The Adolescence of Sentience
Isn’t it interesting that after the little speech about the first act of Cylon on Cylon violence that we see an act of the same kind of violence from an Aaron by shooting Caprica Six in the head?
Taking that a bit further I wonder if since they know that they will be returned to life good as new if killing another cylon will become social comment or the expression of frustration to them much the same way flipping the bird to someone does for humans today? A bit extreme but perhaps not so far fetched. That shooting struck me asan act reminiscent of a teenager confronted with an issue that doesn’t allow him/her their own way.
Perhaps the cylon while dealing with these “new feelings” such as love and hatemake themby definition morehuman, as Audrapointed outearlier in the blog. I am inclined to think they are already more like us than they know. They obviously suffer from some of the same emotions that make us human.
The things the cylonseem to bestruggling withare theage-old questions; the same questions that any sentient life form wants to know. Who am I, where did I come from and why am I here? Thesequestions drive us to know ourselves and the cosmos in which we live.
The cylondo many of the same things we do to try and justify our existence. They try to make their mark on the universe and try to create meaning and order from things they don’t fully understand. When confronted with a situation that they don’t have the answer to they simply adapt an answer that is close and use it. Like Brother Cavil said “we didn’t have a path, so we hi-jacked yours.”
Personally I think the cylon are in the adolescence of their sentience and are looking to find their purpose and place in the universe. However, like much of our own adolescent reasoning they have a few key points wrong – like the extermination of the human race will somehow define who they are. The answer is perhaps not to kill your parents but to know who they are to better understand yourself.
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On this cylon on cylon violence thing. We all know that Cylons feel pain. This was evident in the six model on pegasus. She was tortured, raped and obviously broken emotionally and physically damaged. This means that they must feel pain in one way or another. When Caprica 6 was shot in the head, did she feel pain? When Caprica 6 bashed in deannas head, did she feel pain(deanna)? If so this opens a whole can of worms. If they do feel pain, would this instill a fear of dying? Even though they are reborn, would they fear the pain of death? When 6 was being torutred on pegasus, she asked to be killed. Obviously she was in pain. So, this pain would in theory affect the way Cylons, at least the flesh ones, would act in battle. They must be able to fear the pain of being shot, wounded and eventually killed. When Caprica 6 is downloaded and wakes uop after being shot in the head, would she say “Ouch that hurt, I am gonna get revenge on Doral for shooting me”. If so then would Cylons distrust each other, or even turn on each other in fear of the pain of dying? Also when Roslin sent Leobin ut the airlock, maybe his fear wasn’t of dying and being too far to download. Maybe his fear was of not dying, but simply spending eternity floating in limbo in space. Do human cylons die in space without air? If not, then wouldn’t he spend eternity floating and wishing he were dead and downloaded? That would scare me.
Great point Jay! Yeah the perpetual floating and wishing you were dead is I think akin the the whole boxing thing. You exist but you are stuck in limbo…gives me the shudders to think about. Great insight sir!