Week 12

"All those religions -they contradict each other on every other point but every one of them is filled with ways to help people be brave enough to laugh even though they know they are dying"- Heinlein

Week 15- Final Paper

The board game of Battlestar Galactica does not fall in to the category of science fiction solely because it is an adaption of a science fiction show. It is science fiction because it explores and poses the same questions all works of science fiction do. The genre of science fiction explores many themes such as dystopia, disaster, and war, among others. Science fiction differs from other genres that explore these same themes, as it tends to explore these themes within a philosophical framework. Recently a few classmates and I got together with our professor and played the Battlestar Galactica board game. The game consisted of one of us being a cylon and sabotaging the rest of us humans who were struggling to survive amidst planetary disaster all the while being presented with crises. While playing the game, as characters of the television series, much like the characters in the science fiction stories “Inconstant Moon” and “Robot Dreams”, we used the defining human trait of hope as a means of surviving. Both the game and the television show converge the topics and themes of the stories, namely “Planetary Disaster” and “If Robots Are Slaves, Can Logic Be Freedom?” by placing humans in a battle for survival against robots amidst the loss of their homes and moral and ethical dilemmas.

In the introduction to her book “The Left Hand of Darkness”, Ursula Le Guin states what she believes characterizes a work as science fiction; namely a thought experiment. She writes that science fiction begins with a question or a situation and “is supposed to take a trend or a phenomenon of the here-and-now, purify and intensify it for dramatic effect, and extend it into the future” (p.1). Science fiction is asking “what if?” and taking to maximal levels while the details express truths about humanity that are present in any circumstance. The Battlestar Galactica show asks a similar question to Isaac Asimov’s story “Robot Dreams”, namely, “If robots are slaves, can logic be freedom?”. The story examines the question of whether or not artificial intelligence is a threat to humanity and the show answers this question in the affirmative and explores the consequences of this. The game, however, explores the theme of “Planetary Disaster”, similar to Larry Niven’s story “Inconstant Moon”, about two people on the West Coast coping with the end of the world. The game forced us to ask examine how we would survive by posing “what if” questions, and Niven’s story demonstrates the various coping mechanisms people use to survive.

Interestingly, some aspects of the game mirrored the show as real life began to emulate fiction. For example, the hidden cylon within the game was the character of Guise, who gained our trust and then betrayed us, much like his character betrays everyone in the show by not revealing that he is responsible for the security breach. The constant theme present while playing the game was hope, when Guise was revealed as a cylon, when riots began, when we were imprisoned in the brig, and as our supplies and moral steadily dropped, we consistently searched for ways to escape, hoping for a win for the humans. Likewise, in the show, Captain Adama, admits to doubting the existence of the elusive planet Earth, yet maintains the importance of hope. In contrast, the characters in Niven’s story, when faced with “Planetary Disaster”, at first accept their fate peacefully; “And I was free. For me there was no more consequences Tonight I could satisfy my dark urges, rob, kill, cheat on my income tax, throw bricks at plate-glass windows, burn my credit cards”. The end of the world is seen as a ticket to licensed anarchy. It is only later that they start to hope they can survive and start searching for ways they can do so. Hope it seems, is an inescapable human trait, in much the same way that logic is seen as a robotic trait. As illustrated in “Robot Dreams”, as soon as LVX-1 is fitted with a brain that mirrors a human brain, he begins to hope. When he is questioned about his dream he explains; “I saw that all the robots were bowed down with toil and affliction, that all were weary of responsibility and care, and I wished them to rest.” (p.94), he begins to hope that robots have a better life than the current one. The losing of his robot logic leads to his destruction as Calvin follows that science fiction formula of extrapolation to conclude that logic is what keeps robots shackled and hope is freedom.

                              

          Although the surrendering of robot logic leads to Elvex’s humanity, as a result, it also leads to him turning against humanity and to seek allegiance with his own kind. Similarly, the cylons in Battlestar Galactica band together in a war against humanity. In Elvex’s dream he states that he says “Let my people go” (p. 96), clarifying that “his people” were robots. Comparatively, the cylons see themselves as separate from humans, they are fueled by a desire to destroy the human race, willing to chase them down for thousands of years. The cylons, like Elvex, have disregarded Asimov’s First and Second Law of Robotics and only kept the first half of the Third; “A robot must protect its own existence” (p.94). In contrast, in “Inconstant Moon” the characters form an allegiance in order to survive, however, it is one that is opposed to a planetary disaster and not another species. There is a need for a shared experience in the face of disaster, to distract each other. The characters in Niven’s story use each other for this purpose; “I forgot the moon and the future when Leslie put her heels against the backs of my knees…” (p.223), using sex and companionship as coping methods. During the game, allegiances were formed as well, as humans bonded together to help each other in various crisis’s, using our skills to help the other. Moreover, the cylon tried unsuccessfully to form an allegiance with the other cylon in the game, often beseeching him to help her destroy the humans.

The experience of playing the Battlestar Galactica game differed from the experience of watching the television show in many ways, one of which was how invested we were in the result of the game. Whether cylon or human, we wanted the game to end in our favor. It was as if the very fate of our respective species lay in the outcome of the game. Watching the show and reading the stories were engaging activities but in a different way. Reading and watching are both voyeuristic in a sense, we can see it and we can sympathize with the characters. We can root for the characters to survive planetary disaster in “Inconstant Moon” and empathize with LVX-1’s struggle in the science fiction battle of humans versus artificial intelligence. However, nothing we do will change the narrative of these stories, playing the game, while similarly made of the familiar themes found in science fiction, made us the storytellers, the shapers of the story. In a radio interview on the Bat Segundo Show, physicist Michio Kaku explains that science fiction and science experience what he calls “cross-pollination”, they both inspire the other. In playing the game we became the characters in science, extrapolating and asking the science fiction question “what if”. Additionally, like the characters, we formed allegiances and hoped for our species survival. Perhaps we did these because we are human and were merely playing a game, or maybe we were emboldened by the characters of our science fiction game, one inspires the other.  

Completed Cyborg

Finally, my cyborg is complete with everything it needs to function.

Week 13

“All the names are still in the hat, Ben. Self-aware man is so built that he cannot believe in his own extinction….and this automatically leads to endless invention of religions. While this involuntary conviction of immortality by no means proves immortality to be a fact, the questions generated by this conviction are overwhelmingly important…whether we can answer them or not, or prove what answers we suspect.”-Heinlein 

Week 11

“It is better that men should never come back” said the penner. In its way, it was a revolutionary statement.”- Aldiss

Week 10

“Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is about eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried. Democracy’s worst fault is that its leaders are likely to reflect the faults and virtues of their constituents-a depressingly low level, but what else can you expect?”-Heinlein

Week 9

“A government is a living organism. Like every living thing its primary characteristic is a blind, unreasoned instinct to survive. You hit it, it will fight back.”- Stranger in a Stranger Land