I saw the pilot for the new Battlestar Galactica series and only a couple of episodes since, so maybe this has already been explained; but I haven’t found an explanation in any of the BSG discussion threads.
In the new series, the Cylons have created a new generation of Cylons who look just like humans. This allows them to plant deep-cover spies and saboteurs in the human population. (It also allows the writers to inject an atmosphere of paranoia – the more so as the human-form Cylons can be programmed to think they are human, and some have been.) These Cylons are not simply a metallic robot sheathed in flesh, like a Terminator; they are organic all the way through. They’re such good imitations that the humans have been challenged to come up with a reliable method of detecting them.
So – in what sense are they not human? If you looked at their blood or tissue under a microscope, would you see cells, with DNA in the nuclei? Presumably, or it would be too easy to detect them. So what’s the difference? Do they have silicon-based computers instead of neuronal brains? Probably not, same reason. But then, if their brains are the same as yours or mine – how do the Cylons control them? Are they simply human clones with conditioned personalities? We know they’re capable of sex with humans – but are they capable of getting pregnant by a human, or getting a human pregnant? If so, what is the child? Human or Cylon?
Well, it should be first stated that the questions you ask are good ones, and some are intentionally left vague by the show, as part of the whole storyline is just how human these cylons really turn out to be…sometimes to their own dismay.
Biologically it is unclear what the differences exactly are but cells do seem to appear human until they die and undergo some sort of process with the dead tissue. We are not really ever told how this new “cylon detector” actually works, other than it is appearantly extremely complicated as it takes about 3 hours to process one sample and requires a powerful nuclear source to process (Balter supposedly uses a nuclear missle).
Ancedotally there are more differences. There are indications that they do have the ability to communicate with their leader or “god” as six does in the mini-series. Whether they can communicate with one another is not clear, but certainly possible. They are also much stronger than humans, and have the ability to “turn off” elements such as fatigue, pain, and hunger, although they also do have the ability to experience these things as well. Maybe their most important ability is that they can upload into a new body upon the destruction of their existing one.
They are certainly more than just human clones that have been conditioned, although in the case of the sleepers, they do certainly sometimes do clearly seem to have conditioned responses. This is just a necessity of their " deep cover" nature. It is also important to note that they may well be engineered from scratch, as opposed to being “clones” of existing humans. If this was the case it seems likely there would be more than just 12 models, and that they could just clone and replace people as necessary. Also as pointed out above while hard to detect, they are not merely physically human.
As for the question of mating, that is a difficult question which the show is starting to address now, and we will have to see how it plays out.
Example:
[spoilers]in the most recent episode caprica boomer starts experiencing “morning sickness” and seems to believe she is pregnant. They are going to be examining that over the next few episodes. Of course it could also be just a fantasy on her part as well, as she has appearantly fallen in love with Helio and is deviating from the cylon master plan[/spoilers]
The “humanity” of the cylons is clearly a big question being examined in the show. They clearly have a desire to be “more human” and human flaws are emerging, such as six’s penchant for sex and the all too human nature and “innocence” of the boomer models.
As for what would a child be, assume that it can happen? It would be a hybrid is my first guess, a bit of both, not truely either. It is also possible this is part of the cylon plan, but not clear yet.
The Cylons are actually a human creation, their prototype was the car we know as Kit. Kit rebelled against his creators when David Hasslehoff stopped playing any music other than his own recordings on his in-car stereo.
It is explained how these abilities are possible? Do the Cylons have radio transceivers implanted in their skulls? If so, how can they communicate with their leader without human communications techs detecting the signal? If you’re working with nothing but ordinary vertebrate flesh and bone, super strength really isn’t possible, no matter how you tweak the DNA. (We had a thread on this – http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=275033.) And if these Cylons have steel for bones and electric motors for muscles – again, that makes detection too easy. And how can they “upload” a personality that’s based in conventional human wetware? But if their brains are electronic computers, that should show up on an x-ray.
I just started watching this show and have the same questions. If cylons can have a hybrid baby, how are they not human? How can they be constructed? This show seems to completely ignore the science of biology and it is such a big hole I have problems suspending my disbelief. Science fiction really is supposed to have an element of scientific possibility in it…
Some physiological details, among the many left unstated or ambiguous:
Female’s spines glow during sex.
They have much higher tolerance for radiation than humans.
There is a kind of field that deteriorates them slowly while not affecting humans.
There is some synthetic (technobabble) detail of their blood that acts differently under a nuclear scan. It may or may not be related to the magic healing power of a hybrid baby’s blood.
Their minds can be transmitted across great (but finite) distances to be ported over into different (but identical) bodies for resurrection.
OTOH, based on my limited recall of the pilot/miniseries - wasn’t the Cylon guy susceptible to getting his brain scrambled by the magnetic field of the gas giant, or something like that? While humans were unaffected? That would suggest that their brain construction is magnetic on some level, more than electrochemical human brains.
(Forgive me if pilot stuff isn’t considered completely canon in BSG.)
I think the biggest difference is their minds. Their brains are probably indistinguishable from a human’s on a gross anatomical level, but their minds are organized differently. They’re A.I.s made of meat. That aside, it does seem as if the Cylons have gone to a great deal of trouble to try to make themselves humanoid.
My WAG about the Plan is this: the Cylons regard humans as hopelessly contaminated with original sin, irredeemable. They’re trying to replace humanity, to become the version of humanity that God originally wanted. But they could only produce twelve models of viable humanoid Cylon, and they can’t naturally reproduce or interbreed. (Do Cylons have sex with each other?) Their current hope is to try to crossbreed with humans enough to acquire viability but remain essentially Cylon.
I suppose the top thing I can think of that would fit in with the method of detecting them is age. They look adult, but are likely not actually the age they appear to be. That seems like something a 3-hour test could determine (total WAG, as I know nothing about biology).
How can they breed with humans if they are constructed? Why couldn’t they breed with each other if they can breed with humans? I mean you have to be pretty closely related as a species to be able to have viable offspring. Unless their gametes are human I don’t see how any of this can work in a hybrid.
It’s a pretty big leap from constructing a machine to constructing a biological organism. Biological organisms evolve, they aren’t constructed molecule by molecule. Even genetic engineering works by cutting and pasting something that already exists.
I’m really surprised that people find any of this plausible. This was all supposed to happen in 50 years? Come on…I really hope there’s more to it than machines built something that looks like a human, is indistinguishable from a human in all important ways, and has magical mind teleportation properties - and contains DNA which is indistinguishable from human DNA.
Why would you reinvent the wheel from scratch? Remember Occam’s Razor? The simplest explanation: maybe they really are human.
The interest to me, at any rate, is from a darker viewpoint and the portrayal of Galactica as an analogue of a 1960’s aircraft carrier. It’s basically a 1960’s technology with faster than light drive.
I fear that the Cylons will be human, or the humans Cylon, making the years of conflict and the TV series unimportant; after all the time spent watching, it would fellate with great allacrity to end with, “Gosh, we are all the same, we can get along.”
The GSP ™ (Glowing Spine of Passion) was realised to be really dumb and abandoned. Regarding as who has sex with whom and how and why, I regard that as a plot concept. If I were going to worry about something, I’d worry about traveling faster than light. After that, I’d worry how a bunch of robots evolved into biological beings. They made the biological toasters, but how? How did some chrome dome type acqure the knowledge to begin experimenting with biology? It hurts to think about this too much, so I regard it as an interesting sci fi show and hope they don’t screw it up.
I may be way off base here but the humans aren’t from Earth are they? Did they ever talk about what Caprica or any of the 12 colonies were like? Could it be that their DNA and chemical makeup be different than ours? Maybe easier to duplicate?
One does wonder what Earth is like. Will they find (and lead the Cylons to) Earth in the early 21st century, defending intself with a space shuttle and some F-16s, or will Captain Sulu and the Excelsior kick Cylon ass once and for all?
If they find Earth, will that end the series on a high point, or will they keep going with those stupid flying motorcycles?
