Both terms were coined by CC Corp, so I don't think it matters. Vagrant AI and AIDA, when you break it down, really mean the same thing. Buzzwords like that are just cool.
Hm. I never took that into consideration. I still think it'd be interesting if there were different kinds of AI...
I totally agree. That would rule.
Thank you. I didn't know if that theory was a good one or not. I doubt that I'm correct, but I suppose it'd make good fan fiction material or something.
I agree with that as well. However, another thing I've noticed is that (playing Devil's Advocate) the Bracelet does sort've "evolve" from it's original parameters, unlike La Repth. It was intended for Data Drain and Data Drain only, but then we have Gate Hacking and Drain Heart and everything. Plus it is, in essence, a piece of Aura. I'm sure if conditions are made just right, it could become artificially intelligent. We do know that AI's can spontaniously generate from ordinary trash data.
I'm not sure if the other versions of Data Drain were programmed in not... Perhaps they were programmed in to be unlocked when the character's levels were high enough to take the infection rate brought on by the more advanced levels of Data Drain. According to the hidden extras in the fourth //Liminality disc, Gate Hacking was included in the Bracelet's programming by Aura, though. And I'm sort of torn on the "piece of Aura" thing. Is it enough of a piece of her to turn into an AI, or is it just an ability that she had, given to her by Harald like La Repth (to stick with my previous example) is given to a user by an item?
There are two problems with this. One, Cubia isn't a defense system at all. It's pretty much all the junk data Kite created with Data Draining. You people need to think for yourselves a bit more. Even IF he was a defense system, which he's not, Aura clearly doesn't want him around, so he would've been deleted immediately once she got the oppurtunity to do so. And even still, there's no guarantee he survived the destruction of the World R:1. This also applies to Aura, who's implied to either not be a part of this new World R:2, or to have been sealed or damaged or something.
Again, going to the hidden extras in the fourth //Liminality disc... Okay. For this, I'm booting up my PS2, writing down the exact words of the extras, and putting the main points in spolier tags (still don't know if they're needed or not...) to support my points. Please note that I'm working off of official information here.
"Morganna could anticipate human behavior and plan ahead. One example of this is Cubia, a monster designed to balance the game against hackers and edited character data."
It may be junk data from all of the DDing, but it is indeed a designed monster whose purpose is to... Well, if I quoted what I just posted, then there'd be no point in spoiler tags. But that certainly sounds like a defense system to me.
Do we have concrete proof that Aura doesn't want him around?
"Cubia was ment to seek out malicious players with illegal items and abilities like the Bracelet and Data Drain them, deleting their PC files. ...Once the Bracelet had became active, Cubia sought Kite whenever he came in contact with Aura because it believed Kite was a threat to the system, to which Aura belonged."
It sounds like a pretty good program, to me. Its soul purpose is to protect her and the system. I think that it may be a little extreme, but it did a good job, and something like that is needed in The World. Sure, there's reason to believe that Aura doesn't want him around, but there's also reason to believe that she may want to keep him around, as well.
Final quote from it...
"Cubia disappeared when Kite destroyed the Bracelet because the danger to the system was removed and its job was done. Cubia remains in the system, however, and should something new appear that threatens the game balance it will launch again."
So, according to that, it's still there. Aura may have deleted it, but she may not have. There's also the possibility that Morganna somehow made it extremely difficult to delete or impossible. I suppose there just isn't enough information provided to make concrete statements on the matter.
But, then again, I'm still playing by the old rules here. =)
If we factor in the fire that destroyed a lot of the old game... Then, yeesh, Cubia and Aura have a pretty bleak future. Although, I
highly doubt that Aura just disappears. She's such a huge factor in the .hack series.
Then again, they must both be located in the blackbox folder, and I'm not sure if even The World R:2 can function without that. If they spliced in enough of a new video game, then maybe... But I can't imagine .hack losing such a major component of its plot like that. Maybe there's a new version of Aura in R:2, but I doubt the Ultimate AI is gone completely.
(I don't know why, but I feel like I should mention this... Please note that Cubia made copies of Kite whenever it [Cubia] launched, so if Cubia survived, then copies of Kite's character data survived, as well. Is it possible that they may have merged? Maybe, but it's something to think about, along with that theory that Kite's actual data was also in the blackbox folder because it was protected. And, seeing as how Tri-Edge is more than likely Kite's old data in some way or form, we can almost assume that the blackbox folder survived and is in use in R:2.
As long as I'm here... I might as well add that it is mentioned once or twice that his party's data is protected, as well. (I think that Kite's is and so is Shuugo's in LotT. You could probably find where they say it.) This could also mean that everyone who ever formed a party with Kite had their character data transfered into the blackbox folder. It's unlikely, but a possibility.)
Cubia, however... Well, it's been mentioned that Tri-Edge may be Cubia or a new version of him, which is possible. If CC Corp didn't have such a large hand in creating R:2 (or at least as much as I think they did), I'd think that a new defense system would've been created, but now I'm not sure.
Hm. This is slightly frustrating. I feel like there's some things I left unsaid... We just don't have enough information to go off of in order to come to any conclusions about anything, including Tri-Edge. (Particularly, I'd like more info on the fire, what it destroyed, the construction of R:2, and maybe a little more information on coding and how games are made... But most of us would like all of that.)
That's all I've to say. Thank you to anyone who read this... And I also feel as if I got off-topic somehow. ^^; Sorry. I was just on a roll when I wrote this, and may I point out that people have gone off-topic in other threads in ways a lot more meaningless than I did. So, uhm, again, thanks for reading.