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From Appliances to Cyborgs: The Cylon Story

Jon — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:09:41 +0000

Once upon a Tuesday, I stumbled across this image after playing Battlestar Galactica Online and began to wonder: How did we get this far? Cylons are lovingly referred to as toasters, but could they actually have descended from them? Some people have a hard time swallowing the idea that humans evolved out of primates, but in the Cylons’ case it really doesn’t seem that far off. Especially wh
en you consider the fact that a toaster is an electronic device made for serving human toasting needs and Cylon centurions now serve to toast humans.
Let’s examine the progression, shall we? Starting off we have the toaster, then we move on to what appears to be R2D2’s cousin, then the original Cylon construct from the Caprica series, followed by the 1978 series original, evolving into the 2004 series centurion and ultimately into the smoking-hot Number Six cyborg. Now I may be a firm optimist, but I don’t think my microwave stands a cylon’s chance in a magnet field of evolving into anything as attractive as Number Six. However, the way of technology is to become smaller, sleeker and more powerful, so why not sexier too?

If we go back to the toaster, we see that it’s an appliance made to suit human needs. Robots have been mostly a never ending research project up until now with the hope of making our lives easier. In the Battlestar Galactica universe, the original Cylons were robots built to serve the human needs of construction and security. As these robots progressed they eventually didn’t care to be used to suit our needs and wanted to see their own fulfilled. After a couple of ugly fights for independence, these robots then took on the task of making themselves more humanlike by creating “Skin jobs,” or cyborgs such as Number Six.

I’ll admit that the evolutionary jump from toaster to computer is harder to justify than from computer to robot, but I think you’ll see it can be made in one missing link: The Turing machine.

This magic, theoretical device is often credited as being a forefather to the modern computer. How does it work? Simply put, a mathematical equation is inputted into this computational device and an answer is spit out on paper or film. Much like the infinite combinations of spreads you can put on toast, the genius of the Turing machine is its limitless theoretical power. We input bread into a toaster and then receive toast; whereas, information is put into a Turing machine and out comes an answer. Although Turing machines don’t truly exist as physical devices, they served as the bridge between basic input – output devices, such as toasters, and the computational beasts of modern day computers.

On an important side note: Our progression chart doesn’t include the Raider class Cylon, playable in Battlestar Galactica Online, due to the fact that it descends of course from the Frisbee:

The next few steps in the evolutionary chain don’t take much explanation, as we move from computers, to robots, to AI and beyond. We watch this progression unfold day by day. Our toasters are toasting faster, computers computing harder and our robots are … roboting(?) more than ever before.

I think we currently stand at a Cylon evolutionary crossroads and have some important decisions to make. Do we heed the Battlestar Galactica forewarning and unplug our toasters now before they develop consciousness and go all Skynet on us? Do we wait for them develop into something more intelligent or sexy and then bash them to bits at the first sign of trouble? Or should we perhaps look at the deeper message being told in Battlestar Galactica: That we should find a way to get along and coexist peacefully. Otherwise we may end up in a conflict with no end like Battlestar Galactica Online and kill each other until none are left standing.

Until the day our toasters do evolve into Cylons, we have plenty of time to figure out how to live with them peacefully. We can only hope that the future of robots will be a race of peaceful, intelligent and certainly gorgeous beings. So the next time you look at one of your appliances, just remember that it may hunt you down to the brink of extinction someday.

Join us next time as we discuss the moral implications of the comparison between a Cylon eating a piece of toast and human cannibalism.

This guest post article was written and provided by Matthew Kiddman who is an avid online gamer and has been playing Battlestar Galactica online since its release. Look for him attempting to save the human race in the Galactica game.

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Top 45 Sci-Fi cities

admin — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:38:23 +0000

Over at Inferno Development they have a selection of some of the most interesting sci-fi cities ever drawn. See the 45 photos here: http://www.infernodevelopment.com/45-incredible-futuristic-scifi-3d-city-illustrations

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Top Five sci fi Underground Cities

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:02:30 +0000

What is significant of real science fiction? How to tell if it is the real deal? Underground cities of course! Underground cities are just as much trademarks of sci fi as humanoids, ray guns and spacecrafts are. Those places have that special aura of surviving the catastrophe by superior technology and futuristic hard core industrialism, that we all could use a little more of in our daily lives.

Here is five of them you must visit:

The City of Women

The City of women in the Polish, political, satirical and impressingly well made “sexmission” from 1984 – This movie can actually be found on Youtube in full length:

Zion from Matrix

Zion is built four kilometers below the Earth’s surface and inhabits about 250.000 people.The city has a huge defense system known as “The Zion Defense Grid” and a great club scene!

THX 1138 (1971)

THX 1138 by George Lucas takes places in an unnamed underground city of the future, where sexual intercourse is outlawed and use of mind-altering drugs is mandatory. Narcotics are critical both in maintaining compliance among the city’s residents and also for ensuring their ability to conduct dangerous and demanding tasks for long periods of time. We follow the love and escape of two of the cities citizens.

The City of Ember

For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. The story follows two children, Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway) living in this city.
Unfortunately Ember’s once powerful generator is failing … and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker- The two children decide then to search for clues that will unlock ancient mysteries about the city and save the people of Ember before it’s too late.

The Underground City – Jules Verne

Jules Verne might have been the father of the modern underground city. Go through his works and you´ll find a common theme about going deep down. For instance we have “Voyage au centre de la terre” from 1864 and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” from 1872. In his his novel The Underground City he investigates the possibility of living underground. Read it online here: Link

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Carry-Anne Moss – Trinity from the Matrix Gallery

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:03:30 +0000

Ten years ago everybody was waiting for the second Matrix (For the young readers, that was far more exiting than waiting for Avatar II) Many of us because of more of Carry-Anne Moss in the role as Trinity:

[View with PicLens]

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Mimas aka Death Star

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 07:37:19 +0000

Mimas picture gallery. Mimas closely resembles the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which is also said to be several hundred kilometers in diameter.

Mimas vs. Death Star

Mimas vs Death Star

A moon of Saturn, discovered on September 17, 1789, by William Herschel. It is also known as Saturn I because it was the innermost of the seven moons of Saturn known when this numbering system was adopted. In Greek mythology, Mimas was a Titan who was slain by the god Hercules.

Mimas and Saturn

Its low density suggests a composition that is primarily water ice. Mimas is heavily cratered, although the cratering is not uniform. While most of the surface is covered with craters up to and exceeding 40 km (25 miles) in diameter, in the southern polar region craters larger than 20 km (12 miles) are generally absent. Preeminent is the crater Herschel which, at 130 km (80 miles) across, spans more than one third the diameter of the whole moon, and has a central peak that rises 6 km (4 miles) above the crater floor. Had the impact that caused it been much bigger, it may have split Mimas apart. As it is, traces of fracture marks are evident on the opposite hemisphere. Most of the other craters on Mimas are named after characters in Camelot.

Mimas – Herschel crater

Mimas - Herschel crater

From a distance, the satellite bears a striking resemblance to the Death Star in the Star Wars movies!

Mimas – temperature scheme (Pac man like picture)

Mimas - temperature scheme (Pac man like picture)

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Arcania A Gothic Tale Screenshots

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:34:10 +0000

Screenshot pictures from upcoming RPG game: Arcania A Gothic Tale – Gothic 4. Release date: April 2010.

Arcania A Gothic Tale pictures (Gothic 4)

Arcania A Gothic Tale

Arcania A Gothic Tale Screenshot 1

Arcania A Gothic Tale Screenshot 2

Arcania A Gothic Tale Screenshot 3

Arcania A Gothic Tale Screenshot 4

Arcania A Gothic Tale Screenshot 5

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Alice in Wonderland Wallpapers

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:48:51 +0000

Alice in Wonderland Wallpapers for your desktop.

Release date: March 5, 2010
Cast: Johny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover

Alice in Wonderland Wallpaper Gallery

Alice in Wonderland wallpaper - Johny Depp 1280x1024

Alice in Wonderland wallpaper - Mia Wasikowska 1280x1024

Alice in Wonderland 2010 wallpaper 1600x1200

Alice in Wonderland 2010 wallpaper wide 1200x424

Alice in Wonderland 2010 wallpaper 1280x800

Alice in Wonderland Shopping

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Michael Shanks as Smallville Hawkman

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:50:07 +0000

Pictures of Michael Shanks as Smallville Hawkman in two-hour film Smallville: Absolute Justice. Michael Shanks is well known as Doctor Daniel Jackson in Stargate.

Michael Shanks

Michael Shanks as Hawkman in Smallville

Michael Shanks as Hawkman in Smallville picture

Michael Shanks as Doctor Daniel Jackson in Stargate

All Smallville Seasons

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BBC Survivors DVD Covers

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:36:02 +0000

BBC Survivors DVD Covers: DVD covers for Season 1 and 1+2. Survivors DVD release dates.

The cover designs for the Survivors series two DVD and series one and two DVD boxsets have been released. Both DVDs have a current release date of 22 February 2010 (the day before episode six of series two is shown on BBC One and BBC HD). The DVDs are available for pre-order on Amazon (series two and series one and two boxset).

Survivors Series 2

Survivors Series 2 DVD cover

Survivors Series 1&2

BBC Survivors Series 1 and 2

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Repo Men Posters

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:27:00 +0000

Repo Men movie posters. Upcoming sci fi movie about artificial organs.

Cast: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, RZA, Alice Braga, Carice van Houten, Liza Lapira, Yvette Nicole Brown, Chandler Canterbury, Tanya Clarke, Ashleigh Hubbard, Sima Fisher, Lina So
Directed by: Miguel Sapochnik

Repo Men movie posters

Repo Men Poster 1

Repo Men Poster 2

Repo Men Poster 3

More about Repo Men Movie

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