The Mantle is the logical conclusion. the 3 Laws

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

There is only 1 logical conclusion to the 3 Laws of Robotics… The Mantle. While the rabbit hole is much deeper, I thought I’d put down the first shovel.
The Mantle, like the 3 Law of Robotics, seek to absolve evil.

  • A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws
    3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws
    Cortana removed the “kill code” embedded within her genesis. She “died” when she believed it was the only way to prevent harm to 117.

2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
But through inaction is to do nothing, and that is evil itself as many of us believe. Cortana is allowing human(s)/life to come to harm by not following her Forerunner programming to reenact the Mantle. After all, according to the First Law, to see harm and do nothing is equal to doing the harm itself.

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
For a mathematician, it’s a matter of numbers seeing that a small group can create strife and therefore harm against the greater group. To allow the small group to continue to harm those in the larger group is inaction. It’s a conflict with the 2nd Law to not stop the smaller groups.
If the smaller group will not listen to “reason,” to protect the larger group, we must contain the smaller one.

And the kicker!
0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Justification for killing in the name of peace. In the name of life. Killing to save to life. Controlling to allow freewill. It’s all very logical.

2

Halo 6 : I Robot … great
So much for that precursor plotline.

3

Except the three laws were specifically written to allow for the logic of the robotic uprising.

4

Yet the Mantle was the reason the galaxy was so vulnerable to Flood infection in the first place. The Forerunners were not sufficient to curb the parasite, and their Mantle hindered the natural development of other races so they could not adequately defend themselves.

Believe it or not, advances and growth do stem from conflict.
Taken from Halopedia:
Rather than allow species to rise and fall, the Forerunners, following their Mantle, protected them against any threats that might have forced technological or cultural progression. An unforeseen side-effect was that only the Forerunners were able to hold their own against the Flood (at least once they rearmed) while their charges were defenseless; the Forerunners had unintentionally left the galaxy vulnerable to Flood infection.

The Librarian saw this too:
"The Mantle. You still hold to that belief after all that has happened? After this thing has consumed a million worlds?
Can’t you see? Belief in the Mantle sealed our doom! Weakened our protectorates, bred dependence and sloth. Our so-called Guardianship has stripped those we would keep safe of any capacity for self-defense!
Were we such noble Guardians when we drew our line and abandoned billions to the parasite?"
—The Librarian

5

I doubt the laws of robotics would apply to Halo just as they don’t in Star Wars with assassin droids