Terminator: Dark Fate. While the advent of autonomous drones and advanced machine learning makes the premise of the Terminator movies a tad more ominous, the crux of Battlestar Galactica is far more conceivable, with far-reaching implications for the human race.
Battlestar Galactica opens with the existence of the Cylons (Cybernetic Lifeform Node), a race of sentient automatons conceived by Graystone Industries, who were later incorporated in the industrial and domestic sectors. Interestingly, by Battlestar Galactica's controversial ending, technological life appears independently on Earth, positing technology as a self-creating entity. The Cylon Rebellion, in particular, comes across as a powerful message in this context, as this slave rebellion evolved into a full-scale genocidal war for both parties involved.
With the aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons carry out a massive nuclear attack on the Twelve Colonies, along with the Colonial Fleet of starships that protect them. The implications of this move are catastrophic, as it not only lays waste to all the colonies but threatens to exterminate the entirety of the final human survivors on Earth. The Cylons were able to achieve this with the aid of a consciousness that superseded that of humans, which aligned well with the actions of Gaius Baltar, who, somewhat unintentionally, brings about the near-annihilation of the human race. As the Cylon brain’s silicon pathways are modeled on the neural pathways of the human brain, it is ironic how humanity’s extinction stems from the deepest depths of its creative genius.
On the other hand, the Terminator franchise issues a warning against unchecked AI singularity and super-evolved consciousness via the existence of Skynet, an artificial neural network and superintelligence system that achieves self-awareness. Despite several attempts of the human race to deactivate it, Skynet retaliates with their own planned rebellions, such as the probable nuclear attack referenced in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Throughout the series, Skynet sends back in time several Terminator models to kill John Connor and ensure their victory, meaning that the network has access to state-of-the-art technology capable of altering the flow of time.
While the implications of this premise in Terminator are bleak enough, the rebellion of the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica is much grimmer in nature, comparable to the rise of the human-powered robots in The Matrix franchise. Battlestar Galactica paints the AI rebellion in an understandably negative light, while also predicting technological advancements in the realm of robotics and artificial intelligence. The mixture of biological and technological advancement in Battlestar Galactica proves to be a more convincing premise than that of the Terminator franchise, wherein the former demonstrates a practical symbiotic interdependence between humans and machines.
The concept of Projection Technology in Battlestar Galactica posits a unique way of conveying thoughts and memories, which is directly in alignment with the technological advancements occurring today, making the show's offering more poignant and cutting-edge than ever. More so than Terminator, the Battlestar Galactica further the discourse on AI-human relations, which is ever-evolving and perennially complex, urging the human race to scrutinize technology through the lens of measured analysis and empathic reflection.
