Flash cloning was an issue before the kidnapping and augmentations/training happened

@@steveoWMS4evr Need I remind the dozens of unethical shit ONI was doing in general?

@@Mate397 I think the implication is that they are cloning someone who is alive to use in an massively powerful Artificial intelligence which may/may-not have memories and or strong imprints from their host and could lead to the AI being compromised by their emotions especially if they interreact with the original person as AI are effectively dead, mere echo's of their former selves but still seeing the life that could have been. Cortana's feeling and memories very well could have made her jealous and hateful of Halsey and quickly drive her into rampancy. That I think was the concern from ONI about cloning a still living person to use in an AI.

I always read it as the difference between doing dastardly things for a good cause, and the unnecessary -- and thus, unjustifiable by even ONI standards -- cruelty and suffering. When it was the flash cloned children, they didn't serve any good purpose. 75 kids, across many worlds, in a civilization across many more still just isn't going to be noticed. And it leaves more evidence of a state actor being involved, should anyone notice the flash cloning. As it relates to Cortana, that's iffier. I suppose there was no guarantee an AI as powerful as Cortana would result. ..but it doesn't threaten to expose the Orion/Spartan program, and conceivably solves a critical problem of not having nearly as many AI as needed, which arguably could turn the tide of the entire Human-Covenant war. The potential is high, the taboo is strong, so I could argue it either way, but I'd lean toward ONI green lighting the gamble. ..or simply failing to intervene, so they've deniability and a convenient target to shift blame if things go terribly. >.> If the taboo was so strong to make ONI hesitate, it's a wonder they didn't engineer a human hybrid that was sufficiently different so as to be able to argue that they were undertaking a genetic experiment, rather than being kidnappers, murderers, and maimers of children

@@dracodraco1982 I get that Halsey went to an extreme when using flash-cloning by making a copy of her own brain and using that as a template for Cortana, which required a fully grown replica of her to be the donor. But as bad as that is and very much a crime against humanity, we could list ONI's acts all day. Plus shouldn't flash-cloning be used in medical science? It would help those who need a replacement organ or limb incase of an accident or injury. Or is a cybernetic limb somehow cheaper and safer to attach than your own cloned flesh?

Correction: “NOW YOU WANT TO CLONE YOURSELF AND RIP YOUR BRAIN OUT?”

ONI of all folks shouldn't be too surprised, they have their own dirty laundry.

@@Mate397 Yeah most of ONI doesn’t care too much about morality, they just don’t want to get brazenly caught in the act. Reminds me of Admiral Parangosky said to Halsey in Halo Glasslands: “Oh I’m not sure that you’re any worse than me - I’m just a different kind of guilty.”

Only if...

The part that isn't redacted

We have questions ....