: Wasn't ancient technological conservatism based on reverence for the
: Forerunner gods? In 343's Halo we aren't Forerunners or gods. Our Internet
: could be fair game - not covered by old religious restrictions. It
: wouldn't be sacrilege to use discussion forums to recruit or spread
: influence.

I believe it was just because they viewed human technology as "unclean". Same reason they refused to use human weapons.

: I suspect that most religions would adapt to encountering ETs. It's either
: that or become a backwater religion. Early Christians converted a Jew only
: religion into an anyone can join religion.

True, but I could see there being some friction at first. After all, for the last 30 years these have been incomprehensible alien monsters whose only goal, as far as the average human citizen knew, was to wipe out every human being in existence. If their actual actions didn't damn them enough, UNSC war propaganda would've in all likelihood demonized the Covenant beyond all belief. Just look at WWII cartoons of the Nazis. And everyone 30 and under in the post-war era has grown up knowing nothing but that image of the Covenant. I could see many religious groups actually branding the Covenant as instruments of the devil. So I can't see it being very easy to accept them as people, much less members of your community, even with the conscious knowledge that one's species isn't the same thing as their political affiliation.

Cultural exchange and simple interaction between the different species would obviously help in that regard, and I think more Covies frequenting the space internet would "humanize" them in the eyes of a lot of people. As would more media exposure. Could there be TV shows or movies with a multi-species cast? Like a sitcom where a guy has a Grunt for a roommate? Or a buddy cop movie starring a human and an Elite? Or is it still too soon from the war for that kind of thing?

I could see Grunts and Jackals being the most likely to sign up for acting jobs in human productions. A lot of Elites might have some "MUH HONOR"-related issues with that sort of thing, but you never know with them.

: Especially as they don't have total control over the outer colonies. Do they
: have a monopoly on FTL comms?

Good question. What kind of infrastructure is needed to maintain the network? Who maintains it? If the tech has spread to the private sector there really isn't anything stopping any number of telecommunications companies from spreading it outside human space. Unless the aliens don't want it in their turf. But the Sangheili don't even have a single government. The Arbiter's alliance is the closest thing to one. Would he have a reason to deny a human company from setting up a comm node in the Sangheili home system? If not there, then any number of the Sangheili colonies that are out there.

: Yes, who wants to use the Internet if Cortana is listening (we don't know if
: Guardian EMP blackouts are going to last forever).

Mostly it's just that the threat of Cortana's giant mecha birds will make trivial every concern beyond common survival. There's really little room to explore the mechanics of these things when everyone's preoccupied with fighting for their lives.