posted
Technically, everything is synthetic, it's just that it's all been purpose designed, probably at the molecular level. So the organic material itself is all but indistinguishable from the real thing but the brain itself is "wired" differently and with more purpose rather than being the result of natural selection. After all, nerve tissue is essentially a conductive material for electrical impulses and as for the ability to download, I imagine the total conductive surface area of the entire body could probably serve as an antenna, it's just a matter of software. As far as projection goes, again, it's software and any human can do it as any person who works in a psychiatric ward can attest. Again, the difference is that the Cylons can direct the potential of the organic "hardware" with purpose.
quote:Originally posted by Fabrux: So basically the Cylons are maximizing the potential of a human body. Hmm.
Certainly sounds like the thinking of a machine to me.
quote:Originally posted by Omega: So as we are, they once were, and as they are, we may one day become?
Well if you think about it, once the models gain the ability to breed then you're going to get a more diverse gene pool an over the course of millennia, imperfections and slight random mutation might dilute some of that machine efficiency.
quote:Originally posted by Guardian 2000: 4. Someone asked how Earth Cylons could look so much like Colonial ones. I'll hop in my Hummer and go check.
I thought the helmet looked a lot like the concepts that were done for the DeSanto/Singer production.
Registered: Jul 2002
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
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posted
I was really sad about Dee. I liked her character. It was well done though and very realistic for someone important to do that. I mean it makes us feel a bit of the impact the other characters would. It was also done well the way she went on a date with Lee first and was talking about holding onto that feeling for as long as she could. And the final shot of her face reflected in the pool of her own blood was good art.
In the early series (or the miniseries, can't remember) they talked about Cylons having 'something' pathways...I think it had the word 'silicon' in it. I took that to mean that either the Cylon's neural systems or their entire bodies were silicon-based. I figured maybe they were made of cells, even, nanoengineered to make organs and tissues that are similar to human organs and tissues. However, if their whole body was silicon-based, it should be easy as pie to detect them - burn some of their blood or skin or something in a mass spectrometer. (Of course if it's their neural system you could do the same with a bit of nerve; or if it's just their brain, you could pinch a bit out of their skull to test. Not very nice, but during the height of the "Cylons in the fleet" hysteria you'd think they would have at least talked about it.)
Also, the Cylons interface with their ships through emitting and receiving light through their skin, right? Putting their hands in those data pools or whatever? I thought when they jammed Colonial cables into their wounds, they were fiber optic cables and they were doing the same thing...but...you know...for some reason not with their skin. Maybe they have bioluminecense (I can't spell that word) proteins in their blood
Edit: From the interview with RDM:
quote:One place my mind instantly went, on a fan-trivia level, was to that opera house vision that D’Anna has. She says to one of the Final Five, something like, “I’m sorry, I had no idea.” Did she say that to Ellen?
I think the intention of that -- we had a conversation about that in the writers room -- [once it had been decided that Ellen was a Cylon] the intention was that [the one D’Anna spoke to] was Ellen. When we wrote the line, we didn’t have a clear intention, but later, when we’d decided [on all the Cylons], I think the feeling was, that was Ellen.
I was hoping for something cooler because of that line
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I just wish people would learn to take a page from JMS on writing arcs instead of making this stuff up as they go along...
Likewise I was floored by Dee's suicide. That made me sit up and stay awake the rest of the episode. I've been reading on TrekBBS how many said they saw it coming. I didn't.
What I am wondering is why aren't the Cylon models numbered sequentially? If our conclusions are correct and the final five are older than the rest of the models, then shouldn't these five be numbered 1-5 and the rest numbered after them?
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
The numbers may be meaningless. Maybe the seven models picked their own numbers, or rolled dice, or used some heuristic based on their personalities. Maybe they weren't aware of the existence of the other five until the seven were already numbered.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yeah, I wouldn't read too much into the numbers, it's Galactica, not "The Da Vinci Code". A while ago I tried lining up each of the 12 Cylons to represent each of the 12 Lords of Kobol/Olympian Gods AND a sign of the Zodiac that represents the colonies, to little avail. Though ironically I did place Tigh as Cronus and left Hera as the final Cylon, whomever that would be. Since it's Ellen I think there's something appropriately messed up about that pairing.
Getting back to the 13th tribe; after having another look at the [url=http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Timeline (RDM)]timeline[/url] it seams increasingly likely that it was in fact the Lords of Kobol who bombed Earth out of existence since it happened at the same time that the other 12 tribes were leaving Kobol for the first time, amidst a schism between the Gods themselves. Still, a part of me likes to think that colonial history has been skewed and that Earth is the origin of humanity and Kobol is the colony. Perhaps at some point all the humans on Earth died off, leaving behind only Cylons or Cylons from Kobol (either exiled or escapees) later recolonised the deserted world only to get nuked out of existence by Kobol, which had by then come to believe itself superior in some way. The fact that the so called Gods were mortal (Athena topped herself) points to the "Lords" being actual humans, descended from Earth and the "human followers" that were the Colonial's ancestors are a more refined/easier to control form of Cylon. It actually makes more and more sense that this is all taking place in our distant future when you factor in the use of the Roman alphabet and Arabic numerals, the vehicles, weapons (including flit-locks) as well as the co-existence of the Roman and Greek words and names. It's as if the "Gods" patterned their Kobol civilisation after ancient mythology, setting themselves up as Gods with the intent of keeping control of their slave population.
posted
Think Frankenstein and Pinocchio. Frankenstein respresents humanity, creating new life but being ultimately destroyed by it; Pinocchio is that new life, wanting to be human (Data is of course the archetypal SF Pinocchio). The Cylons are simultaneously Frankenstein's monster and Pinocchio, wanting to be human and replacing the original humans in the process. And once they are to all intents and purposes human, they start to make the same mistakes, forget the past (and fail to learn from its mistakes) and the cycle begins again. . .
The Twelve Colonies represent a few human survivors, presumably via Kobol. They too forget the past and set off down the same path as their forebears (experimenting with AI and downloaded human personalities, if what we know of the prequel show Caprica is correct) and soon re-create their own Cylons. The survival of any original humans at all may have been intentional - like the Architect's requirement for Neo to choose a handful of humans to begin the cycle of Matrix and Zion again.
And, just as there were original humans to begin the cycle of humanity-to-Cylon again, so too were there a few Cylon survivors of the previous iteration, who presumably are there to try to break the cycle - the Final Five.
So, to really hypothesize here, how about this: perhaps the Final Five weren't the only original-Cylon survivors. Perhaps more survived, hidden among the humans all the time, trying to perpetuate the cycle - but this time "get it right." "All this has happened before, and will happen again" say the Significant Seven, and they have their Plan (which seems to have been largely derailed by events). In this theory, the "Head" characters become the Architect in our Matrix analogy. And/or Cavil who seems to occupy a position of seniority among the Seven and is most fanatical about the Plan.
posted
The Cylons seem more and more like their bodies are human with modifications, more than machines that look like humans. I'm wondering if (at least some of) the humans on Earth didn't eventually make themselves into the advanced humans we now call Cylons, and used their abilities (esp. immortality) to lord it over the other humans. If not for the Cylon rebellion, it might have gone the same way on the colonies. Which raises the question, what caused the Cylon rebellion in the first place? Perhaps that in itself was an attempt by the Five or the Harveys to break the cycle and prevent immortal humans from developing and causing a societal schism? One that was only partly successful, obviously, as that's effectively what's happened anyway.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Hrmm. It's all very confusing but wonderful. I do object to ANY parallels to JMS&B5/The Matrix or anything else. This series outshines them all.
Way back in Season 2 when we first met Ellen - I thought she might have been a cylon - but that was a LONG time ago - and before we knew of the 7. It was just that they had her as a very similar sexed up blonde to 6. Only an older version. I obviously dismissed this early on. Even up till today when reading the thread on the previous episode and someone saying that Ellen was the 5th cylon. I was like - hmm - but nahh.
So it was still a shock at the end of the episode.
Dee's death was a major shock.
As to what is going on.
As to who made what etc. etc.
I don't plan on guessing. There's no point.
There are so many questions. One that no one has asked here - why or how do the Hybrids know the future?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
I think that's down to a combination of "all this has happened before and will happen again" and being privy to parts of a master plan that we the viewer, the humans, and even most of the Cylons aren't privy to.
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