The BSG Origin story

Anyone who mentions both Battlestar Galactica and Vernor Vinge in the same post, gets a link... that is like a new rule... or something. Check out this post at Terminally Incoherent which wrestles with the idea of the Cylon God as a highly evolved AI:

I actually believe that Cylon God is an evolved AI which transcended beyond singularity.

If you are not familiar with Vernor Vinge's theory of Singularity here is a quick rundown. Vinge theorized that if it is at all possible AI which achieves self-awareness and human-like sentience then it would be possible to improve this AI by means of faster hardware, and better software algorithms, to the point that it is smarted, and quicker than any human could ever be. In other words we can possibly produce a superhuman intelligence which is in all ways superior to homo-sapiens intellect.

This superhuman AI can then use it's beefed up brain to further improve itself. We might not be able to figure our how to augment our super computer any more, but the super-smart, super-fast thinking AI can possibly figure out technological solutions we would have to spend years developing.

Hence, we have an AI which can actively self improve, figuring out new ways to construct better hardware, better software and squeeze out the most computational power from the available resources. This machine keeps improving, and soon enough it becomes so smart that we can no longer relate to it. In relation to it, we look like modern day chimps - while intelligent, inquisitive and resourcefully compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, they would never be able to comprehend intricacies of human science. Similarly, we would never be able to comprehend the super-intelligent, self-improving AI.

This is a crude explanation, so read Vinge's paper for a clearer explanation. The main point is - what happens when an AI becomes so smart, we cannot even comprehend the full extent of it's abilities? For all incenses and purposes it is like a god to us, so logical conclusion would be for humanity to worship this seemingly omnipresent, omnipotent, infallible god-like machine.

Read the entire post... for more information about the Super Cylon AI.

I have been trying to articulate my own origin story for the Cylons. I am not so sure it models an AI, but it might be similar in that the Cylon god is a generation of people who fully adopted technology to a point where they ceased being human and became the equivalent of an AI... or in Vinge's logic passed into the singularity. There were those that feared this conversion event from man to machine to pure consciousness and fled the technology seeking a more pure and human existence. Those were the people that settled Kobol.

Soon, their origin story and original drive to live a pure life was forgotten. As the generations passed, their descendants slowly evolved and relied on technology until they themselves reached a level of AI and augmentation. The singularity approached again in this new location and the people of Kobol were forced to flee once more in search of new planets to colonize... and the cycle would continue... hence the concept in the show of everything that has happened before will happen again.

Speaking of Cylon/Colonial origins, Dave Menendez has an interesting take in one of his posts:

So here’s my theory: Earth is older than Kobol. Maybe the thirteen tribes are descended from colonists who left Earth to live on Kobol. Then, when they had to leave, twelve of the tribes went to found new colonies and the thirteenth returned to Earth. That makes the Colonials our descendants, and sets the series in the future.

Read his entire theory

I have a feeling that understanding the origin story of Kobol and the Cylons will be key to understanding the Cylon plan.

UPDATE 9/2/2005 11:07 CST

Terminally Incoherent follows up this conversation with a new post recapping some comments and adding some new thoughts:

Of course it is hard to theorize about trans-singularity intelligences in general (because from definition, we are not able to comprehend them) but we can make some assumptions. The highest, most evolved intelligence would usually be a AI - human like psyche, may not be elastic enough to transcend singularity. To do go beyond singularity the intelligence must become truly un-human. So while "Cylon God" might have started as an enhanced human or baseline Cylon clone - he/she is now far beyond humanity - it is probably a disembodied, digitized, enhanced and self programming intellect. Once you ditch biological shell, upload yourself to some gigantic computational construct (like a Matrioshka Brain) and completely reprogram your cognitive processes can you be still considered human? Or are you an AI?

Read the entire post

Comments

[Jarisha]

My theories from an earlier comment were that the Lords of Kobol were not human and built 12 supercomputers which are the Human "gods". Humans were the Lords' servants (as the Cylons were created as servants for Humans). Just as the Cylons rebelled, the Humans also rebelled, destroying all but one supercomputer (thus gods vs. god).
The one "god" that remained has now built the human-like Cylons in order to destroy the Humans.
Just theories, but they sort of fits everything, including the cryptic "it's all happened before" comments sprinkled around.
There are still "Lords" living on Kobol (they're the ones that attacked Chief's rescue party). However, they are really, really poor shots, explaining why the Humans were able to escape so easily but not why there aren't billions of Cylons living there instead.
Therefore, I claim prior glory for the supercomputer idea. Theories. Love 'em or leave 'em. :)

[Paul]

I actually thought exactly along the lines of Dave Menendez with regards to Earth. However, it's also a hunch that I have that BSG takes place in the far future. That is, if and when they find Earth, it won't be the Earth of today. Rather, I think that humanity left Earth because of a great self-inflicted catastrophe and settled on Kobol, only to have history repeat itself. Humanity leaves Kobol, this time spreading themselves on the twelve planets of the colonies, but one tribe decides to go back to Earth.

In some ways, it reminds me of the "Memory of Earth" series by Orson Scott Card, where a group of humans led by an AI that was designed to watch over humanity travel back to the legendary Earth buried in 40 million years of myth, in order to help save their planet of Harmony from inevitable global destruction.

Also, with regard to the theory of singularity, I would say that Douglas Adams invented the concept way before Verner Vinge did. ;-) The chapter in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in which Adams describes a progressive series of super-ultra-powerful computers designing ever more powerful hyper-mondo-powerful computers that resulted ultimately in Deep Thought is hilarious, but the concept is essentially the same as singularity.

One other note. I read in a Scientific American article a few years back that discussed the exponential increase in computer power over the years. There was some interesting speculation there.
One was that they put out a number of 20 quadrillion calculations per second as good estimate of the computing power of the human brain (the most powerful supercomputer today does less than 1% of that, or 200 trillion calculations per second).

But the article showed what would happen if computing power would increase at the same rate it has been over the past 40 years. By 2020 or so, a desktop computer would be able to do 20 quadrillion calculations per second, matching the power of the human brain.

By 2060, that desktop computer would have more processing power than all the people alive on the planet today, or the computing power of 6 billion human brains.

Now, what would happen if scientists developed a true AI in that time? Can you imagine what it would be like, as a sentient, self-aware intelligence, to have the mental power of 6 billion human beings completely at your disposal? What could such a being think of humanity, with all its inefficiencies and tendency for self-destruction? Could any ordinary human comprehend what kind of mind such an intelligence would have?

Maybe that's the Cylon God....a self-aware artificial intelligence that has more mental capacity than all the billions of human beings of all the Twelve Colonies combined. No doubt its prediction and modeling algorithms would be so advanced and powerful that it's ability to forecast individual or group human behavior would border on the mystical....it would seem like prophecy to ordinary human beings.

[Trapper Markelz]

Paul - According to Wikipedia:

"Such consequences [the singularity] were discussed in the 1960s by I. J. Good, though the first use of the term singularity to describe technological progress was by John von Neumann in the 1950s. The Singularity was vastly popularized in the 1980s by Vernor Vinge. It is disputed when or if the Singularity will occur, but futurists most commonly estimate the third decade of the 21st century."

So you may be right that Douglas Adams wrote about the singularity in his book, but I don't think he invented it... it appears Vinge did not either.

Awesome comments though. I will have to check out "Memory of Earth" for sure.

[Paul]

Thanks for the info on von Neumann. I know that he was one of the greatest mathematicians in history and one of the pioneers of computer science (one of his favorite party tricks was multiplying and dividing some 20 digit numbers in his head) , so it's not surprising the idea of singularity would have been originated with him.

I'm surprised Wikipedia doesn't mention anything about Douglas Adams though. He wrote humorously, but considering how widely read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is, one would think there would be some reference to him regarding singularity. :-)

But there's something else from "The Memory of Earth" that may be applicable to BSG.

Called the "Oversoul", the AI of Harmony was created by settlers fleeing from the destruction of Earth to watch over humanity. These settlers genetically modified their decendents to be sensitive to the electromagnetic signals from the Oversoul. The idea was to influence human thought and behavior. For example, the Oversoul would limit technological development so that that things like global warfare would never be possible by making people have an aversion to certain ideas or simply making them forget. It would influence, but left basic free will intact.

The theory was that eventually, after 10,000 generations, violence would be bred out of humanity and the Oversoul would no longer be needed.

But 40 million years has passed and humanity was just as prone to violence as ever and the Oversoul is breaking down, unable to maintain itself. The people of Harmony have essentially worshiped the Oversoul as a god for millenia, although a host of different religions have also arisen. The Oversoul decides that eventually, it will completely break down. It calculates that humanity, once unchecked, will develop things like nuclear weapons within a millenia and once again, the world will be threatened by global destruction.

The Oversoul decides to gather a small group of the most capable human beings and help them return to Earth, where the "Keeper of the Earth" guards over the planet. If believes that the Keeper itself is a superior AI, one that would have the knowledge to initiate the necessary repairs to itself.

So here's the thought that I had. What if the Cylon god is like the Oversoul and it has uncovered some secret knowledge of Earth? But it determined the only way to reach Earth is with the help of humans. It decides that humanity, confortable with its existence on the 12 colonies, lacks the will or even the technology to make a dangerous journey to Earth. After all, human beings have imposed limitations on many technologies on themselves as a result of the Cylon Wars.

So it initiates a plan to destroy the home of humanity, forcing them to flee in a particular direction. It's probably a safe guess that the Cylons have allowed Galactica and the civilian fleet to escape or "win" on several occasions -- "The Hand of God" comes to mind, as well as Galactica Sharon being allowed to nuke the basestar at the end of season 1.

That would explain the purpose of the humanoid Cylons. Humans, being an unpredictable lot, need constant guidance when they stray off the path. So the humanoid Cylons are embedded within the fleet to apply "course corrections" and keep humanity moving in the right direction without their knowledge.

This idea also is similar to a great "Hyperion" sci-fi series by Dan Simmons. It's a great operatic series that involves religion, politics, and love, but it is ultimately about the ceaseless competition between a race of AIs and humanity.

Even among the AIs, there are greater and lesser AIs and what is unique in Hyperion series is that the AIs are basically parasitic in nature. That is, they compete ceaselessly with each other to become dominant - it is human politics to the milionth power as AIs subjugate, make alliances, and double-cross each other millions of times a second.

It's revealed at one point that Earth was destroyed when an experiment in Kiev to create artificial black holes went awry. Humanity was forced to flee to the stars. Everyone believes humanity lucked out, because the AIs of that time managed to discover the secret of faster-than-light travel. Eventually, instant teleportation is developed by the AIs, which offers the technology as yet another "gift" to humanity. One of the coolest descriptions was that of the River Styx, which appears to be a long contiguous river to the traveler, but is actually river segments located on 40 different worlds connected by portals at both ends of each segment.

But in fact, the AIs (some of which were used to control the Kiev experiment) had conceived of a plan to purposely destroy Earth and force humanity to flee from the homeworld and every gift of technology that is offered has a mind-numingly malevalent purpose. And humanity believes the whole time that it controls the AIs, like people control a dumb computer of today.

The plan is ultimately far more complex and sinister to adequately describe here. Let's theorize that there are "no aliens" in BSG. But what if there are other AIs like the Cylon god? What if the Cylon Ultimate AI discovers that there is another AI, perhaps more powerful than itself, back on Earth. And like the AIs in "Hyperion," maybe the only assessment that an AI can make of another AI is that "there can be only one."

So maybe it intends to take humanity to Earth to destroy the other AI, as human minds are not susceptible to inter-AI warfare. Remember how fast the firewalls in Galactica fell to the Cylon attack? Imagine a greater AI attacking the Cylons in the same fashion. Thus, the Cylons themselves cannot attack and destroy the other AI on Earth, but humans can do it in their stead...!