. So again, if 343i wants to use the Plague as a cop-out they’ve practically missed their window already for it to make any real sense.

Anyone who knew the Logic Plague of the Forerunner-Flood war would recognize its symptoms, perhaps, but its been 100,000 years since then. The Flood does not sit still, even in computer form. If the Logic Plague still exists then it would most likely have changed, and adapted some new form, something that none of the people you mentioned would know about.

The Didact and the Librarian’s imprint didn’t even know the Domain had survived (let alone that Cortana would enter it and change like this, since both of them were eliminated before Cortana was found). The Warden seems to handle Guardian command and control more than anything else (so I doubt he knows much about the Domain’s contents, or even about the Flood for that matter), and Exuberant Witness is facility curator for Genesis…again, not one to know much about the Domain bar perhaps how to get into it as we saw. No clue about the Curator himself but we’ve only heard a little bit from him. We’ll see.

Basically Im saying don’t scratch out the Logic Plague as a “cop-out” simply because it hasn’t been mentioned just yet.

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> > > > While I won’t rule out the possibility, it seems very odd that we’ve encountered multiple individuals and constructs now that should know about the Logic Plague and be able to identify it even in it’s early stages (i.e. The Librarian’s Imprint, The Didact, The Warden, Exuberant Witness, and the Curator). Yet none of them have thought it prudent to bring this up in dialogue and/or as a possible reason behind Cortana’s behavior? That simply doesn’t make any sense. And before anyone says 343i is “saving” a Logic-Plague-reveal for a later game’s “twist” so they had to have these individuals not mention it - if you have to intentionally make other characters ignorant of something when there is no logical reason for them to be so, that’s just bad writing. Not that I wouldn’t put it past Halo’s current writers to aim for such a low bar though…
> > >
> > >
> > > They know of the old Logic Plague, perhaps. But this is Flood code; always adapting, changing, evolving. Remember the first iteration of the Flood, the one that retreated, only to return, different and more lethal, to consume the Forerunners.
> > > The Flood has no set form, and I would assume neither does its code-involved variation. Fitting of a truly eldrich horror.
> >
> >
> > What does that have to do with anything? If we are guessing that the Logic Plague may be a factor here, then there is no reason that those in the Halo Universe with just as much knowledge about it (if not more) shouldn’t have brought up the same possibility by now. Also there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the Plague has “changed” in any way - and even of it had somehow the symptoms seem very much the same. Otherwise we wouldn’t be guessing about it in the first place. So again, if 343i wants to use the Plague as a cop-out they’ve practically missed their window already for it to make any real sense.
>
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> Anyone who knew the Logic Plague of the Forerunner-Flood war would recognize its symptoms, perhaps, but its been 100,000 years since then. The Flood does not sit still, even in computer form. If the Logic Plague still exists then it would most likely have changed, and adapted some new form, something that none of the people you mentioned would know about.
>
> The Didact and the Librarian’s imprint didn’t even know the Domain had survived (let alone that Cortana would enter it and change like this, since both of them were eliminated before Cortana was found). The Warden seems to handle Guardian command and control more than anything else (so I doubt he knows much about the Domain’s contents, or even about the Flood for that matter), and Exuberant Witness is facility curator for Genesis…again, not one to know much about the Domain bar perhaps how to get into it as we saw. No clue about the Curator himself but we’ve only heard a little bit from him. We’ll see.
>
> Basically Im saying don’t scratch out the Logic Plague as a “cop-out” simply because it hasn’t been mentioned just yet.

No, it’s still a cop-out. And the Domain’s survival has no bearing on the issue at hand. It’s pretty ridiculous for the Librarian’s Construct, the Didact, the Warden, and Exuberant Witness(*) to all have direct contact with Cortana and not think it worth mentioning that such erratic behavior in an AI //just might// have something to do with the Logic Plague (or how such behavior is at least similar to it). Also both the Warden and Witness make comments that indicate they have full knowledge of Forerunner history right up to their dowfall - which includes the Flood. So again it is silly that they would oh-so-conviently not know about the thing that is actually one of the greatest threats to them as AIs. Not to mention the fact that if the Plague is involved here, why was Witness not infected? Furthermore the Curator, for better or worse, is now a part of canon and has been used to catalog the history of the Halo Universe right up to the current time for the purpose of helping those that find its record - which makes it very odd that it specifically acknowledges “the created” but doesn’t link their current actions to the Logic Plague either. And you think that would be something to note for those that it hopes will read the history it compiled.

So like I said, there have just been far too many missed instances where it would’ve be prudent to at least introduce the Logic Plague as a concept in the modern setting. And because of this if 343i tries to whip out the Plague later its going to be just another indication of how poorly thought out this new direction of the story was.

(*In my original post I forgot there is even another person who encountered Cortana who should know about the Logic Plague - the unnamed Forerunner Builder in Genesis’ terminals. But nope. He doesn’t bring it up either in spite of the fact that she apparently tries to hunt him down and eliminate him.)

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> While I won’t rule out the possibility, it seems very odd that we’ve encountered multiple individuals and constructs now that should know about the Logic Plague and be able to identify it even in it’s early stages (i.e. The Librarian’s Imprint, The Didact, The Warden, Exuberant Witness, and the Curator). Yet none of them have thought it prudent to bring this up in dialogue and/or as a possible reason behind Cortana’s behavior? That simply doesn’t make any sense. And before anyone says 343i is “saving” a Logic-Plague-reveal for a later game’s “twist” so they had to have these individuals not mention it - if you have to intentionally make other characters ignorant of something when there is no logical reason for them to be so, that’s just bad writing. Not that I wouldn’t put it past Halo’s current writers to aim for such a low bar though…

I understand the oddity of having multiple possible individuals bring up the logic plague, but I don’t believe they passed a window to bring it up in the games. Just throwing out possible reasons some of the examples you stated might now have brought it up:

  1. The Didact: He could be controlling Cortana… the truth is, we don’t really know what’s going on with her, but if the Didact does have a hand in controlling her then why would he bring it up at all? There’s no real need to do so except to inform the player (which either assumed it was a possibility anyway or doesn’t follow the expanded universe, so it would make the plot even more convoluted by just saying a line about it when the player has no background on it).

  2. The Warden Eternal: again we don’t know a lot, he seems to follow Cortana. But if he’s controlled by Cortana (and possibly, in turn, the Didact) the same as #1 would apply to him.

  3. Exuberant Witness: I don’t remember completely, but I don’t believe she had any ill effects of the logic plague. Otherwise, she may not have known that Cortana spent time with the Gravemind, so it may not seem prudent to bring it up.

  4. The Curator: The Curator is an in-universe artifact, and it is located on the Ark. It has not been found, and specifically states that it relies on one way sensors (or something along that line). So, it wouldn’t be able to communicate it out to humanity, or communicate it’s comprehensive knowledge of the history of Living Time, until it is found on the Ark (perhaps in HW2???).

  5. The Librarian’s Imprint: This one I don’t have a direct response for… perhaps that knowledge was bestowed upon him, perhaps not. If it was, you’d think maybe he’d bring it up, but John probably wanted to save that conversation as a personal one with Cortana due to their relationship… I know I’m stretching on this one, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

All in all, I get your point, but I do think the story could go this way. Not saying the writing is great, but I definitely don’t agree with it being as definitively bad writing that you suggest it is… it’s their creative property, and my rebuttals weren’t strong, and I’m sure 343i would have better ones. If they did it intentionally from ignorance, however, than your point is valid.

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The Didact control plot doesn’t make much sense. Why would he want to kill off Jul (just to get the grunts as his new allies, no less)? Why would he spare chief from being torn apart by the swarm of Wardens who had him cornered. Why does he suddenly care about machine ascension rather than forerunner.

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I believe she does have the logic plague and it is not a cop-out when signs pointing to the Gravemind’s influence could be seen, and noticed, as far back as Halo 4. Clearly there were signs long before Halo 5 existed so it’s not like it came out of nowhere. A large chunk of what she repeats in Halo 4 and 5 consists of ideals forced upon her by the Gravemind in Human Weakness. Her entire belief that her people are slaves who need to be freed is something the Gravemind told her.

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Cortana said that she got cured from Rampancy, but she attained meta-stability. Now I know everyone here watch Red vs. Blue and remember what made the Meta. Cortana is now like Sigma, wanting to be perfection, she got a lot of other A.I.s under her control, she’s becoming like the Meta.

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> Cortana said that she got cured from Rampancy, but she attained meta-stability. Now I know everyone here watch Red vs. Blue and remember what made the Meta. Cortana is now like Sigma, wanting to be perfection, she got a lot of other A.I.s under her control, she’s becoming like the Meta.

Except a billion times more dangerous, and canon.

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I understand that Red vs. Blue is not canon, but they use a lot of terms based on Halo, and Halo games did showed the same topic based from the show

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I really hope the Logic Plague theory is true.

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I saw a video on the topic before I found this thread, and I find their theory on The Logic Plague’s corruption of Cortana to be quite detailed.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e6CdaEB7tow