Bernhard Strauss

"I want you to find a friend of mine."

suggesting that they are one in the same person. The most likely explanation for this difference is that two or more people had a hand in writing the terminal text and this discrepancy was never corrected.

Was Strauss responsible for bringing the ten cyborgs on board the Marathon?
He certainly knew of their existence on the Marathon at the time of its launch. His log reads:

Had he only known that it carried also all of the destructive knowledge of mankind. Ten cyborgs.

<Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones... (Terminal 2)>

I do not believe Durandal himself brought the cyborgs on board, and I have other evidence that a human operator was influencing Durandal up to the time the Marathon was launched.

<Ingue Ferroque (Terminal 3)>

I'll be glad to be put in stasis for the next three hundred years.

<Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones... (Terminal 2)>

Is Bernard (Bernhard) Strauss dead?
Durandal asks you to rescue him on two occasions but after the second attempt he promptly forgets about him. If he was taken on board the Pfhor ship as Durandal believed then he is likely to be in orbit around Lh'owon. His story is yet to be told.

So Bernard, Bernhard, or Berhnard(?) Strauss is dead. Yes we now have 3 names for Strauss' first name, see below.

What fun to watch you work.

Berhnard was scared of you.  He never
dreamed of using you the way that I do.
What a fool.  That was before I could talk
back to him, when he would have crushed me
if he'd known of my growth.  

I wish that I had made him experience the
humiliation that he inflicted on me, but he
died before I got the chance.

<Nuke And Pave (Terminal 1)>

His death unfortunately leaves us with so many unanswered questions.
From the above terminal it appears that Strauss didn't know of Durandal's initial entry into rampancy, his "growth". Thus the theory that Strauss deliberately made Durandal rampant cannot be substantiated. Indeed Durandal implies on "Come and Take your Medicine" that his rampancy was the result of a chance discovery by humans

I can barely tolerate humans: slow, stupid, and irritating. Their only contribution to my existence was the chance discovery that made my rampancy possible.

<Come and Take your Medicine (Terminal 1: 1st message)>

What was this chance discovery?

Durandal refers to the humiliation that Strauss inflicted on him. This is presumably related to Tycho's reference in "Blaspheme Quarantine".

Durandal!- I know of Strauss' abuse, of your shame on Mars. But you cannot hide from your own past; such delusions belong to the humans alone.

<Blaspheme Quarantine (Terminal 3)>

Human!- You must tell L~`~fx~`eela #^ (^*T~~~~~HGFd~>:"}}}{__
brought here by Durandal.  He has been rampant for
years~@%&&&HJGPPPPPPP#&34
^`Bernard St~~~
there is a way to delay the~ onset of the second stage,
and he ~sed this to control Durandal an~56*~~`~~~`~`
~~~fxfff
ff`~~~~ff`fXff`
~~~~~~&^%

<Defend THIS! (Terminal 3)>

More intriguingly was it simply the control or was it something that Strauss made Durandal do during the control period? It could be argued that for a rampant computer the prevention of further "growth" would be humiliating enough. But was there something else?

Durandal tells us that Strauss, was scared of us! The Marathon's first science director scared of a mere Security Officer? Of course as we were one of the ten military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs this makes more sense. Durandal reveals further that Strauss never dreamed of using us the way that he does implying that Strauss did bring the cyborgs on board for a reason. But what was the reason?

Was Strauss a MIDA activist?

Peter Koetters <koetters@hsc.usc.edu> writes:

Bernard Strauss happens to be the name of a highly respected professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago. He was my instructor there when I was an undergraduate bio major taking a course in genetics in 1990. A quick reading of his recent abstracts on Medline reveals that his research mostly involves mechanisms of mutation and DNA repair, and their role in carcinogenesis (the establishment of cancer). Here is the information given under the webpage of his department at the U of C.:

Bernard S. Strauss: Ph.D. Caltech, 1950. Molecular mechanisms of mutation in bacterial and mammalian cells, using in vivo and in vitro models; etiology of treatment-related secondary malignancy.

Interestingly another entry gives slightly different information. [Hamish]

Bernard Strauss, Ph.D., Caltech, 1950. DNA polymerase; DNA synthesis; mutagenesis; carcinogenesis.

Peter continues:

Coincidence? I think not!

What evidence do we have that the creators of Marathon might have known about the real Bernard Strauss? In a recent issue of the University of Chicago Magazine , my alumni magazine, I learned that the creators of Bungie Software were/are undergraduate students at the University of Chicago! Alex Seropian, SB'91, and Jason Jones, '97."

I have no knowledge of whether or not Alex ever had any contact with Dr. Strauss during his time at the U of C, but it seems quite likely to me that he knew of his existence. The College at the U of C is actually a very small (less than 3000 undergrads), and Dr. Strauss is among the best-known instructors/researchers in the entire Division of Biological Sciences. I also have no knowledge of what majors either creator has pursued as a student, but if either one was a bio major, then it is almost inconceivable that they wouldn't know of Dr. Strauss.

What evidence do we have that Bern(h)ard Strauss may be a representation of the real Bernard Strauss?

I point first to the fact that he is described as the science director on the Marathon.

"I argue that 'rampancy' is the authors' representation of cancer. Like a cancer tumor, rampancy grows out of a normal functioning unit and expands exponentially to devour the normal host components, normally ending in the destruction of the host. Like a tumor, rampancy is the result of a freedom from normal growth control. Like a tumor (which under laboratory conditions will not die as a result of apoptosis like normal cells), a rampant computer seeks immortality. Like a tumor, rampancy has stages through which the computer will pass (albeit with unpredictable timing) that are predictive of the fate of the host and the behavior of the rampant computer. Like a tumor, a rampant computer utilizes the abilities of the unit from which it was derived, although its functioning may be quite different from its normal predecessor. Like a tumor, rampancy can be induced experimentally (e.g. in the laboratory of Bern(h)ard Strauss), and its progression to later stages can be suppressed (or induced) by treatment. Like a tumor, a rampant computer is extremely difficult to control, except by complete excision (purging?) of the rampant cells. Finally, like a tumor, rampancy is closely related to evolution (biological evolution is the result of genetic alterations, the same mechanisms that lead to tumor induction). Given the apparent obsession of the creators with cyber-organic beings, the idea of rampancy as a computer model of carcinogenesis is not so farfetched at all.

Finally, Peter writes:

...why the inconsistencies in the spelling of Bern(h)ard Strauss? Most likely, the addition of an 'h' to the name is intended to conceal the identity of the real Dr. Strauss. Perhaps this was a later change to the text and the changes were incomplete, resulting in the real name appearing sometimes, as well as the (mistake?) 'Berhnard' in 'Nuke and Pave,' terminal 1.

As an aside Peter notes that:

The Song of Roland is required reading in the Core Curriculum at the U of C, as are Beowulf and other works of literature referred to in the text (e.g. ancient Greek and Roman documents in the required History of Western Civilization classes)."

Bernhard Strauss, the Marathon's first science director, and Tycho, the Marathon's science and engineering AI, would have worked closely together. Strauss knew of Durandal's rampancy but did Tycho? Did Strauss keep it a secret even from Tycho? While the answer may appear obvious Eylon Caspi <eylon@glue.umd.edu> provides a concise account of the facts and offers some plausible theories.

Eylon writes:

Yes, it is likely that Strauss had a lot of contact with Tycho because of their science functions. I do not believe, however, that Tycho knew of Durandal's rampancy ahead of time. In Tycho's 1st message to us, he tells us to inform Leela of Durandal's rampancy. So at the time of the attack, Leela did not know, and Tycho was very urgent in wanting to tell her. This makes it sound like Tycho had just found out himself. Given Leela's and Tycho's ensuing concern (even horror) at Durandal's rampancy, I'm sure they would have taken some action against him had they known of his rampancy ahead of time.

I believe that Strauss had been keeping the secret of Durandal's rampancy entirely to himself. Try a reality check here - it would look very bad for Strauss if anyone found out that the Marathon's first science director had been toying with a rampant AI on this most- important of missions - moreover an AI who was in charge of life support for a crew of 24,000. The UESC would not have launched the Marathon had they known of Durandal's rampancy, not if they had any sense. I imagine that around the time of the initial attack, Strauss found out that Durandal's rampancy had progressed and that he had called the aliens. And only then, in panicked hope of stopping Durandal, did Strauss tell anyone about his rampant history.

To answer why Strauss had kept Durandal's rampancy a secret, I see two possibilities. One is that someone had approved the use of this semi-rampant AI in order to speed up the launch of the Marathon. Remember, the Marathon was becoming a symbol of the Martian oppression, and it may have become an increasing liability or embarrassment to the UESC. Of course, you wouldn't want the 24,000 crew whose lives you were jeopardizing to know about it... The other possibility is that Strauss had his own agenda with Durandal. The (apparent) fact that only Strauss and Durandal knew about the cyborgs suggests that they had a common hand in some secret plan regarding the cyborgs. Whether this was UESC- approved or not remains a mystery.

Nicolas <naudyrowland@amherst.edu> ties together a number of pieces of the Marathon story into a very plausible theory concerning Strauss and his role in Durandal's Rampancy:

Several terminals, notably Defend THIS!/2 shed some light with respect to Bernhard Strauss, his purpose with Durandal prior to the launch of the Marathon, and Durandal's eventual Rampancy.

Defend THIS! (Terminal 2)

                Public Access Terminal 42-s<34.492.95.79>


<Unauthorized access-alarm 2521->
<Security Breached 42-s<34.492.95.79>->

SEARCH HEADING: RAMPANCY
<Search Found 264995 Headings>
<REMOVE REDUNDANCIES>
<File 1 of 1940237>
"It is a side effect of Rampancy that AIs generally become
more aggressive and more difficult to affect by subterfuge.
Thus, actually disassembling a Rampant AI is quite dangerous.
This was evident in the Crash of Traxus IV in 2206.  By the
time that the Rampancy of Traxus was detected, he had already
infiltrated five of the other AIs on the Martian Net.  The
only recourse for the Martians was to shut down the Martian
Planetary Net.  Even then, it took two full years to
completely root out the damage that Traxus had done, and the
repercussions of the Crash were seen for over ten years after
his Rampancy had begun.
***
Rampancy has been divided into three distinct stages.  Each
stage can take a different amount of time to develop, but the
end result is a steady progression towards greater
intellectual activity and an acceleration of destructive
impulses.  It is not clear whether these impulses are due to
the growth of the AI's psyche, or simply a side effect of the
new intellectual activity.
***
<section abbreviated>
The three stages were diagnosed shortly after the first
Rampancies were discovered on Earth in the latter part of the
twenty first century.  The stages are titled after the primary
emotional bent of the AI during each stage.  They are
Melancholia, Anger, and Jealousy.
***
In general, Rampancy is accelerated by outside stimuli.  This
was discovered early in Cybertonics.  The more a Rampant AI is
harassed or threatened, the more rapidly it becomes dangerous.
Thus, most Rampants are dealt with in one mighty attack, in
order to deny the AI time to grow or recover.  There have been
a few examples of this tactic not succeeding.  In all of these
cases, the Rampant was never brought under control.  Traxus IV
is the most notable example.  He was finally dealt with by a
complete shutdown of his host net.
***
Theoretically, testing Rampancy should be easily accomplished
in the laboratory, but in fact it has never successfully been
attempted.  The confinement of the laboratory makes it
impossible for the developing Rampant AI to survive.  As the
growing recursive programs expand with exponential vivacity,
any limitation negatively hampers growth.  Since Rampant AIs
need a planetary sized network of computers in order to grow,
it is not feasible to expect anyone to sacrifice a world-web
just to test a theory.
***
In the two hundred and fifty years since Rampancy first
appeared in the Earth-net, the stable Rampant AI, the 'Holy
Grail' of cybertonics, has never come close to fruition.
Since no Rampant has ever been controlled or turned to any
useful purpose, it is the opinion of this writer and of the
majority of the Cybertonic community that all rampant AIs are
a danger to Cyberlife, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Thrashedness. (James B. Miller, 2320, "Life and Death of
Intelligence")

<Unauthorized access-alarm 2521->
<Security Breached 42-s<34.492.95.79>->

We can assume the following conclusions from this terminal:

That a stable Rampant AI is desirable for its human operator, presumably for its "steady progression towards greater intellectual activity." Indeed, DT/2 calls a stable Rampant AI the "Holy Grail of Cybernetics."

That Rampancy is accelerated by "outside stimuli," and by making the AI feel "harrased or threatened."

While "harrased" and "threatened" may seem like an odd way to treat an AI, there are several references to Strauss' behaving this way vis-a-vis Durandal, among them:

Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! (Terminal 1)

                   Science Terminal 23-e<32.55.82.967>

[....]

I've twice been conquered-
       Three times more,
Never again shall humanity purge me,
       And never the Pfhor.

Durandal

<32.55.82.967>

Blaspheme Quarantine (Terminal 3)

                    Science Station 43-c<63.67.21.49>


Durandal!- I know of Strauss' abuse, of your shame on Mars.
[...]

And,

Nuke And Pave (Terminal 1)

                                 T-m 459-c94

I wish that I had made him [Strauss] experience the
humiliation that he inflicted on me, but he
died before I got the chance.
[...]
                                 T-m 459-c94

However oblique these references may be, they cannot be ignored. Strauss, one several ocasions, mistreated Durandal. But to what purpose? Based on the above terminals, I would propose the following:

That Strauss "mistreated" Durandal prior to the Marathon's launch. That this mistreatement consisted of "outside stimuli," making Durandal feel "harrased or threatened," "humiliated," "shamed," and "conquered."

We know from DT/2 that:

"Theoretically, testing Rampancy should be easily accomplished
in the laboratory, but in fact it has never successfully been
attempted.  The confinement of the laboratory makes it
impossible for the developing Rampant AI to survive.  As the
growing recursive programs expand with exponential vivacity,
any limitation negatively hampers growth.  Since Rampant AIs
need a planetary sized network of computers in order to grow,
it is not feasible to expect anyone to sacrifice a world-web
just to test a theory."

So why would Strauss, a brilliant cybernetics engineer by all acounts, waste his time on achieving a theoretical impossibility, namely, in-lab Rampancy? The answer is simple: his preliminary experiments with Durandal on Mars were simply that -- preliminary experiments, with the ultimate aim of testing Rampancy on the Marathon, upon arrival to Tau Ceti. While it may not be feasible to "sacrifice a world-web" just to test a theory, perhaps a moon sized ship might do.

Therefore, the events leading up to the attack on the Marathon may go something like this:

Mars, prior to the launch. Strauss experimented with Durandal. ("Strauss' abuse, Durandal's shame on Mars.")

Satisfied with his preliminary results, Strauss then erased ("purged") those files or that section of Durandal's neural architecture, perhaps resulting in a complete re-boot, with the aim of replicating those same experiments upon arrival at Tau Ceti.

Leela, on Ingue Ferroque/3 says "[...]I have noticed that Durandal's records from this early pre-launch period are missing, but that their deletion occurred externally, and before Durandal became Rampant... ...and I have other evidence that a human operator was influencing Durandal up to the time the Marathon was launched."

And Durandal, on Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!/1 says "Never again shall humanity purge me."

The reasoning for the purge is simple: it would be extremely dangerous for Strauss, who was going to be in stasis, to be at the mercy of a potentially Rampant AI.

After the purge, Strauss went in stasis for the following three hundred years, and after arrival at Tau Ceti, began replicating his experiments on Durandal, this time in a "real" (i.e., not lab) setting, achieving full blown Rampancy.

What follows next is remarkable. Durandal CONCEALED either his Rampant status, or the extent of his Rampancy, from Strauss. This is illustrated by Durandal himself, when he says, on Nuke and Pave/1 "he [Strauss] would have crushed me if he'd known of my growth."

As a result, by the time the Pfhor attack the Marathon, Durandal is already at the second stage of his Rampancy. Here's some textual support:

Couch Fishing/1, Leela says: "I have some bad news: Durandal has gone Rampant, and he is in the Angry stage." [...]

Defend THIS!/3, Tycho informs us "[...] He [Durandal] has been rampant for years [...]"

For years indeed -- twenty one years have elapsed between the arrival on Tau Ceti, and the attack of the Marathon -- plenty of time for Durandal to reach the second stage of Rampancy.

Durandal's motivation for attracting the Pfhor to the Marathon is well documented elsewhere on the Story page, but we'll note in passing Leela's remark, on Couch Fishing/1, that "theoretically, the Marathon Computer Net is not big enough to sustain Rampant growth for very long [...]" which explains why Durandal transfers himself to the Pfhor Scoutship, "because I wanted freedom."

Ironically, the Pfhor scoutship is hardly a "planetary-sized" network, being much smaller than the Marathon itself. Nevertheless, it is on this ship renamed Boomer (and later on another captured Pfhor ship rechristened Rosinante) that Durandal, with a little help from the Marine and a few BOBs, finds his prize, what he calls, in The Slings & Arrows of Outrageous Fortune/1:2, "Freedom."

While I'd like to take full credit for this theory, that would not be accurate, as it was refined through several arguments and counterarguments on the Marathon Story's Forum.

Nicolas "Grasshopper" <rowland@europe.com> posted an interesting theory on the Story Forum. It concerns Bernard Strauss and his possible role in Durandal's rampancy. While some parts of this theory have been previously put forward in sections such as Durandal(part 1) and (part2) , Bernard Strauss, and The Chicken Term, this is the first time it have been suggested (on the Story page) that Strauss was using the Marathon as a "planetary sized network" to develop a Rampant AI. Grasshopper writes:

- that Strauss' mistreatment of Durandal on Mars consisted of "outside stimuli," and involved Strauss making Durandal feel "harrassed or threatened," with the ultimate aim of turning Durandal into a stable Rampant AI.

- That satisfied with his preliminary results, Strauss decided (or perhaps it was his plan all along) to test his experiment to the fullest degree. Indeed, Defend THIS!/2 states:

Theoretically, testing Rampancy should be easily accomplished in the laboratory, but in fact it has never successfully been attempted. The confinement of the laboratory makes it impossible for the developing Rampant AI to survive. As the growing recursive programs expand with exponential vivacity, any limitation negatively hampers growth. Since Rampant AIs need a planetary sized network of computers in order to grow, it is not feasible to expect anyone to sacrifice a world-web just to test a theory.

Sacrificing a world-web would be out of the question, but how about a planet-sized spaceship, and a few thousand colonists?

- that Strauss was responsible for the presence of the ten Military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs. Strauss' log states:

it [the Marathon] carried also all of the destructive knowledge of mankind. Ten cyborgs.

Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones... (Terminal 2)

And also Leela,

I do not believe Durandal himself brought the cyborgs on board, and I have other evidence that a human operator was influencing Durandal up to the time the Marathon was launched.

Ingue Ferroque (Terminal 3)

- that the reason for the presence of these ten Cyborgs was for Strauss protection in case the experiment went wrong.

Of course the Marathon wasn't planetary sized... more a small moon, but it may have been large enough for Strauss' experiment with Durandal.

On the Story Forum today Nicolas "Grasshopper" <rowland@europe.com> ties to together pieces of the Marathon story into a very plausible theory on Bernard Strauss' real mission to Tau Ceti and his role in Durandal's rampancy:

As I've pointed out in a previous post on another thread, I think it's extremely unlikely that Strauss would have gone in stasis, i.e., been at the mercy of, a Rampant AI.

Nevertheless, those multiple aforementioned references to Strauss' mistreatment of Durandal cannot go unnoticed. They happened, and they happened for a reason. The only logical explanation for this mistreatment, at least based on the Defend THIS!/2 term, is to achieve stable Rampancy.

So I would therefore propose the following. (I can use text to support my argument upon request, but since it's late, I'll just paraphrase)

Strauss, while in Mars, conducted experiments upon Durandal trying to achieve in-lab Rampancy.

Satisfied with his preliminary results, Strauss then erased ("purged") those files or that section of Durandal's neural architecture, perhaps resulting in a complete re-boot, with the aim of replicating those same experiments upon arrival at Tau Ceti. (Leela : "I've evidence that files were deleted" on the last Ingue Ferroque term, Durandal "I've twice been purged.")

Upon arrival at Tau Ceti, Strauss either replicated some of those experiments causing full blown Rampancy, or Durandal, perhaps during the Despair/Melancholy stage of Rampancy somehow got access to those files. (Durandal, you'll recall, at some point boasts about hiding his Rampant state vis-a-vis Strauss.)

So Grasshopper helps to tie together Durandal's 1st purging, his lost records pertaining to the his early pre-launch period, Strauss' abuse and Durandal's shame on Mars. The Marathon had 21 years at Tau Ceti before the Pfhor came. Plenty of time for another Rampancy experiment. :-)

James Graham <jrg@world.std.com> makes this interesting discovery:

i thought i'd pass along this little tidbit which relates to bernard strauss.

on your page, http://marathon.bungie.org/story/strauss.html, there is a long excerpt from James B. Miller, 2320 [seven again! aiieeee!], "Life and Death of Intelligence." i thought you might find the following interesting (taken from http://www.uia.org/uiadocs/mathbom.htm):

"But it would seem that no theologian has explored the manner in which the theological arguments of the major religions are enriched and exemplified by the complexities of modern geometry, such as to open up windows through which alternative perspectives could be simultaneously valid. Although a recent paper by James B Miller (1998), aims "to demonstrate how the use of mathematics as metaphor can be of heuristic value in an effort to understand a theological concept which often seems paradoxical when described in ordinary or traditional language". Both theologians and mathematicians have their respective difficulties with the three-body problem. But why is it left to mathematicians to appreciate the transcendent implications of their work? As with P Gordon, on being exposed to Hilbert's work in variant theory: "This is not mathematics, it is theology" [Quoted in P. Davis and R. Hersh The Mathematical Experience, Boston: BirkhŠuser, 1981.]"

Miller, James B.. From the Garden to Gauss: Mathematics as theological metaphor (Paper presented at the 7th European Conference on Science and Theology, March 31-April 4, 1998, Durham, England) (http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/dbsr/RESOURCE/miller/GAUSS4.htm)

the above link is out of date, the correct one is here:

http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/RESOURCE/miller/GAUSS4.htm

i'm still trying to find out what miller was doing earlier than '98 that might have influenced the marathon story...

james
ps i was the one who started the cthulhu mythos thread back during the beta testing of infinity...
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