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ThePiousFlea

References To The Flea

We don't know much about the Flea yet. Here are the mentions of the Flea so far (please add more if you know of them).

Speculation on the Flea

After sleeping on it, I'd like to offer an alternative theory about the Pious Flea. I believe the Pious Flea is the entity who is receiving communications via the ladybee777 e-mail account and responding through the the KillerJpg embedded text. My logic is as follows:

- I believe UserExtrasonic is suggesting parallels with the myth of [WWW]Comatas-STKenyan

--UserExtrasonic 05:25, 28 Jul 2004 (PDT)

Re: Killer 7: Aren't Killers 10 and 12 also devoted entirely to identity? -UserKoi 20:24, 28 Jul 2004 (EDT)

"PIOUS is a complete Parallel I/O System for the PVM 3 distributed computing environment. Just as PVM implements a virtual multicomputer on top of a heterogeneous network of computing resources, PIOUS implements a fully functional parallel file system on top of PVM. PVM applications obtain transparent access to shared permanent storage via PIOUS library functions.

two-dimensional file objects and logical file views, coordinated file access with guaranteed consistency semantics, data declustering for scalable performance, transaction support and user-selectable fault tolerance modes, extended file maintenance primitives for managing declustered files, and C and Fortran language bindings. PIOUS should work on most systems that support PVM 3. To date, PIOUS has been tested on the following: Sun4/SunOS 4.1.3/5.3-4, SGI/IRIX 4.0.5/5.3, Dec Alpha/OSF1 2.1, HP 9000/HP-UX, and IBM RS6000/AIX. Versions of PIOUS are installed at hundreds of sites, and the software appears to be stable.

The PIOUS project is supported in part by U. S. DoE, MICS grant DE-FG05-91ER25105, and NSF awards ASC-9527186, and CCR-9523544."

I'm guessing that the pious flea is based off of this program. I think what the PIOUS program is in summary is it is Library for C/C++ programming that allows the user to be "invisible" to others...or a flea...hardly visible to the Widow because it was a PIOUS Flea...okay...I just hit something:

The PIOUS Flea is a transparent/invisible program (what it's purpose is I dunno) that is spying on the Queen/Widow...it wasn't seen by the Widow, not because it's the size of a flea, but because it is an invisible program. Like modern SpyWare.

Here's the link to what I found: http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/pious/

No need to get all uppity about what I said. I was just trying to shed some light on the situation. - Icicle2004

We should not discount the input of the other characters in determining what the Flea is. The SPDR looks for other running processes it can identify and finds only the Flea and the Princess. However, the Operator's Monologue makes reference to being aware of Dana's anti-virus. Why didn't the SPDR notice these local processes? The answer is that SPDR only recognizes parts of the Melissa AI, making the Flea part of Melissa and NOT a local program gone astray like the Robinson Carusoe reference may imply. That reference is probably a red herring.

The fact that the Flea is an 'invisible' program is quite evident from the Widow-SPDR story as well as the other in-game references. The PIOUS connection is superfluous and beats the horse well past dead. Let's look to more obscure facets of the story. --UserNoir

Perhaps its not that the flea is invisble, its just a very small program. The reference in the story about it being "[so small the Widow could hardly see it], and when she looked its way, it hid" doesn't mean its invisible, just that it is hard to find. The Sleeping Princess also seemed to dislike the flea, meaning that at least one other character knows about it, or has found it. Currently there are very small programs designed to damage computers (such as the smoke auto downloader, which is only 5kb, nearly unoticeable if embedded in something). It could be the flea is some sort of very basic program, which eventually helps with the destruction of another (not doing much damage itself). If we pretend the flea is designed to put a trojan onto the hard dirve or into the AI, then it could being a small program. The reference to it hiding can also be linked with embedding a file. Its also possible that its size is just relative, because we know the human AIs would need to be very large to show personalities and actually seem intelligent. The flea could actually be a program large by today's standards, but very small in the future, meaning it may be a primitive AI. This fits in with the fact that the covenant do not have advanced AIs, and there was reference to one very basic covenant AI that a Human AI came in contact with. -- UserFaukYu

Icicle's speculation is almost certainly incorrect. PLEASE people, let's remember that the names used in the TheStory are all allegorical - TheOperator is referred to as TheQueen, the TheSPDR is referred to as TheWidow, etc. Even if ThePiousFlea were a literal name given to that entity outside the TheStory, like all of the other acronyms we have encounted so far (TheONI, TheSPDR, etc.), Icicle's speculation would be extremely far-fetched - as a name inside the TheStory, it just doesn't work at all. TheOperator's allegorical name is TheQueen due to her behavior and, arguably, the TheSPDR's allegorical name is TheWidow for behavioral reasons as well, in a reference to Black Widow spiders (given how she dispatched the TheManticore). The as-of-yet undiscovered literal equivalent of the ThePiousFlea is probably named as such in the TheStory because of his behavior also - pious due to his loyalty/ethics, and flea because he's a burrowing, parasitic creature, either literally or metaphorically. --UserExtrasonic

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-- I'm not sure that Melissa originally had the truthseeking drive - I think the Flea is rewriting her routines to add its own purpose into hers (the Wormtongue of ILB :) ). The Flea's mission (given that it's likely a Covenant AI) is almost certainly to live long enough to reveal the true location of Earth. -- UserClamatius 08:55, 12 Aug 2004 (PDT)

But don't the Covenant already know the location of Earth? I thought this happened in Halo: First Strike. (Although I've read it, I've obviously forgotten most of it ...) Actually, now that I think about it, Halo 2 takes place, at least in part, on Earth. The first trailer shows the Covenant attacking Earth, and the Master Chief fighting on Earth. Also, if you read the Halo 2 E3 reports, the multiplayer map they used was Mombassa. Although with alternate timeline stuff, this could still work. (Not sure when the Covenant found out about Earth--I thought during the Fall of Reach, but I could be wrong.) --UserDevolver]] 09:07, 12 Aug 2004 (PDT)

D'oh! (*trouts self*) you're right, they do already know that. Hmm. Clearly it's looking for <i>something</i> in her memories, so then the question is what? -- UserClamatius 09:25, 12 Aug 2004 (PDT)

In the message posted about the Flea notice MARK is in all caps. Is this to highlight a connection between the Flea and MARK V cyborgs..?

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This is a bit of a stretch, but bear with me, because I'll make it short. Remember the clockwork rat in the Sleeping Princess' story? I was thinking, and I believe that we are to draw a connection between that rat and the Flea. If I'm correct, the Flea is leading the Operator astray from her true goal; like the girl in the Sleeping Princess' story, Melissa should be wanting to go home, but perhaps is unable to get back by herself. Slowly, Melissa would be turning into something very much different, something much closer in composition to the Flea. Now, for the weak direct connection: rats carry fleas.

I read--and now I can't remember where--that it was a possibility that Melissa had put the Princess in the coffin to protect her. Perhaps this is correct... but perhaps the Flea has corrupted the Operator into thinking that having the Princess in the coffin was for a different reason: Not to keep the outside from getting to the Princess, but to keep the princess from getting to the outside.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong. I request your input, please! - Pericles