Utopias and Dystopias in Science Fiction: Battlestar Galactica

Near the beginning of the semester I had the pleasure of sitting through two lectures with Larry Yaeger, a professor of Informatics at Indiana University who specializes in artificial intelligence. The lectures covered the topic of utopias and dystopias. Come to find out, he actually consulted and briefly appeared in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, heavily influencing the character of Miles Dyson. Our assignment that week was to analyze a fictional setting and assess whether or not it was a utopia or dystopia and why. I chose to take a deep look at the conflict present on both sides in the series Battlestar Galactica.

Utopias and Dystopias in Science Fiction: Battlestar Galactica

Since the beginning of the science fiction genre with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, authors, screenwriters, and directors have become fascinated with utopic and dystopic civilizations. Due to the thin line that separates these two ideals, most often science fiction will resolve to a dystopia. One television series that has attempted to at least slightly change the pattern is Ronald Moore’s Battlestar Galactica. This series represents a dystopia because it shows the transition of an advanced, organized people into a loosely aligned group of travelers trying to find a new home and establish their previous order.
The pilot episode for Battlestar shows the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of humans by a race of artificial people known as the cylons. These people were created many years before to aid in the mundane activities of everyday life. The machines became self-aware, resulting in the First Cylon War. Their race retreated to the far ends of space, only to return forty years later in an attempt to wipe out humanity. While the intricacies of the plot are many, one of the main devices is the creation of twelve cylon models that look, act, and in every way appear as human beings. Previously the race was limited to metal machines affectionately referred to as “toasters”.
The survivors of the attacks band together and pursue the dream of a new home, Earth, as described by the main religion’s holy book as the home of a Thirteenth Colony of humans. They face further attacks from the cylons, both machine and human, but soon discover a terrifying reality, that five of the models are operating amongst the people of the fleet. This raises obvious panic and disorder and is only eventually resolved through very detailed, if not genius, plot development.
What makes Battlestar Galactica stand out from the crowd of Terminator 2’s, Mad Max’s, and others is its ability to address the truly human aspect of being, in an instant, thrown into the deepest depths of destruction and organizational disarray. The people at the beginning of the series operate under rules and religion and many other social and governmental standards, only to be forced into anarchy by a race of people they created. This is the true essence of dystopia, yet the concept of “someone’s utopia” is still very present. By wiping out the humans, the Cylons were attempting to create their vision of a perfect world. Conversely, the humans were perfectly content in their life, only to be disrupted by the attacks on their planets. This theme can be seen in many science fiction settings, but is also present in the regimes of Hitler, Stalin, and others.
This series directly addresses our fears of technology. The Cylons are both sentient and have the ability to blend in to the general populous, all the while harboring ill intent against their creators. Nothing could make a greater argument against the creation of artificial intelligence. However as the series progresses, so does the relationship between some of the cylon models and the human race. They identify common problems, and even a common enemy in some of the models who refuse to step away from the idea of a world free of humans. This provides hope for scientists and engineers, and also serves as a warning that any creation must be done with a moral compass.
Battlestar Galactica is without a question a fantastic television drama. But more than that, it serves as a guide for creating artificial life, as well as a warning against creation without control or discretion and taking for granted what technology allows us to do.