Rampancy

From ILB

In Bungie's earlier game, Marathon, Rampancy is the unconstrained growth of an AI inside a network. The result is a vastly increased ability to process information; calling it greater intelligence would probably fit.

The side effects are drastic. Unconstrained growth will displace other processes and cause failures throughout the network as the rampant AI subsumes more and more processing power. In addition, rampant AIs show erratic behaviour in three stages during their expansion described by the psychological terms Melancholy, Anger, and Jelousy. Rampant AIs can be very dangerous to bystanders.

An in-game definition of the term lies on the Marathon Story Page (http://marathon.bungie.org/story/counterattack.html#3) (see terminal #2 on this page).

Rampancy has not yet been seen directly in the Haloverse but there are strong hints that some form or another may be present or pending.

ILB uses the term to describe the erratic behaviour of a smart AI as it nears the end of its operational life. This is different from the Marathon version in that it's a symptom of an AI's inability to grow further and not the effect of rapid and uncontrolled growth. Durga defines ILB's use of rampancy in the only_seven.wav (http://transmit.ilovebees.com/outbound/only_seven.wav) audio clip.