October 26th, 2025

Lmaooooooo, what an amazing post ten days ago. I almost thought to write over it completly but decided to leave it because I think it's funny. Anyway - we've been watching Battlestar Galatica (sp?) for the past month or so now and that show is so great. On the surface, it's pitched as a space action show (which, to a degree, that is definetly there!) but it also has these great layers around what it means to be human and the morality displayed on the show is nuanced and there is (at lesat thru mid season 2 in the show, where I'm currently at) no singular character who you could consider to be "perfect".

Speaking of "imperfection", this leads me into a minirant on the season 2 episode where they let an external reporter (played by Lucy Lawless) on board the Battlestar to film almost whatever and wherever. The episode starts out where the President of the Fleet and the Commander of the Battlestar agree to allow the reporter and her crew to film on the Battlestar for more transparency, given some prior recent events. At it's surface, this sounds like a great idea given some of the both morally and legally questionable actions that took place through the Colony ships due to Battlestar actions. When you think about this for more than 5 seconds, I'd think the reality should then set in on just how horrific of a call that was. Note that, if you haven't seen BSG, there are spoilers below and I am not going to any effot to hide them as this is just a little personal blog where I can be a goofy lil' guy.

Going into this point further, I want to clarify that I am speaking about this only under the lens of the Battlestar Galatica universe and this does not necessarily apply to anything that I may or may not think about real world Geo Politics. If you have not watched the show, the core conflict in the Battlestar Galatica world is held between the human race and the Cylons, which are essentially robots (if you've ever seen Bionicles, picture those but thicker and more chrome). The Cylons were created by the humans and then the Cylons turned against the humans with a goal to eradicate all of humanity. The first season of Battlestar starts out with the remains of humanity on the Battlestar and surrounding civilian ships from the Twelve Colonies (which I think are different planets?), racing to do everything they can to escape the Cylons and find a place to restart humanity. I can't remember exactly when it is during the first season but a chilling fact is discovered by high leadership (the President and Commander and a few others) - Cylons found a way to replicate themsevles so that they look completely human, with at times some knowing they are Cylons and some being sleeper agents. Multiple copies of a model can be made at a time. What this meant for all was that they weren't just trying to escape the Cylon ships/bases physically but that the threat was ultimately unknown and potentially aboard the Battlestar and/or civilian ships.

If the Cylon threat was only a physical external issue (i.e. Cylons could ONLY look like the bionicles describles above), I 100% agree that absolutely yes it's a wonderful idea to have an external reporter and her crew aboard the ship. In this instance, there would still exist the current power imbalance between the BSG and the civilian ships (i.e. civilian ships are armed, yes, but the BSG is a superpower and could easily take them out with less casualties on BSG end) - having a documentarian/reporter on board could help bridge that gap to a degree, or really said a better way, to establish trust between the military and civilian folks which would be sorely needed in that time of crisis. The unfortunate kicker is the unknown - it's the fact of the matter that the external threat could be hiding right in front of you and you wouldn't even know it.

I know this is going to come to a surprise to all but - surprise - the reporter brought aboard the BSG to film was (you guessed it) a Cylon. She ended up capturing comprimising footage aboard the BSG and sent it back to leadership forces among the Cylons. In the "hope for the best, plan for the worst", this was definetly the worst. But, I think this then leads into the beauty of the show and it's that things are never perfect - the storytelling does such a great job of reflecting how imperfect humanity is which, of course, Cylons are the perfect foil for (no pun intended).

I'm excited to see how the show progresses with this foil comparison between the two and I'm getting a feel that the show could be going into a direction where some of the human-facing Cylons are able to have human feelings. The show is starting to flirt with that idea with a few characters at the point of the show I'm in (which again I think is like mid season 2?) - I think it could also veer into the idea of what truly is humanity (i.e. if the thought is programmed into the Cylon that it's human and/or it can be psychologically impacted, is it not more than machine?)

It's funny - around the time BSG came out, I was in either my preteen or early teen years and can reflect that, while the idea pointed above regarding what makes something human in the tech space (also no pun intended) would be interesting at the time, it would still feel like such a far away concept. Battlestar Galatica came out around the mid to late 2000's if I'm remembering correctly - it was during this time that social media was just getting created (Myspace being my fav, ugh) and "talking to your computer" would likely mean using AIM or MSN messenger to chat with a pre-programmed chat bot. Compared to today's world, the idea that humanity could create a cyber version of itself feels much more real. While Learning Language Models don't have sentience (which I define here as being able to come across as human, make of that what you will), their functionality is getting much better at mimicing as if they did - what creeps me out the most is how agreeable they are a lot of the time. [side thought: when I talk about LLMs online, I get the feeling I will be shown no mercy when they ultimately go Terminator - writing idea: enemies to lovers novel on sentient robot against their AI shit talking human captive, or something like that. After writing that out, I realize that this probably quite literally describes a number of BSG fanfic on AO3.] It's that agreeability that I think grabs a lot of people into using them which, again, I don't really understand - I don't know if it's because folks out there are looking for more external validation or that I just like being able to speak with folks that will challenge me and help me continue to grow.

In all fairness, I think it's much more nuanced that than and you can't boil it down to a singular point - I feel like there is talk in the zeitgeist of a lonliness epidemic taking place, especially for men and especially for Gen Z and I think it is a true crisis taking place. I don't know how to describe it but things just feel different socially to a degree - it does feel like there is more socialization taking place online versus in the physical world, but I think the problem with that at times is that current online spaces make it much easier to sequester yourself - and sequestering not in just a "hey i only wanna look at knitting stuff" or "hey this chat room is only dedicated to cars" but sequestering in that algorithms on all the large social media sites actively use themselves to sequester ideas and feed content that makes folks have intense feelings (ususally rage which, surprise, isn't conducive to building community).

What I think is my last "thought" for this blog post - I watched a short YouTube documentary the other day on William Blake - I knew of Blake from waaaaaaaaaay back in probably high school English class? I still currently can't remember much from his writing but knew he was a guy around the Enlightment era. The video was interesting because it focused on him as an artist and discussed some of his standalone works alongside the works entertwined with his poems. It delved into him as a person as well, specifically on his beliefs and how they impacted his work. The video talked about how he was torn and didn't really agree with a lot of the common thoughts of the time (enlightened thought versus industrial revolitionary thinking) and that he dabbled with more esoteric Christian and occult beliefs. Why I found that so interesting is that the description given for his beliefs/thinking had overlaps in parts to some reflecting I've been having currently as it relates to spirituality.

In school when I learned about historical figures (and I include my college years in this), I always thought of them as....well....figures. Points in time, happenings, creations of media, telling of the story. It's only been more current (and I think this is just a part of maturing) that I really reflect on the fact that all these historical/notable figures we talk about are just people. People that had feelings and thoughts that reflect the same ones we have today. That, at the end of the day, there's likely some commonality that could be found between yourself and someone 300 years ago - and I don't mean like any random person plucked from history - I mean more so that you can always find a kindred spirit somewhere. I would, under no circumstances, be friends with or want to even talk to Andrew Jackson, but Blake seems like he'd be fun to grab a hot beverage and chat with.