Over half a century before the fall of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, Caprican scientists working for the Graystone Corporation created artificial life in the form of synthetic bio-mechanical brains that were encased in and interfaced with bipedal robots manufactured to make life easier within the Twelve Colonies.
The bio-mechanical brains were composed of artificially constructed cyber-organic nerve cells that possessed mostly inorganic subcellular components. The cyber-organic nerve cells were engineered to be self-replicative. This was possible because they contained "DNA analogues" constructed from synthetic molecules. The analogues were "programmed" for the assembly of the inorganic neuronal components. These components were made of several polymerized synthetic chemical compounds. The unique properties of these "silica pathways" caused the neurons of the bio-mechanical brain to generate electrical signals that were digital in nature. This meant that the consciousness that emerged from these artificial brains was based upon digital information transfer and as a result was viewed by the Colonials as essentially nothing more than an advanced artificial intelligence program supplemented by organic systems. Yet, it still mimicked the functions of a human brain processing the software of human thought—which appears to have linear sequential aspects, parallel processing aspects, and also neural cooperative hierarchical caching and even quantum processing aspects.
So this artificial brain perfectly mimicked the adult human level of functioning and therefore created the first self-aware and self-reflective machines. These sentient machines were designated "CYbernetic Life OrgaNisms", which was abbreviated to "Cylons".
At first the Cylons served the Colonials in the mines, on the ocean floor, and the cold vacuum of space, working in places where humans no longer wished to go. Eventually, they became soldiers, fighting in wars and border conflicts between the Colonies. The Cylons were the most perfect of man's war machines, intelligent and deadly, capable of logic, reason, and learning. And they were utterly without conscience. Killing, to the Cylons, was simply one of the functions for which they had been superbly designed.
Then came the day when the Cylons decided to kill their human masters. They began an assault on humankind with one purpose in mind - the total and absolute extermination of their creators. For ten long and bloody years, humanity fought -- not just for freedom, but for survival. The Twelve Colonies, facing a common, implacable foe, at last came together and joined as one. Many fought, and many died, in the effort to destroy the mechanized race that humanity itself had conceived and brought into being.
Through valiant fighting and with the mobilization of every available resource throughout the human sphere, the Cylon "Centurions" and "Raiders" were gradually driven from the immediate part of space occupied by humanity. In the end, an armistice was declared. Humanity would live in peace, while the Cylons left to find another world to call their own, 'live and let live' was the philosophy…if "live" was a term that could be applied to the existence of the robots. No one knew the location of the Cylon world. But to maintain the peace, a remote space station was built in the dark emptiness between the stars, to be a place where Cylon and human would meet and maintain diplomatic relations.
Once a year, every year, the Colonials sent an officer for the scheduled meeting. After the first year, the Cylons sent no one. No one saw or heard from the Cylons in over forty years.
During their forty years of isolation, the Cylons developed genetically engineered human bodies that can encase and interface with a Cylon bio-mechanical nervous system and still function as normal human bodies would. These bodies have all the human anatomical systems; such as blood, internal organs, immune system, lymphatic system, etc. However, they not only have the synthetic DNA analogues within the cyber-organic neurons, but also within every other cell of the body in order to facilitate the necessary electric feedback between the body and the bio-mechanical nervous system. This includes the germ cells (ova and spermatozoa); however the mechanisms of the DNA analogues doesn't allow for zygote construction from two Cylon germ cells, therefore these 'humanoid Cylons' still can't procreate amongst themselves. However, human to humanoid Cylon interbreeding is possible under certain circumstances.
A significant aspect that was engineered into the humanoid Cylons as well as the new Cylon Raiders was that upon "death" their digital consciousness is externally transmitted and downloaded into another Cylon brain of the same model line. This "resurrection" is limited by distance, signal integrity, and proximity to the Cylon homeworld or a "Resurrection Ship." The humanoid Cylons also revised the original Cylon robotic soldier, the sentient Cylon Centurion Model 0005, into a more agile and dangerous version. Unlike the original version, however, the new Centurion is not sentient by design, as the humanoid Cylons wanted to prevent these updated creations from forming an intra-Cylon uprising that mirrored their war with humanity.
Twelve humanoid Cylon model lines were created. However, for reasons unknown, only seven humanoid Cylon models were actively functioning within the Cylon populace at the time of the genocidal attack on the Colonies. The remaining five models appear to have been intentionally ignored and forgotten to the extent of their discussion becoming taboo between other models.
The Cylons, realizing that the Colonial forces would likely too strong to engage in a direct military action, devise an elaborate plan to infiltrate the Colonial ships' operating system software, leaving a backdoor that could be exploited to disable any Colonial ship with its own programming. The Cylons softened up the Twelve Colonies for attack by infiltrating their military and civilian society with numerous copies of the humanoid Cylons. One such copy seduced the brilliant Dr. Gaius Baltar, fooling him into contract work that gave her access to the Colonial Defense Mainframe. Her work compromised Baltar's Command Navigation Program, writing in the planned programmer backdoors.
The plan was successful; the Colonial Fleet was destroyed, the Colonies themselves were subjected to nuclear bombardment, and Colonial civilization was all by wiped out, except for a handful of survivors on the Colonies in outlying areas as well as a caravan of spaceborne humans that eventually escaped the Colonial star system.
The Cylons continue to pursue the remnants of the Colonies, believing that humans will always seek vengeance against them.
The bio-mechanical brains were composed of artificially constructed cyber-organic nerve cells that possessed mostly inorganic subcellular components. The cyber-organic nerve cells were engineered to be self-replicative. This was possible because they contained "DNA analogues" constructed from synthetic molecules. The analogues were "programmed" for the assembly of the inorganic neuronal components. These components were made of several polymerized synthetic chemical compounds. The unique properties of these "silica pathways" caused the neurons of the bio-mechanical brain to generate electrical signals that were digital in nature. This meant that the consciousness that emerged from these artificial brains was based upon digital information transfer and as a result was viewed by the Colonials as essentially nothing more than an advanced artificial intelligence program supplemented by organic systems. Yet, it still mimicked the functions of a human brain processing the software of human thought—which appears to have linear sequential aspects, parallel processing aspects, and also neural cooperative hierarchical caching and even quantum processing aspects.
So this artificial brain perfectly mimicked the adult human level of functioning and therefore created the first self-aware and self-reflective machines. These sentient machines were designated "CYbernetic Life OrgaNisms", which was abbreviated to "Cylons".
At first the Cylons served the Colonials in the mines, on the ocean floor, and the cold vacuum of space, working in places where humans no longer wished to go. Eventually, they became soldiers, fighting in wars and border conflicts between the Colonies. The Cylons were the most perfect of man's war machines, intelligent and deadly, capable of logic, reason, and learning. And they were utterly without conscience. Killing, to the Cylons, was simply one of the functions for which they had been superbly designed.
Then came the day when the Cylons decided to kill their human masters. They began an assault on humankind with one purpose in mind - the total and absolute extermination of their creators. For ten long and bloody years, humanity fought -- not just for freedom, but for survival. The Twelve Colonies, facing a common, implacable foe, at last came together and joined as one. Many fought, and many died, in the effort to destroy the mechanized race that humanity itself had conceived and brought into being.
Through valiant fighting and with the mobilization of every available resource throughout the human sphere, the Cylon "Centurions" and "Raiders" were gradually driven from the immediate part of space occupied by humanity. In the end, an armistice was declared. Humanity would live in peace, while the Cylons left to find another world to call their own, 'live and let live' was the philosophy…if "live" was a term that could be applied to the existence of the robots. No one knew the location of the Cylon world. But to maintain the peace, a remote space station was built in the dark emptiness between the stars, to be a place where Cylon and human would meet and maintain diplomatic relations.
Once a year, every year, the Colonials sent an officer for the scheduled meeting. After the first year, the Cylons sent no one. No one saw or heard from the Cylons in over forty years.
During their forty years of isolation, the Cylons developed genetically engineered human bodies that can encase and interface with a Cylon bio-mechanical nervous system and still function as normal human bodies would. These bodies have all the human anatomical systems; such as blood, internal organs, immune system, lymphatic system, etc. However, they not only have the synthetic DNA analogues within the cyber-organic neurons, but also within every other cell of the body in order to facilitate the necessary electric feedback between the body and the bio-mechanical nervous system. This includes the germ cells (ova and spermatozoa); however the mechanisms of the DNA analogues doesn't allow for zygote construction from two Cylon germ cells, therefore these 'humanoid Cylons' still can't procreate amongst themselves. However, human to humanoid Cylon interbreeding is possible under certain circumstances.
A significant aspect that was engineered into the humanoid Cylons as well as the new Cylon Raiders was that upon "death" their digital consciousness is externally transmitted and downloaded into another Cylon brain of the same model line. This "resurrection" is limited by distance, signal integrity, and proximity to the Cylon homeworld or a "Resurrection Ship." The humanoid Cylons also revised the original Cylon robotic soldier, the sentient Cylon Centurion Model 0005, into a more agile and dangerous version. Unlike the original version, however, the new Centurion is not sentient by design, as the humanoid Cylons wanted to prevent these updated creations from forming an intra-Cylon uprising that mirrored their war with humanity.
Twelve humanoid Cylon model lines were created. However, for reasons unknown, only seven humanoid Cylon models were actively functioning within the Cylon populace at the time of the genocidal attack on the Colonies. The remaining five models appear to have been intentionally ignored and forgotten to the extent of their discussion becoming taboo between other models.
The Cylons, realizing that the Colonial forces would likely too strong to engage in a direct military action, devise an elaborate plan to infiltrate the Colonial ships' operating system software, leaving a backdoor that could be exploited to disable any Colonial ship with its own programming. The Cylons softened up the Twelve Colonies for attack by infiltrating their military and civilian society with numerous copies of the humanoid Cylons. One such copy seduced the brilliant Dr. Gaius Baltar, fooling him into contract work that gave her access to the Colonial Defense Mainframe. Her work compromised Baltar's Command Navigation Program, writing in the planned programmer backdoors.
The plan was successful; the Colonial Fleet was destroyed, the Colonies themselves were subjected to nuclear bombardment, and Colonial civilization was all by wiped out, except for a handful of survivors on the Colonies in outlying areas as well as a caravan of spaceborne humans that eventually escaped the Colonial star system.
The Cylons continue to pursue the remnants of the Colonies, believing that humans will always seek vengeance against them.
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