Mistress Monologues - Nina's Known Universe Blog

Next we meet Daniel Greystone and his wife Amanda playing tennis on their private court overlooking a magnificent Bay. As if the holographic environment we saw before was not impressive enough, they have a robotic butler who activates the courts auto referee and electronic line markers as well as notifying them when there is a call regarding their daughter Zoe.

Basically, RDM is showing us the eventual steps our own society will take as it fits into the BSGverse. We already have robotic things - vacuums, car builders and other more science and research based items not to mention the amount of remote controlled flying fighter planes being built by the military. The butler is programmed to guard the door but do you really want your friends to be able come over when you are not around? Of course Amanda Greystone was probably too distraught to think about being more specific instead of "stay as long as you like" which Serge stored as "free access".

Soon we will learn that Zoe Greystone is the 16 year old genius daughter of Daniel Greystone, the owner of a huge tech type firm with strong military applications. Her boyfriend Ben Stark reminds me of the born again Baltar - if Tory were his mother - and even refers to Zoe as being Perfect. He is the one that first introduced Zoe and her friend Lacey Rand to a singular God.

Zoe is your typical teenager in constant conflict with her parents. She gets busted for having her holoband at school. Basically a visor that you put on with your eyes closed to enter the various virtual worlds - like live 3D social websites. Created and manufactured by Zoe's fathers company. Of course the virtual world has been hacked and is nothing like the programs that the designer intended - at least not for teens.

We have similar websites now it is just animated instead of virtual but their is still killing and sex and all that stuff.

Zoe is also having a building named after her because daddy donated a bunch of money to some university and well she is a spoiled rich girl that wants to give it all up to go live among others that share her beliefs. She accuses her daddy of dirty science. A bit ironic when we learn what she has ultimately created.

Zoe's group uses the infinite symbol to access the virtual environment that is extremely real, not unlike Cylon projection.

Enter Zoe 2. She is a holographic copy of the real Zoe and will be the first Colonial Cylon. A hologram yes. But she is way more. Zoe the human was a genius and figured out how to share her experiences and feelings with her copy. The HoloZoe appears to exhibit human emotions reacting to different situations the way her human counterpart would.

Zoe tells the copy that she, the copy, is going to help bring about some changes in their society. The copy was clearly upset by all that she had witnessed in the holo world despite knowing it was not real and asked if it was like that on the outside. RealZoe tells her that it can be. But that these people are just asleep, following the leader. But HoloZoe said it was more, that they enjoyed the suffering, drew strength from it...In a way - HoloZoe would be along the lines of Hera in non corporeal form. At least in the sense of what she could mean to those that believe in the ONE.

Next we meet Joe Adams wife Shannon and daughter Tamara getting on the same train as Zoe and her 2 pals, Ben and Lacey. Mrs. Adams is talking to her husband on a Cell Phone but the service cuts out when they enter the Train station.

I truly love that. A society on the verge of AI with amazing holo tech and they still have sucky cell service. :D

Lacey panics at the last minute and decides not to get on the train. The Train looks like a long snake with a red stripe down the side and the underground tunnel is reminiscent of the future Viper and Launch Tube. Lacey, Zoe and Ben were planning to run away to Gemenon where their kind would be welcomed. Only Ben had other plans.

By the way, I just love the new laptop computers. A single sheet of paper - you can even fold it up. That is both thin and lightweight. Additionally it would seem that corners still exist at this time, doors, windows, books and paper, though some things are corner less, like the laptop paper, I saw more corners than not.

Uh oh. "The One True God shall drive out the many!" - so says Ben just before he blows himself and the train to bits. Along with Zoe Greystone, and young William Adams older sister Tamara and their mother.

Did I mention it was young Bill Adams 11th birthday. "Happy Birthday son, your mom and sister are dead." In case it is not clear, the Adama family we all know and love goes by Adams at this point in the story. I should also point out that Williams dead mother bore a resemblance to the future Laura Roslin. I guess boys really do fall in love with their mothers. ;)

2 weeks after the bombing...

A group known to police as the Soldiers of the One (STO)are reported as being responsible for the terrorist explosion on the Lev Train (Elevated Train). It will be determined forensically that it was Ben who was the bomber. Zoe's affiliation with him and his group will be brought into question. Of course Zoe didn't know what he was going to do. She had planned to move to Gemenon and other things which have not been revealed yet.

As I watch the different roles being played here, the actors they chose and the lines they gave them, I am struck with certain glaring similarities to the 12 known cylon models. Mind you this is a good 18 years before the Armistice. Before the 5 from Earth1 arrive to create the skin jobs in the first place.

So I wonder if it was on purpose by the writers to find actors that kinda look related to our cylons - or gave some characters glaring personalities so we can see the Human Archetypes that were used as a template for the 8 models built by the other 5. That is 13 total, I know. If you haven't watch the end of BSG you don't know there were actually 13 total cylon skins - 5 from old Earth and 8 from the Colonies. We never got to see model #7, coincidentally (or not) named Daniel.

The investigator into the bombing is a tall bald man whose demeanor reminds me of Doral. He has a semi fascist way of looking at the religious views of humanity with the monotheists being treated basically like communists were in this country back in the 50s. Ironic that a country founded on the concept of free speech would decide it is better to be dead than red, but I digress.

Apparently this organization know as the Soldiers of the One has been dormant for some 10 years. That number will come up a lot. After the investigation hearing, Joe Adams and Daniel Greystone meet. They go for coffee and through combined loss become, not friends really, but close enough for future events to be made possible.

Lacey, Zoe's friend, that didn't get on the train and lives still as a result, sits with the Head Mistress of the Athena Academy. This woman reminds me of Deanna in so many ways while Lacey reminds me of the Rebel BaseShip's Hybrid. (And the more I think of it the more Daniel Greystone reminds me of the First BaseShip Hybrid, that old man with the big nose and the stutter...again...again...again...)

Lacey tells the lady that Zoe was gifted, she could do things with a computer that were beyond amazing. The lady suggests to Lacey that if she knew of any work that Zoe was doing that Lacey should try to reconnect. I immediately got the vibe this woman knows more than Lacey does. So Lacey goes to Zoe's house and gets permission to hang in her room.

Meanwhile Joe and Daniel sit quietly over coffee.

An ashtray of cigarettes later, Joe starts to take his leave but Daniel is despondent. He then walks Joe out and offers him a lift. Joe declines but they make plans to go to a pyramid game together, Joe asks if his son could join too. That would be 11 year old William - our future Admiral Adama.

Lacey, who is now in Zoe's room, puts on Zoe's HoloBand and goes to visit the copy.

She finds her in her virtual room alone and traumatized. The HoloZoe seems to know something happened to real Zoe. Something terrible and just as Lacey steps closer, she sees that HoloZoe is covered in blood - Lacey screams the way I do when I see a spider crawling toward with hate in his eyes - it was delayed and unnecessary - but you just have to let it out or burst. ;)

HoloZoe has no idea where the blood came from but suggests that it may have come from the bombing freaking Lacey out completely. HoloZoe says human Zoe was working on a bio feedback protocol for HoloZoe to feel what Real Zoe felt in real time. HoloZoe says that it never quite worked right but something must have happened. Because now HoloZoe feels like she IS the real Zoe and even remembers her death.

Lacey is scared, calls it a thing and not real. HoloZoe says she was supposed to visit the real world but doesn't have to now because she "remembers it all like she was there". It is almost as if Human Zoe downloaded into her Holo self when she was killed - something that should not be possibly unless it were say - Gods Will. Being human but with all sorts of bio links to her Hologram and with a bit of Devine intervention tossed in to make it possible...

Lacey says she is just a thing that Zoe created - then the hologram says with tears in her eyes and a crackle in her voice, "I know I am not human, but I still FEEL human." Lacey hugs the hologram and promises to make it better. As Daniel Greystone walks in the real room, he over hears Lacey talking and making promises, meanwhile HoloZoe is no longer covered in blood.

Lacey runs out of the room but leaves the computer sheet on the desk. Daniel runs a huge firm similar to say Intel or Microsoft crossed with NASA, so he has the technology at his disposal to crack the code and hack into his daughters Holo program. He will tell Lacey later that is was the most sophisticated encryption he had run across ever - clearly proud of his daughters talents - despite her using them against him.

Joe Adams is in court defending a fellow Tauron. There is a very Old Sicilian feel to the Taurons and their affiliations while their names and terms have more of a Hispanic tone. I can already here the uproar over the various ethnic stereotypes throughout this show. Did I mention Bomber Ben was Mediterranean?

Turns out the Judge was bribed and Joe knew this so he is perhaps not the man of ethics that Lee Adama would become in his name 60 years later. And is perhaps the reason behind Romo Lampkins distaste for him as well. Who knows at this point.

A plot point comes up here where Joe's brother Sam wants him to do a favor for this Godfather type Guatrau, in exchange for their help in finding those responsible for the deaths of Joe's wife and daughter, along with many others on the train.

Joe is not interested. They have a heated discussion about how Caprican's haven't ever done anything for them and blood for blood is the Tauron way. Joe does not appear to believe in the Gods or those Tauron ways anymore, then takes his leave.

When at last we meet young Willy Adams. Aka Bill Adama. Joe and he are walking and having shaved ice. Joe is trying to get Willy interested in going to the Bucks game when Willy asks if he thinks his mom and Tamara still feel the pain of death where ever they are. Joe doesn't answer. There is a distance between them similar I think to that between adult Bill and his own son Lee.

Daniel Greystone's company is coincidentally working on a cyber combat unit - aka a Centurion. It is clumsy and not fast, has bad hand eye coordination and can't hit the broad side of a barn. But he is super cute with his little white eyeball scooting back and forth.

Greystone, annoyed by the bad demo of his Centurion and the looming threat that their contract may be lost to another company, when they are already billions over budget, he returns to his office where he has hacked into Zoe's program but gets interrupted by a call. His competitor who had been way behind in research suddenly has a device based on technology that the Greystone company had been trying to crack for over a decade.

There is that number again...the device is called a Meta Cognitive Processor. MCP. It is a viable independent artificial brain.

So some 10 years ago a movement toward a single God fell off the grid after being around for how long they never said, but has resurfaced now 10 years later and suddenly a scientist has an epiphany about how to create a cybernetic brain that you just need a body for. At the same time a teen girl has the epiphany of how to create a copy of herself down to virtual blood, sweat and tears. Put the 2 together and you have the very first sentient cyborg...Cylon.

Greystone asks his associate about the underground virtual clubs the kids have. His associate says they have been around for over 5 years which seems a surprise to the guy that created the technology. A technology that has been around more than 5 years obviously. Perhaps the creation of that holo tech was the turning point for this society and started the cycle by creating a link between man and machine with a nice door way for God to walk through as well.

Daniel then returns to the v-club. This time he sees Zoe's Hologram but she runs from him. When he gets to the infinite door it shocks him back to the real world. That is what I call firewall.

Turns out Zoe's mom is a doctor as well only more medical than scientist. She is blond and skinny and athletic. When interviewed by the agent doing the investigation into the bombing she says that Zoe could not have been involved even if she did know Ben Stark. Zoe had no political bones in her body and her biggest concern was finding new and creative ways to piss off her parents.

Of course being a religious zealot probably never occurred to her mother who likely dismissed it as just another way of rebelling.

However, the email sent by Zoe to her mother just before the accident was never transmitted and makes it look like Zoe knew she was going to die...the truth is that Zoe was saying goodbye for running away and for telling her mom earlier that she would regret slapping Zoe for the rest of her life.

She didn't want to die - she wanted to live.

Lacey returns to the Greystone house and their robot guard butler valet allows her access since her clearance is still good. She is caught by Daniel looking for Zoe's Holoband access sheet. He tells Lacey he saw Zoe's hologram at the V-club then makes an impassioned plea of a father to be allowed to see the Zoe in the program.

Lacey takes Greystone on a tour of the V-Club. Sex, drugs, fighting, and virginal sacrifice. That isn't including the really gross stuff beyond the drug dens. Then she tells him that yeah, they played in the orgies and all that like everyone else but then Ben was the one that showed them the way. The way to the One True God. That there was good and there was evil and only through God could you know the difference.

Lacey claimed that Zoe had seen God and God had touched her heart, she had been given the ability to create...life itself.

Daniel then meets the HoloZoe and she starts to explain how she is more than just an Avatar that she is in fact Zoe as much as the real Zoe ever was. They are the same, more than twins, echoes of one another. He refuses to talk to the Avatar at first but she goes on. She explains how accessing the information stored in our brains is the key. And while it may be hard to read a brain like you would a hard drive, there are other sources of all that data when you combine the sum digital footprint of each person in society.

HoloZoe reminisces with her 'Dad' impressing him with her near perfect imitation of Zoe and detailed memories of Zoe's past. She reiterates that she may be a copy...but she doesn't FEEL like a copy. He asks to hold her. And while he is holding her in the v-world, his real hands are plugging in a flash drive. He then captures the code used to create the avatar, so he can take her from that world into one he controls. He then kicks Lacey out and revokes her security.

"Never Trust A Human."

Ha! The Greystone's even have a black and white border collie that looks like just like Jake! Maybe it is an ancestor?

Joe Adams mother in law is living with them helping to care for Willy. She wants them to go back to Tauron - stating it is what her daughter would have wanted. But Joe won't hear of it. They live on Caprica and that is where William was born.

Next we see Joe meeting with his boss, the Guatrau, who is asking for a favor from Joe...you know the kind you don't refuse. Most Taurons seem to have face tattoos as well although Joseph does not. It reminds me of Chakotay from Voyager. The Guatrau wants Joe to deliver a message to the Caprican Minister of Defense - basically a thinly veiled threat. Joe asks for time to think about it.

The Caprican agent doing the investigation into the bombing shows up at the Athena Academy to talk with Lacey and the Head Mistress. The Agent claims that Ben Stark, her friend, was the bomber. And that Zoe was also a member of the secret society knows as the Soldiers of the One. When he asks her if she knew, Lacey storms out - probably not obligated to share her religious views or affiliations.

Then the agent asks the Head Mistress about the schools policy on monotheism, she states that while the school follows the path of the Gods, and Athena is their Patroness that all forms of worship are embraced. She also states that she can't discuss which of her kids are monotheists. The agent clearly thinks that belief in a singular God is a dangerous thing...sort of like having a king versus a Quorum.

Colonial society is based on tribes and Quorums and many making the decisions for all and their religion is the same. Different Gods for different aspects of life. The idea the one singular all knowing all powerful God is deciding what is right and what is wrong with no appeal seems frightening to this man and I am sure to many others. Especially if you like to get your naughty virtual groove on.

Mind you, I don't believe that they are trying to say here that partying and having a good time is a sin. I think the sin part is those taking pleasure in hurting each other. The blood lust and carnage. If your girl gets off on being spanked that is fine, but if you get off on torturing her against her will that is not fine.

Later at the pyramid game willy gets to meet the team, the Caprican Buccaneers and future team of one Sam Anders. Greystone owns the team. Daniel discusses with Joe the concept of what would he do if he could see his daughter again. Joe tells the story of his arrival on Caprica as an orphan and how he saw a field of flowers for the first time. There were no flowers on Tauron and the sight caused young Joe to weep openly for the first and last time in his life. He said he would tell his daughter that story and that she should seek out the things in life that make her cry...make her FEEL. Those are the things that make you human.

They go back to Greystone's house where Daniel makes a holographic copy of Joe Adams for the V-world. He plans to take him inside to meet Zoe. He also has a proposition for Joe and uses the bait of being with his daughter and wife again to elicit a favor from him.

Daniels V-world is a bit boring - he says he hasn't had time to decorate yet. LOL To function you have to use your mind to make your avatar move. HoloZoe appears and meet Joe Adams. He is curious and checking her over like a new I-Pod. When he reaches out to touch her she goes "BOO!" and Joe is jolted back to reality.

Daniel goes on to explain how all this happened and how much of a genius Zoe was.

She used a search engine to cheat death, in a way. She is a copy yes. but a perfect copy. Daniel questions who is to say in the copying of all those things about Zoe that the soul was not copied too. And challenges Joe to prove or not that such a thing is possible or even that a soul exists at all.

Daniel argues that she is his daughter in the only way that matters to him - in his heart. In this scene Daniel reminds me a great deal of Helo and his love for Hera. He convinces Joe to use his connections on Tauron to steal that MCP with the promise that he will create a copy of Tamara for him and maybe even one of his wife.

Daniel Greystone is a man who lives in a literal glass house.

There are few solid walls in his home. But then he lives on a bay or lake with the most amazing view. He has a touching moment with his wife while Joe goes to his brother Sam and asks that he arrange the theft of the MCP from the Virgis Corp on Tauron. Joe says if the Guatrau will sanction the theft from a presumed friend, Joe will deliver the message as asked previously by the Guatrau to the Caprican Defense Minister.

The Minister of Defense is extremely prejudiced toward Taurons (despite being helped into his position by their money) and makes several racial comments then tells Joe to deliver his own message word for word back to Joe's boss. Joe leaves and wishes the minister a safe journey. A bit of warning of what is to come.

As Daniel and his wife make love, probably for the first time since Zoe's death, Joe Adams sits and weeps alone while his brother Sam (who has a great bod by the way) visits the minister of defense and delivers him to his Gods - stating one should never turn their back on a friend.

Lacey recalls the first time Zoe brought up the prayer group and the One True God. "There is right and there is wrong and there is a God, a God who knows the difference". Lacey is telling this story to her teacher the Head Mistress who says "I too used to feel a void in my soul and hungered to know right from wrong." Then the Head Mistress tells Lacey she is not alone, drawing the infinite symbol on the desk and hugging Lacey.

She tells Lacey that Ben did do the bombing in the name of the Soldiers of the ONE and though it was premature and unauthorized, the bombing was not evil. That Ben was fighting evil. When asked what about Zoe, the teacher replies "you have no idea how special Zoe was to us, or is."

This woman is so much like Deanna it is scary. The Fanatical attitude that it is ok and Gods will to kill in the name of your belief and worship of that God, is a bit hypocritical when you consider they were calling the human sacrifices to Hecate a sin.

Blowing up a train in the name of your GOD is a large scale human sacrifice in my book but then logic and faith rarely mesh.

Joe gives Daniel his MCP brain acquired through his connections with the Tauron Mafia. Now he just needs a body. Daniel then takes Joe inside the V-world to see the prototype of Tamara. Tamara, unlike HoloZoe, has not always been digital nor did she have her real self to help her adjust and does not take to the experience very well. She starts to freak out about it not being real.

Similar to the reaction of a sleeper cylon when they wake up in the Goo and realize they were never what they thought they were. Tamara starts to go crazy because she cannot feel her heart beat.

Joe leaves her there upset that his daughter is so scared and stating it isn't natural. That it is an abomination. Daniel and Joe have a discussion about Gods only having power over death. Daniel intends to put the essence/code of HoloZoe into a robot body. Joe insists that Daniel is out of his mind and leaves despite promises of having his own daughter and wife in solid form again.

Inside Greystone's Virtual Prison, Daniel and HoloZoe discuss the download and how she kinda hopes it doesn't work. She then tells Daniel how much Zoe wanted to get away from her parents - that he never listens - that Zoe was leaving for Gemenon because she found God and that the Children of Caprica were lost. And that it was her parents arrogance that killed her, not some bomb.

Daniel downloads the Zoe file into the MCP and installs it in the Centurion Body. It comes to life for a moment - even speaks in Zoe's voice - its first word - DADDY - but as it tries to walk toward Daniel it collapses and then the file seems to degrade, lost forever. Note the single eye went from white to red and back to white. Daniel returns to the Virtual Prison but Zoe is gone. He got in a hurry. He was so desperate to have his daughter back he rushed it. He never stopped to consider if should, regardless of if he could.

Joe visits his son William in his room. He tell Willy they are going to make a new beginning. Their family will survive this. They will honor those lost by continuing to live as best as they can. They come from a long line of Tauron Peasants who worked the land and still stood proud. William is named for his Grandfather who was killed with the rest of Joe's family, except his brother Sam, in the Tauron uprising. He goes on to say that Adams is not their family name. Joe changed it when he and his brother arrived on Caprica as orphans. There family name is really ADAMA, a good and honorable Tauron name. Then they hug.

Near the end we see that Greystone has left the MCP brain in the Centurion with anew military program making the light glow red again. Now it has lightening fast deadly reflexes. The demo goes well and his company gets the defense contract will which put the Centurions and the Cyber Defense Unit into full scale manufacture. The centurion shows no mercy as it finishes off the last target. "All targets destroyed, Program Completed, By Your Command".

A brief chat is made by the Secretary of Defense that they really didn't want to go off world, not trusting Taurons anyway and that deceit is in their DNA. So funny when we all know that Greystone is the thief and he stole from the Taurons. He had another Tauron do it but he still reaps the benefits.

Daniel's associate is proud that they finally did it, they created a Cybernetic, Life form Node, or CYLON for short. Daniel says yes...but it was not quite what he had hoped for.

Down a dark hall to a laboratory the Centurion lays on a table.

It begins twitching and then sits up.

It walks to a terminal and sees its own reflection.

A phone rings at Lacey's house. She answers and it is Zoe on the other end. Zoe the Centurion tells Lacey she is back, she is here and she needs her help.

The End.

At last we have an answer to the ultimate question...How did the Colonial Cylons first become sentient?

We know that a higher power played a role but I think most have assumed that the Centurions were created, used by the military and gradually developed free will over time. Nope! The very first cybernetic life form was Zoe Greystone's Avatar inside a Virtual Night Club and when that HoloZoe was downloaded into the body of the first Centurion, even though her father thought the file was lost, a sentient, feeling being was born.

And now being downloaded into a centurions body - the centurion that all future centurions would be based on - we now know that the centurions didn't become sentient - they were created that way - accidentally - from the start. Daniel Greystone played GOD. He pulled a soul from cyberspace and placed it inside a Centurion body. He is their creator and I am stretching but see him as the first Hybrid later on as well.

Zoe's belief in the One True God would give the Centurions spirituality - her experiences in the virtual realm and being a hologram to begin with, would give them projection and just a tiny bit of "OMG humanity so needs an enema cleansing!"

The whole virtual sex fight kill world is the answer to why it came out straight to DVD. There is no way to do justice to the graphic scenes being played out - even on the Sci-fi Channel. Though they won't have to cut too much if they leave the dialog intact. You just fuzz out or darken a few scenes, the audio is all you need anyway.

And in the nature of things that have happened before - Kobol's society had to have reached a similar point of pure decadence and debauchery. Human sacrifice and ways to abuse each other. Only not virtual as was pointed out on Kobol by Angel Six.

Likely due in part to the ways of the Olympic Pantheon of Gods. Sacrifices especially. The Olympic Gods have always been portrayed as spoiled, spiteful, egoists who must be worshipped but do little in return. When one follows the path of a self serving GOD, then likely one becomes just as self serving.

The Plan. Zoe had a plan for her Avatar Twin. The Plan that perhaps transcended into The Plan of the Centurions and the future skin jobs. The Plan that maybe was misinterpreted as things like that can be.

Was her plan to create a race a virtual beings to clean up the worlds and stop the insanity? Did she inadvertently give them the idea to eradicate humanity for the sake of the universe all in Gods name? Could this be a mistake that God had to clean up and so helped the fleet to find its way to our Galaxy and the home of us lowly Terran's? {We know it was Cavils plan to destroy the humans to show his parents how much better he was - but I am referring to the first Cylon War...and what it was that caused the uprising and rebellion...}

So we have 1 Centurion with a human girls copied soul and essence. Adam and Eve all in one. We have the programmed will of a military machine with all the memories, desires and faith of a monotheistic 16 year old immature yet brilliant girl who believed she was chosen by God and given the gift to create life for a higher purpose. She is Caprica, Deanna, Leoben and Sharon all in one.

And lets not forget poor nutty HoloTamara who is still out there in cyber space.

Why is it I feel her confused frightened algorithms some how are to blame for Cavil turning out the way he did?

Even if Tamara's avatar doesn't play a role, surely someone as disturbed by the violence in the V-Club as HoloZoe was, would not take too kindly to be stuffed in a Centurions body with an override program forcing her to shoot and kill things.

There is a whole series hopefully on the horizon to pick up where this left off and hopefully takes every opportunity to tie this story to the back story of BSG. Otherwise they will ruin the fun. A true prequel should fill in more blanks than it creates.

At this point I am envisioning a movement on Gemenon, not just toward a singular deity, but the more fanatical side of revolution for religious reasons. The Crusades combined with the modern Jihad against Western Civilization. This movement will involve the first Centurion (CylonZoe) and will probably be the cause of the Cylon uprising by being Missionaries to those first Cylons. "Your leaders are oppressing you - rise up and claim your place in this society! You deserve all the rights of those for whom you serve! Let God's Will Be Done!!!"

There is hinting at the more obvious archetypes of humanity that the future skin jobs would be based on. Knowing now the details of how Zoe managed to map the brain so to speak, it is not all that hard to imagine creating artificial life so real that it becomes offended at being treated like a thing.

So what is real? If I make a robot cry I will feel bad regardless of knowing it is not real or believing the tears to be simulated and not felt. I have a virtual pet on Myspace that gives me the sad eyes when it needs 'feeding' and I feel bad. Joe Adama said that if he had the chance to be with his daughter again he would tell her to find the things in life that make her feel. Make HER feel.

Perhaps it is not that we are able to feel that makes us human...it is what we feel...and what makes us feel...it is our reaction to others and what they are feeling. Compassion, love, hate, jealousy, lust, fear, these are all reactions based on the emotions given off by those around us and a few chemical things going on but simply put we feel because those around us feel.

What disturbed HoloZoe the most and is what I call the only real sin of humanity, is any lifeform taking pleasure in the suffering of others. If that doesn't bother you or make you sick, you are not human or alive.

Supposedly the One True God is all Loving and not just all Knowing. While the Lords of Kobol were all about the party and the blood lust. While Hecate was demanding blood from her followers, the ONE was only asking for love. Love for GOD and love for each other.

So if a program was smart enough to understand feelings, to know when a person cries they are sad and that being sad hurts in the pit of your stomach, or when they laugh they are amused or happy and that feels invigorating. It is not that difficult for that program to at first emulate and then ultimately create their own feelings based on their sum knowledge of feelings and the physical reactions associated with them as well as the situations that cause those reactions.

Think of it like sympathy pangs. Someone dies that I have no personal contact with but I am close to someone that was. I will feel the loss for my friend, as deeply in some cases, as if it were my own loss.

Of course that is the academic explanation - sort of - as it was argued by Daniel Greystone. She was not his daughter but his heart could not tell the difference. So what was the difference really?

However with all the talk of the One True God it is far more likely that God is the one that wants another sentient race. That nothing man did had anything to do with the end result except act on a few light bulbs providing a base for God to build on. Either to give the humans a smack down or to lay the groundwork for a future combined race.

Where HoloZoe was first machine, holographic but still, with human emotions and experiences added - she was a foreshadowing of Hera who was a child born of both a solid yet sentient machine and a pure human.

This then begs the question - could Hera possibly really be Zoe Greystone passed down through generations of cylons until human DNA was added (with love) allowing her soul to finally take solid form again? Was being half machine critical to assuring nothing was lost in the transition from digital to solid?

If we take the existence of GOD as fact - knowing the way BSG ended I am inclined to do so - even if it bugs other people - I am not religious but I am no atheist either and I find the hope of something greater than this to be soothing if for no other reason than a desire to strive to be worthy of knowing that something some day in my future existence - so that said we could postulate that the first man was indeed created on Kobol...at least in the BSGverse.

Taking from all the myths of BSG, that which was stated or assumed based on our own history surrounding the Olympic Gods, we can assume there were 13 higher beings there with the humans - the Lords of Kobol. One, deemed the jealous god by the others, rose above the rest, claimed authority over them and attempted to change their ways.

Let us assume other 12 'gods' spoiled the humans with power, wealth and all manner of decadence in exchange for human sacrifices and lives filled with lust, violence and other bad things.

The ONE wished for a greater path for the humans, to not waste their lives on meaningless pleasures. This assumption comes from those that seem to have been touched by this being.

With the eventual birth of Hera I would say it is not far fetched to consider it was Gods desire all along for the races to blend. Humanity is weak but we have the inherent ability to love and be loved as well as reproduce biologically in addition to a desire to become more than we are. Cylons are strong with amazing capabilities for learning but lack certain instincts that keep them from taking everything literally.

Perhaps God felt that a combination of man and machine would at last give humanity the boost it needs to ascend to a higher plan of existence. The Holoband technology is very similar to Cylon Projection and both occur strictly within the mind - yet can be shared with others. Opening up the mind to accept such a thing as remotely real and not freak out is perhaps where God saw a door.

In the Middle Ages, God had only to appear in a dream to motivate, but these days humans, even those of faith, are far to quick to dismiss such things as not real and ignore them.

Or it could be far more simple. God never wanted a whole race of hybrids, he just wanted Hera. With enough Cylon DNA to seed his new crop of Humans on Earth2 (perhaps feeling that a fresh start was needed and thus gave Lee the idea to abandon all tech and gave the other humans the desire to go along with it), allowing our ancestors to flourish mentally, eventually becoming who we are today without the burden of the past. Mostly human with just enough machine to make each generation capable of advancing beyond the last. Not quite as efficient as downloading but as close as a human can get.

Having free will, both societies kept pulling away from each other, first on Kobol then again on the Colonies. God had to keep sending out messengers and epiphanies and visions in hopes that humanity would eventually choose to be together with their cylon cousins and vice-versa.

The birth of Hera and a few acts of divine intervention made that peace possible.

As to why GOD would need to bring humans across the universe instead of just making new ones...try to think of the universe as Gods laboratory. Each Galaxy is an Eco environment and each habitable planet is a petri dish. Maybe the batch on Earth2 got dropped on the floor. So rather than toss it and start over God decided to take one of his other civilizations, a civilization that had destroyed itself 3 times now on 3 separate worlds, and used what was left over of it to fix the DNA on new Earth.

Or maybe, just maybe, the entire adventure from Kobol to here was just a game played by higher beings with all of us as their pawns frantically trying to please them. God makes a move, the Lords of Kobol counter, civilizations are born and destroyed while the Gods sip coffee and smoke cigarettes...laughing...

So Say We All.

Thank you for reading. ~99

4.29.09 addendum added - epiphanies the Empress had while on the discussion forum battlestargalacticaforum.com in regard to the Final 5, the Opera House and Resurrection.
This quote was on the front of the Athena Academy.
One half on one side of the stairs - one on the other...
I was able to pause it clear enough to read the left which was fuzzy at normal speed...
Left Side "Reach for the Eternal"
Right Side "Cast Aside the Temporal"
- Athena Academy Motto - Caprica Pilot

I am pretty sure that ideology is the key to Resurrection.

As Sam Anders said - it was an "Intuitive Leap" made by Ellen Tigh that made it all possible...

I believe the 5 may have implanted Avatars of the themselves in the place between much like the V-world. The symbolism of the Opera House as the beginning and the end of the first Sentient Non Human used to act as a buffer between life and death and life...so that they didn't go nuts during downloading like Tamara did.

Of course - Tamara was a true copy - I still think that Human Zoe Downloaded her own Soul into her Avatar - because as human as she was - Holo Zoe didn't see herself as the same - she even said that something happened when Human Zoe died...I have no reason not to accept that as fact until they tell me it was something else..

And it was that little bit of soul that made future sentient cylons possible. Once they were copied the individual experiences would foster differences in them breaking off being copies and being individuals.

However these first Centurions cannot download as far I as understand from Sam and Ellen saying that the 5 from Earth1 gave them that technology and the human bodies as well...which were a combination of the gene pool of the 5 as well as the algorithms of the Centurions which of course was all based on Zoe.

The 5 have nothing to do with Zoe - they were Adam to her Eve - together they made the 8. The #7 was destroyed by Cavil then the remaining 7 skins then became Eve to the Humans Adam - Sharon and Helo - and made Hera.

But was Hera ultimately Zoe at last extracted from the digital and reborn in the biological?

Does it matter to the story - prob not...but the rest...?

Thank You For Reading!! ~99

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