: Personally, I think that the Flood, the way it is created, the way its
: intelligence is organized, and the way it propagates, would give rise to a
: way of thinking alien to our own. Perhaps there's some genetically coded
: software that lets them communicate with us once they've attained the
: intelligence to run it. Maybe each individual Central Intelligence has to
: learn for itself.

It's interesting, because the Flood is actually closer, intellectually, to the human-made AIs than to the minds of actual sentients. "Stolen thoughts and memories" I believe was Cortana's quote in Halo 3. Sounds a lot like the Flood to me.

That's still why I find Karen Traviss' short story Human Weakness to be such a fascinating examination of the two most unique intellects that exist in the Halo universe. It's literally pitting them against each other. But I think the whole point of that story is that while the Flood is capable of stealing all the same memories that an AI is based on, it doesn't comprehend and understand the emotions and the feelings of being alive the same way an AI does. An AI holds on to more than the Flood does, because the Flood only finds a limited range of experiences worth holding on to. So I don't think the Flood don't understand because they've reached a more complex, "alien" level of thinking. I think they don't understand just because they don't bother to. They don't bother to see our insignificant thoughts and emotions as important. Which, ultimately, is how humanity can defeat them. Through our "human weakness".