Are the toasters sentient?

[wontgetfooledagain]

Just for clarification, when I say toaster I mean those big peices of metal that the biocylons order around. Do you think they are sentient and are they the same model as the cylons that were fought forty years ago? I'm just thinking about how I don't really think it is possible for something sentient (or not) to create something more advanced than itself. Could the toasters really create a biocylon? They would really need a human to do that in my opinion, because the toasters don't seem to be as intelligent as the biocylons.

[Sauron18]

The new Centurions aren't sentinet, this doesn't mean they are stupid since your computer is probably smarter than the smartest human and it's still not sentient.

The Original Centurions (in the TNS), were sentient, they are the ones who rebelled and then had other uses.

[knowles2]

I hope they are sentient and have just useing the human model to conquer the humans and once all humans are destroy the toaster will turn on the human version and wiped them out.

[Bl4de]

The ones they fought in the cylon war were different models, they looked like TOS's cylon models, as we saw in the miniseries when Six confronts the peace rep, he is holding a piece of paper with specifications on the old models. They became self aware and rebelled.

Though you're right, I doubt those models created human models. Chances are season 3 will explain to us the origins of the human cylons and the technology/person who helped create them.

I'm sticking by the theory that Baltar, or a descendant of Baltar had something to do with it. It's too coincidental that a CYLON started seeing Baltar in her head directly after Baltar started seeing a CYLON in his head. Some greater power than the cylons is at work. And no, I'm not talking about Count Ibli.

[wontgetfooledagain]

The new Centurions aren't sentinet, this doesn't mean they are stupid since your computer is probably smarter than the smartest human and it's still not sentient.

The Original Centurions (in the TNS), were sentient, they are the ones who rebelled and then had other uses.

I mantain that in order for something to actually be "smart" it has to be self aware.

[wontgetfooledagain]

Something I just thought of...What happens when the purpose that a robot is programmed to have becomes obsolete and no one is around to provide additional programming? This is assuming the robot cannot change its own programming.

[techjunkie]

There is a huge difference between sentience (as in meeting the full range of criteria simular to human) and being self-aware. We have experimental systems which can be said are self-aware, and highly capable.

I am of the opinion that all Cylon models - from the 'silver toasters' centurians, to the raiders, to the human-form cylons, and even the base stars are self-aware. Each model serves a purpose and it's innate 'awareness' is restricted to performing those tasks.

It would make sense, really. A heirarchy of sentience based upon position in the new cylon 'order of things'.

Remember - Baltar asks of six in the pilot - "I thought cylons were walking toasters" - six replies - "Even they have thier uses."

[wontgetfooledagain]

Hmmm. So each of the pieces of the Cylon structure so only a little bit of the big picture so that the whole is more like one sentient being possibly? I don't think that is what you were saying because that is too much like the borg and as we have seen, borg the cylons are not.

[the fifth man]

The toaster versions of the Cylons sure don't seem to come off as sentient. I think the human-form Cylons dumbed them down to keep them in line. To be the warriors they wanted them to be.

[Blade Runner]

According to Ron Moore the toaster versions of the Cylons are not sentient

[MadScorpion]

Don't count the Toasters out yet.This new, "Breed" of Toaster could evolve and turn on the Biocylons just as they did with the humans... Oh What a plot twist that would be!!!! I mean, the Biocylons reincarnate as do the frakkin' Cylon Raiders. But not the Toasters??!!

Just like the humans, The BioCylons view them as expendable machines. Even Sharon said in "Scar" that death becomes a learning experience. How come this lesson isn't taught to the Centurions? Why? They're obsolete. Sharon says that Raiders should be treated as pets. And we all know how highly we think of our pets...Hell, they become a part of the family.

Adama said it in the mini, something along the lines of... "You can't play God and then wash your hands..." When the Toasters realize their place in the scheme of things, someone's gonna pay.

[Chig]

The new Centurions aren't sentinet, this doesn't mean they are stupid since your computer is probably smarter than the smartest human and it's still not sentient.

The Original Centurions (in the TNS), were sentient, they are the ones who rebelled and then had other uses.

1) they are sentient as the human models are.... just as the fighter was described as "a pet". Perhaps they are as not as complex though. No Cylon is near human.

2) IMHO Computers are stupid. They deal only in absolutes. They only "imagine" what humans program them to imagine. They cannot go down the complicated pathways that a human mind can. Humans know how to recover from an unexpected scenario with ease. Computers can't recover from the unexpected unless the programmer spends hours showing it how to recover. Even AI had its origins in the human mind. If your computer is running Artificial Intellegence algorythms it might be close to matching the human mind.