Analysis of Data Pad Content: Ideas, Theories, and Observations

[EnigmaBiz]

I did not find all of these, only a few...These are definitely times and not dates. In one of the data pads a time is found 2530:01:01:00:00:01-ZT, 2530...note the missing ( : ). The Data pads only account for 2hrs 42mins...( maybe in reference to Reclaimer 242?)

1. 2310
2. 2362
3. 2381
4. 2415
5. 2491
6. 2491
7. 2508
8. 2525
9. 2525
10. 2526
11. 2526
12. 2526
13. 2528
14. 2530
15. 2531
16. 2535
17. 2547
18. 2552
19. 2552

[Phantasm 08]

I find the last two times intriguing for two reasons:

1) Many of them, for instance 2362 and 2381, don't correspond to times.  Even on military time, the last two digits will never exceed 59, since there are sixty minutes in an hour.  Also,  once you get past datapad 6, even the hours don't match up, although this part could be attributed to the possibility that Reach has a longer rotation time, and therefore longer days, than Earth.  I don't know if this is either confirmed or invalidated in any canonical source, so the possibility stands.  It wouldn't make sense for Bungie to give a location a timekeeping system so alien to our own, though.

2) The numbers on datapads 18 and 19, if interpreted as dates, refer to a year that we all know and love.

Coincidences are always a possibility, but we know how Bungie loves their numbers.

[The Arkaeologist]

@Phantasm:  Apollo's post is relevant to this discussion.

Coldglider provided this during our intel phase with regard to another topic, but here's the source if you want to check it out for yourself.  (The fact that Bungie specified the 27 hour day in the factbook may indicate y'all are on to something.)

[Apollo Doom]

To counterpoint my own theory, maybe they are Gregorian calendar dates...the ones here are sourced from HBO's very comprehensive Halo timeline.  From 2525 on there's just too many events to post for each year.  Many (but not all) of the 4 digit dates are listed, many of the others could be inferred from events within the books.

2310     The Earth government unveils the first in a line of colony ships; given conditions on Earth are deteriorating in the face of overpopulation, hitching a ride out to a colony becomes a highly attractive option. Additionally, the Earth government plans to attach military personnel to each colony, to help better utilize the massive (and expensive) standing fleets. Because FTL travel is still fairly new and expensive, colonists and military personnel face a stringent regimen of physical and mental testing. In theory, only the best-qualified citizens and soldiers are allowed to colonize "nearby" worlds. This is the birth of the Inner Colonies; typically Inner Colonials are—later in the timeline—considered the elite, the best and brightest.

2362 Jan 1    The Odyssey is launched. The lead ship in the colony vessels, the Odyssey—laden with troops and terra forming gear—spearheads the colonization of a new world. This sparked the first wave of human expansion beyond the confines of the Solar System.

2491      The ORION Project, the predecessor of the SPARTAN-II Program is initiated by the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Source:
http://halostory.bungie.org/halostory.timeline.html

[Phantasm 08]

Ah, I see.  That explains the hours, but how many minutes are in a Reach hour?  If it's only 60, then my point still stands.  2362, 2381, and 2491 are not valid times if Reach still uses a 60 minute hour.  I'm not attacking ideas here, but I try to address every possibility.

[The Arkaeologist]

@Phantasm:  Sorry if I sounded like a jerk saying that Coldglider had provided the link previously.  I was trying to give credit where credit was due, not say that you should have known this or that you were wrong.  I had forgotten this little factoid myself.  I actually am leaning towards you and Apollo in this.  I think the times mentioned are too similar to the years when referenced events occurred, Project Orion, for example, but I've got to look more closely.

Anyhow, tone gets lost in writing sometimes.  You are ABSOLUTELY right to consider every possibility.

[Phantasm 08]

You weren't coming off as a jerk Ark, you were just informing me of something that I was ignorant of.

[The Arkaeologist]

Other observations regarding data pad content:

Across the data pads the tone of the first pages seems different from that of the other pages, less robotic.  Does this suggest a different speaker?  The possibility of a human speaker is supported by Data Pad 14 05:

when i first got here and woke from stasi5 the ship was crawling with
colonists from dead worlds it was so crowded i couldn't move i had to
fight to breathe...

Also there is consistently a number (or numbers) replacing a letter (or letters) on the first page.  We should examine the numbers and also the replaced letters.

Who is the Majority?  The Minority?  The Assembly?  The Committee?  Is there overlap here?  Data Pad 01 suggests we're dealing with AI's:

Consideration of the Minority.s request for a new line of inquiry:
How have our creators, and thus we, their artificial creations, evolved to this present state without encountering a hostile civilization capable of our annihilation?
Majority opinion has long held that only the incalculable immensity of space has protected our creators - that space is full of boundless wonders, but it is the gulf between these wonders that has kept our creators alive.

The above also seems to suggest that we're dealing with AI who have not encountered the Flood, which unless we are completely wrong about the timeframe, would seem to eliminate Forerunner-created AI (the MIA Offensive Bias and company).  Although, of course, we are Forerunner.  But I think you know what I mean.

[ColdGlider]

I'm going with years, and therefore side with Phantasm and Apollo Doom's counterpoint of his own theory. 

As they story progresses, we are brought up to speed with "current" events in 2552.

Ark's note that the first Data Pad page is more robotic might be due to our working hypothesis that the first page is used to sequence the Data Pads through the use of digit replacement for some of the letters.

[The Arkaeologist]

Ark's note that the first Data Pad page is more robotic might be due to our working hypothesis that the first page is used to sequence the Data Pads through the use of digit replacement for some of the letters.

I think you mean less.

And I see Phantasm and I were thinking along the same lines at exactly the same time.   I suppose we'll speculate on the sequencing, missing letters, etc. in the other thread and leave this one for more general speculation regarding the players and context.  I was trying to put all the data pad theories in one spot because I'm going a bit nuts clicking around, but this definitely merits its own thread.  Plus, I think the madness will resolve when we can get all the transcripts in the guide.

[Imppa]

Other observations regarding data pad content:

Across the data pads the tone of the first pages seems different from that of the other pages, less robotic.  Does this suggest a different speaker?  The possibility of a human speaker is supported by Data Pad 14:

when i first got here and woke from stasi5 the ship was crawling with
colonists from dead worlds it was so crowded i couldn't move i had to
fight to breathe...

Also there is consistently a number (or numbers) replacing a letter (or letters) on the first page.  We should examine the numbers and also the replaced letters.

Who is the Majority?  The Minority?  The Assembly?  The Committee?  Is there overlap here?  Data Pad 01 suggests we're dealing with AI's:

Consideration of the Minority.s request for a new line of inquiry:
How have our creators, and thus we, their artificial creations, evolved to this present state without encountering a hostile civilization capable of our annihilation?
Majority opinion has long held that only the incalculable immensity of space has protected our creators - that space is full of boundless wonders, but it is the gulf between these wonders that has kept our creators alive.

The above also seems to suggest that we're dealing with AI who have not encountered the Flood, which unless we are completely wrong about the timeframe, would seem to eliminate Forerunner-created AI (the MIA Offensive Bias and company).  Although, of course, we are Forerunner.  But I think you know what I mean.

From Halsey's Diary:

November 10, 2533

---

How would that feel, when all you are is intellect, to have to destroy what you've spent a lifetime creating?

To palliate this frenzied cutting behavior, I've developped a new theoretical architecture with three AIs arranged in parallel. All decisions would be made my majority vote. If one abstains, the tie resolves randomly.

Could this be the Commitee? Majority would connsist of the two aggreing AIs, and Minority would be the one with differing opinion. Can't explain Assembly with it however.
It is to be noted that the theory is almost 20 years old in 2552 though.

[Apollo Doom]

Wha-bam Imppa.

[Phantasm 08]

Other observations regarding data pad content:

Across the data pads the tone of the first pages seems different from that of the other pages, less robotic.  Does this suggest a different speaker?  The possibility of a human speaker is supported by Data Pad 14:

when i first got here and woke from stasi5 the ship was crawling with
colonists from dead worlds it was so crowded i couldn't move i had to
fight to breathe...

Also there is consistently a number (or numbers) replacing a letter (or letters) on the first page.  We should examine the numbers and also the replaced letters.

Who is the Majority?  The Minority?  The Assembly?  The Committee?  Is there overlap here?  Data Pad 01 suggests we're dealing with AI's:

Consideration of the Minority.s request for a new line of inquiry:
How have our creators, and thus we, their artificial creations, evolved to this present state without encountering a hostile civilization capable of our annihilation?
Majority opinion has long held that only the incalculable immensity of space has protected our creators - that space is full of boundless wonders, but it is the gulf between these wonders that has kept our creators alive.

The above also seems to suggest that we're dealing with AI who have not encountered the Flood, which unless we are completely wrong about the timeframe, would seem to eliminate Forerunner-created AI (the MIA Offensive Bias and company).  Although, of course, we are Forerunner.  But I think you know what I mean.

As far as I know, at the time of the Fall of Reach, no humans had encountered the Flood [edit]and lived to tell the tale[/edit], and humans had no [edit]working[/edit] knowledge of the Forerunners (unless some artifact is discovered in one of the books; the only book I've read is Ghosts of Onyx) [edit]and were most likely incapable of the kind of technology needed to sustain a Forerunner AI[/edit], so there's pretty much no chance of it being a Forerunner AI.  The datapads look distinctly UNLIKE anything Covenant, as well.  That, coupled with the fact that at one point the AI discuss whether or not the Covenant have a similar Assembly, and you pretty much eliminate the possibility of the Datapads being Covie by nature.  

EDIT:  Corrected my terminology in light of Apollo Doom's information  

[Apollo Doom]

Just have to point out one canonical error in your post:  both the UNSC and the Covenant had encountered the Flood in the shieldworld in Halo Wars.  Some of the Covenant fled, but the UNSC forces were left without FTL communications or engines so they were unable to alert the rest of humanity.  ONI has also clearly been aware of the Forerunner for many years by the time Reach falls, so its possible they know about the Flood as well.

[The Arkaeologist]

Warning:  the first two links below go to the Halopedia.  These pages are safe as of now but if you start clicking around, you're going to run into spoilers.  I learned this the hard way.  Nothing major but....

More observations (low hanging fruit):

From Data Pad 06:

<< 2491 >>

</ Order! Order! The Majority has the floor! />

>> Honored members. Please! The recent discovery of the existence of
extra-solar intelligence in the Zeta Doradus system [ref. XF-063] merely
confirms this body's long-held supposition. >>

This is a reference to Onyx.

From Data Pad 07:

<< In all likelihood, ORION's limited success can be attributed to
[03529-24450-EN's] diminished, though still functioning, compassion.
Conversely, [10141-026-SRB4695's] ruthlessness - which may be
attributed to an undiagnosed, undocumented, or deliberately
obfuscated chemical imbalance - was necessary for setting in motion
the events that will eventually supply us with the optimal solution.

In short, ORION was just the beginning. <<

The second id number is Halsey's civilian id number.

Other:

It appears that the AI of the Committee, etc. were manipulating humans of the UNSC, ONI, etc., ostensibly for humanity's own good but nonetheless.  When viewed in this light, human findings, even those of our beloved Halsey, are potentially tainted, as are their resultant decisions/actions.

I'm just throwing this out there but we may wish to consider Elias Carver a candidate for Page 1 Speaker.  His suicide, whether it was in fact a suicide or something more, seems in keeping with the Speaker's disturbed state of mind.  Way, way premature without the other data pads and more investigation but.... (A human as Speaker, provided there is only one Speaker consistent across pads and he/she has normal lifespan, would mean that the Page 2 data pad dates, if they are years, do not apply to Page 1.)