149-532: The Cylons / ˈ s aɪ l ɒ n / are a race of sentient robots in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction franchise, whose primary goal is the extermination of the human race. Introduced in the original 1978 series , they also appear in the 1980 sequel series , the 2004–2009 reboot series , and the spin-off prequel series Caprica . In the 1978 series, the Cylons are the creation of
298-406: A polity 's evolution, drawing an analogy between an individual human's life cycle and developments undergone by a body politic : this metaphor was offered, in varying iterations, by Cicero (106–43 BCE), Seneca (c. 1 BCE – 65 CE), Florus (c. 74 CE – c. 130 CE), and Ammianus Marcellinus (between 325 and 330 CE – after 391 CE). This social-organism metaphor, which has been traced back to
447-493: A resurrection ship . Meanwhile, Boomer turned increasingly anti-human. She was charged with Hera's care, but Hera rejected her. During a truce negotiation, Boomer told Athena that her daughter was alive but sick on the Baseship. She invited Athena to come to the Baseship and rejoin her people, because the occupation showed that humans and Cylons were incompatible and that humans would never truly accept her. The Cylon Centurion
596-653: A robot's navigation and limbs regardless of the specific hardware involved. It also provides high-level commands for items like image recognition and even opening doors. When ROS boots up on a robot's computer, it would obtain data on attributes such as the length and movement of robots' limbs. It would relay this data to higher-level algorithms. Microsoft is also developing a "Windows for robots" system with its Robotics Developer Studio, which has been available since 2007. Japan hopes to have full-scale commercialization of service robots by 2025. Much technological research in Japan
745-547: A tricycle in 1904, considered the first case of an unmanned ground vehicle , and an electric boat with a crew in 1906, which was controlled at a distance over 2 km. Archibald Low , known as the "father of radio guidance systems" for his pioneering work on guided rockets and planes during the First World War . In 1917, he demonstrated a remote controlled aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and in
894-965: A "hybrid" of the 2 variants. Robot A robot is a machine —especially one programmable by a computer —capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form , but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics. Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda 's Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility ( ASIMO ) and TOSY 's TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot ( TOPIO ) to industrial robots , medical operating robots , patient assist robots, dog therapy robots, collectively programmed swarm robots , UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ-1 Predator , and even microscopic nano robots . By mimicking
1043-603: A Corsican outsider – was unprepared for an extended winter campaign yet invaded the Russian Empire , precipitating the fall of the French Empire; and in 1941, German Führer Adolf Hitler – born an Austrian outsider – was unprepared for an extended winter campaign yet invaded the Russian Empire's Soviet successor state , which was ruled by Joseph Stalin , born
1192-606: A Georgian outsider, thus precipitating the fall of the Third Reich . Mahatma Gandhi worked to liberate his compatriots by peaceful means and was shot dead; Martin Luther King Jr. worked to liberate his compatriots by peaceful means and was shot dead. Over history, confrontations between peoples – typically, geographical neighbors – help consolidate the peoples into nations , at times into frank empires ; until at last, exhausted by conflicts and drained of resources,
1341-643: A Hybrid (" Faith "). It is unclear whether this was in willful defiance of the Hybrid or as a result of the removal of their higher function inhibitor modules (" Six of One "). After the inhibitor modules that restrict higher functions, granting them independent thought were removed, although still largely servile, the Centurions were shown to exhibit human-like behaviour, such as politeness and consideration (e.g., responding to "please"). These Centurions are taller than their predecessors, and are sleeker. They retain
1490-734: A belief in the uniformity of human nature [Trompf's emphasis]. It holds that because human nature does not change, the same sort of events can recur at any time." "Other minor cases of recurrence thinking", he writes, "include the isolation of any two specific events which bear a very striking similarity , and the preoccupation with parallelism , that is, with resemblances, both general and precise, between separate sets of historical phenomena" (emphasis in original). G. W. Trompf notes that most western concepts of historic recurrence imply that "the past teaches lessons for ... future action"—that "the same ... sorts of events which have happened before ... will recur". One such recurring theme
1639-451: A chemical substitute for protoplasm to manufacture living, simplified people called robots. The play does not focus in detail on the technology behind the creation of these living creatures, but in their appearance they prefigure modern ideas of androids , creatures who can be mistaken for humans. These mass-produced workers are depicted as efficient but emotionless, incapable of original thinking and indifferent to self-preservation. At issue
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#17327717994511788-480: A cycle of repetition that replays itself, forever." ... "What was is never over", Gorra writes, pointing out that the racism that ensnared Faulkner in the last century persists in th[e 21st] ... " Again. That's precisely why Faulkner remains so valuable – that very recurrence makes him necessary." British novelist Martin Amis observes that recurring patterns of imperial ascendance-and-decline are mirrored in
1937-527: A few seconds. The Raiders' primary weapons are two kinetic energy guns mounted on the underside of their wings, close to the main body. They may carry conventional missiles and tactical nuclear weapons . Raiders, by revealing their red "eye", can transmit deadly computer viruses or signals to enemy ships, which strike with brutal efficiency and can shut down Colonial vessels, turning off their power and making them easy prey. If all else fails, Raiders sometimes attempt suicide attacks. A single Raider can destroy
2086-546: A flute player, a pipe player and a duck. The mechanical duck could flap its wings, crane its neck, and swallow food from the exhibitor's hand, and it gave the illusion of digesting its food by excreting matter stored in a hidden compartment. About 30 years later in Switzerland the clockmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz made several complex mechanical figures that could write and play music. Several of these devices still exist and work. Remotely operated vehicles were demonstrated in
2235-511: A group of evolved, biological descendants of the Thirteenth tribe of Kobol (hitherto thought of as a myth), who offered to help them develop their own biological models and resurrection technology. In turn, during the forty year armistice they developed eight additional Cylon biological models, as well as partly biological/partly mechanical Cylon Raiders , improved Basestars , and lastly, the complex Cylon Hybrids which exist in symbiosis with
2384-533: A household robot. Generally such predictions are overly optimistic in timescale. In 2008, Caterpillar Inc. developed a dump truck which can drive itself without any human operator. Many analysts believe that self-driving trucks may eventually revolutionize logistics. By 2014, Caterpillar had a self-driving dump truck which is expected to greatly change the process of mining. In 2015, these Caterpillar trucks were actively used in mining operations in Australia by
2533-452: A lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own. Autonomous things are expected to proliferate in the future, with home robotics and the autonomous car as some of the main drivers. The branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing
2682-564: A limited nuclear war [include] those that emerge from any study of history , a knowledge of how humans act under pressure, or experience of government." Apposite evidence for this is provided in Martin J. Sherwin 's Gambling with Armageddon , which makes clear, on the basis of recently declassified documents, that it was a matter of sheer chance that war was averted during the Cuban Missile Crisis: numerous events, had they taken
2831-556: A long period of equilibrium. For example, 18th-century inflation led to the Napoleonic wars and later the Victorian equilibrium. Sir Arthur Keith 's theory of a species-wide amity-enmity complex suggests that human conscience evolved as a duality: people are driven to protect members of their in-group , and to hate and fight enemies who belong to an out-group . Thus an endless, useless cycle of ad hoc "isms" arises. One of
2980-546: A long-extinct reptilian humanoid race, also called Cylons, and view humans as a nuisance and an obstacle to the expansion of the Cylon Empire. The armies of metallic, armored Cylon Centurions are ruled by a unique, yet replaceable, Cylon known as the Imperious Leader. The 2004 series establishes that the robotic Cylons were created by humans but rose up against them. Decades after the initial conflict ended in
3129-590: A mechanized puppet . Different variations of the karakuri existed: the Butai karakuri , which were used in theatre, the Zashiki karakuri , which were small and used in homes, and the Dashi karakuri which were used in religious festivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends . In France, between 1738 and 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited several life-sized automatons:
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#17327717994513278-525: A mere five decades. With Rome's world dominion, however, aristocracy had been supplanted by a monarchy , which in turn tended to decay into tyranny ; after Augustus Caesar , good rulers had alternated with tyrannical ones. The Roman Empire , in its western and eastern sectors, had become a contending ground between contestants for power, while outside powers acquired an advantage. In Rome's decay, Zosimus saw history repeating itself in its general movements. The ancients developed an enduring metaphor for
3427-456: A mobile robot that is in common use today is the automated guided vehicle or automatic guided vehicle (AGV). An AGV is a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the floor, or uses vision or lasers. AGVs are discussed later in this article. Historic recurrence Historic recurrence is the repetition of similar events in history . The concept of historic recurrence has variously been applied to overall human history (e.g., to
3576-474: A new body and settled on Cylon-occupied Caprica in her former apartment, unable to relinquish her human identity. She led a campaign for better treatment of the humans. She and other like-minded Cylons influenced the Cylon civilization, which withdrew from the colonial home worlds and pursued benevolent treatment of the humans and then reconciliation. During this time, the half-human half-Cylon hybrid, Hera Agathon,
3725-458: A resistance movement and the efforts of both the Galactica and Pegasus . The escape required Athena's help. She entered the Cylon facility and took the keys to the various Colonial landing craft. Before this, a Three learned from a human oracle that Hera was alive and on the planet. She rescued Hera after her adoptive mother was killed during the escape. The Pegasus sacrificed itself to save
3874-526: A single loving God. The first colonial Centurion is seen and is identified as a "Cybernetic Lifeform Node". Built on contract for the Caprican Defense Ministry, the Cylons are to replace human warriors on the battlefield ( Caprica pilot). The U-87 prototype Cylon contains a copy of the consciousness of Daniel Graystone's daughter, Zoe Graystone. Daniel Graystone conceives of the Cylons as a slave race and demonstrates this by instructing
4023-769: A sizeable transport. The Raiders from the First Cylon War were larger spacecraft driven by Centurion pilots, and not alive. These are used by the remaining First War Centurions guarding the Original Hybrid and the Cylon Colony, and later became obsolete. The later Cylon Raiders are different from Cylon Heavy Raiders. Like the raiders of the First Cylon War, the Heavy Raiders are transports and attack bombers, and are primarily piloted by Sixes and Eights. Cylon Basestars (alternatively, "Baseships") are
4172-412: A slightly different course, could each have precipitated nuclear war. Fintan O'Toole writes about American war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (1908–1998): Her dispatches were not first drafts of history; they were letters from eternity. ... To see history – at least the history of war – in terms of people is to see it not as a linear process but as a series of terrible repetitions ... It
4321-405: A steel gear, cam and motor skeleton covered by an aluminum skin. In 1928, Japan's first robot, Gakutensoku , was designed and constructed by biologist Makoto Nishimura. The German V-1 flying bomb was equipped with systems for automatic guidance and range control, flying on a predetermined course (which could include a 90-degree turn) and entering a terminal dive after a predetermined distance. It
4470-430: A time when his contemporaries such as Alan Turing and John von Neumann were all turning towards a view of mental processes in terms of digital computation . His work inspired subsequent generations of robotics researchers such as Rodney Brooks , Hans Moravec and Mark Tilden . Modern incarnations of Walter's turtles may be found in the form of BEAM robotics . The first digitally operated and programmable robot
4619-413: A truce, the Cylons reappear and launch a cataclysmic attack on human civilization that kills billions. The metallic Centurions are secretly led by several models of synthetic humanoid Cylons who are virtually indistinguishable from humans and have infiltrated their society. In the original 1978 series Battlestar Galactica , created by Glen A. Larson , the Cylons are a race of sentient robots at war with
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4768-659: Is robotics . These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes , or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, or cognition. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics . These robots have also created a newer branch of robotics: soft robotics . From the time of ancient civilization , there have been many accounts of user-configurable automated devices and even automata resembling humans and other animals, such as animatronics , designed primarily as entertainment. As mechanical techniques developed through
4917-430: Is a mechanical infantry model, made less intelligent than human models. BSGr Centurions retain the silver appearance, robotic body, helmet-like head and oscillating red bar eye of their forebears but are larger, taller, stronger, more agile and have a more streamlined appearance. They also have retractable guns built into their lower arms, bladed fingertips and heavy armour. The Centurions were monotheists who believed in
5066-618: Is a new robot introduced in 2012 which learns by guidance. A worker could teach Baxter how to perform a task by moving its hands in the desired motion and having Baxter memorize them. Extra dials, buttons, and controls are available on Baxter's arm for more precision and features. Any regular worker could program Baxter and it only takes a matter of minutes, unlike usual industrial robots that take extensive programs and coding to be used. This means Baxter needs no programming to operate. No software engineers are needed. This also means Baxter can be taught to perform multiple, more complicated tasks. Sawyer
5215-541: Is also depicted in a diagram reviewed by the armistice officer in the opening scene. In Battlestar Galactica: Razor , Centurions are almost identical to those from the original series, except they are rendered using CGI and have exposed joints. The Centurion in the museum hangar is retconned as a CGI version with exposed joints. Initial-model Centurions are among those seen defending the Cylon colony from an assault by Colonial and rebel Cylon forces (Part 2 of " Daybreak "). The body had synthetic skin, although this model
5364-508: Is constantly recurring, and not as farce as Marx had it but as itself. Michnik has written: "The world is full of inquisitors and heretics , liars and those lied to, terrorists and the terrorized. There is still someone dying at Thermopylae , someone drinking a glass of hemlock , someone crossing the Rubicon , someone drawing up a proscription list." The Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana observed: "Those who cannot remember
5513-403: Is her ability to capture ... the terrible futility of this sameness that makes Gellhorn's reportage so genuinely timeless. [W]e are ... drawn... into the undertow of her distraught awareness that this moment, in its essence, has happened before and will happen again. Casey Cep , describing a dissonance between William Faulkner 's documented personal racism and Faulkner's depiction of
5662-620: Is just recently introduced which acts both as a smartphone and robot and is named RoboHon. As robots become more advanced, eventually there may be a standard computer operating system designed mainly for robots. Robot Operating System (ROS) is an open-source software set of programs being developed at Stanford University , the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and the Technical University of Munich , Germany, among others. ROS provides ways to program
5811-799: Is led by Japanese government agencies, particularly the Trade Ministry. Many future applications of robotics seem obvious to people, even though they are well beyond the capabilities of robots available at the time of the prediction. As early as 1982 people were confident that someday robots would: 1. Clean parts by removing molding flash 2. Spray paint automobiles with absolutely no human presence 3. Pack things in boxes—for example, orient and nest chocolate candies in candy boxes 4. Make electrical cable harness 5. Load trucks with boxes—a packing problem 6. Handle soft goods, such as garments and shoes 7. Shear sheep 8. Be used as prostheses 9. Cook fast food and work in other service industries 10. Work as
5960-399: Is not known whether he attempted to build it. According to Encyclopædia Britannica , Leonardo da Vinci may have been influenced by the classic automata of al-Jazari. In Japan, complex animal and human automata were built between the 17th to 19th centuries, with many described in the 18th century Karakuri zui ( Illustrated Machinery , 1796). One such automaton was the karakuri ningyō ,
6109-579: Is often remarked that "history repeats itself", in cycles of less than cosmological duration this cannot be strictly true. In this interpretation of recurrence, as opposed perhaps to the Nietzschean interpretation, there is no metaphysics . Recurrences take place due to ascertainable circumstances and chains of causality . An example is the ubiquitous phenomenon of multiple independent discovery in science and technology , described by Robert K. Merton and Harriet Zuckerman . Indeed, recurrences, in
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6258-846: Is the Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven , by which an unjust ruler will lose the support of Heaven and be overthrown. Confucius (ca. 551 – ca. 479 BCE) urged: "Study the past if you would define the future." In the Islamic world , Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) wrote that asabiyyah (social cohesion or group unity) plays an important role in a kingdom's or dynasty's cycle of rise and fall. G. W. Trompf describes various historic paradigms of historic recurrence, including paradigms that view types of large-scale historic phenomena variously as "cyclical"; "fluctuant"; "reciprocal"; "re-enacted"; or "revived". He also notes "[t]he view proceeding from
6407-504: Is whether the robots are being exploited and the consequences of human dependence upon commodified labor (especially after a number of specially-formulated robots achieve self-awareness and incite robots all around the world to rise up against the humans). Karel Čapek himself did not coin the word. He wrote a short letter in reference to an etymology in the Oxford English Dictionary in which he named his brother,
6556-651: The robota (Hungarian robot ) was the work period a serf (corvée) had to give for his lord, typically six months of the year. The origin of the word is the Old Church Slavonic rabota ' servitude ' ( ' work ' in contemporary Bulgarian, Macedonian and Russian), which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European root * orbh- . Robot is cognate with the German Arbeit ' work ' . English pronunciation of
6705-617: The American Confederacy , writes that Michael Gorra , in The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War (Liveright, 2020), posits that [the character] Quentin [Compson, who suicides in Absalom, Absalom! ] represents Faulkner's view of tragedy as recurrence. "Again" was the saddest word for the character and the author alike because it "suggests that what was has simply gone on happening,
6854-602: The Battlestar Galactica copyright. However the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals did not include the Cylons in the list of similarities they issued on an appeal in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. v. MCA Inc. The case was remanded and reportedly settled out of court, by which time, Battlestar Galactica had already been canceled. In the series, the Imperious Leader is voiced by Patrick Macnee . Lucifer , an IL-Series Cylon installed as
7003-542: The Centurions , imposing humanoid robots characterized by their chrome armor and distinctive red eye visors. They speak in electronic, monotonous tones, and do not possess the intellect and autonomy of the IL-Series Cylons. The sequel series Galactica 1980 introduces two new-model Cylons who are indistinguishable from humans, Andromus ( Roger Davis ) and Andromidus (Neil Zevnik), in the episode " The Night
7152-1056: The Crimean War ; the German Empire and the First World War ; the Soviet Union and the Cuban Missile Crisis ; the United States and the Vietnam War . Suggestions that the European Union is suffering a political midlife crisis have been put forward by Gideon Rachman (2010), Roland Benedikter (2014), and Natalie Nougayrède (2017). David Hackett Fischer has identified four waves in European history, each of some 150–200 years' duration. Each wave begins with prosperity, leading to inflation, inequality, rebellion and war, and resolving in
7301-705: The Han Fei Zi and other texts, which attributes the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban with the invention of artificial wooden birds ( ma yuan ) that could successfully fly. In 1066, the Chinese inventor Su Song built a water clock in the form of a tower which featured mechanical figurines which chimed the hours. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs ( cams ) that bumped into little levers that operated percussion instruments. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns by moving
7450-477: The Industrial age , there appeared more practical applications such as automated machines, remote-control and wireless remote-control . The term comes from a Slavic root, robot- , with meanings associated with labor. The word "robot" was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in a 1920 Czech-language play R.U.R. ( Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti – Rossum's Universal Robots ) by Karel Čapek , though it
7599-474: The U.S. Naval Academy , "Historically, the top leadership of military organizations has not abandoned obsolete prestige weapons until compelled to do so by a calamity." People ignore warnings about the dangers of nuclear power plants , until anticipated nuclear power-plant accidents occur ; and people ignore warnings about the dangers of nuclear weapons , which in 1945 destroyed two Japanese cities, have on several occasions come close to destroying more of
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#17327717994517748-658: The US Navy . In 1903, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated a radio control system called Telekino at the Paris Academy of Sciences , which he wanted to use to control an airship of his own design. He obtained several patents for the system in other countries. Unlike previous 'on/off' techniques, Torres established a method for controlling any mechanical or electrical device with different states of operation. The Telekino remotely controlled
7897-405: The ancient Greek historian Thucydides , saw human nature as remarkably stable—steady enough for the formulation of rules of political behavior. Machiavelli wrote in his Discorsi : Whoever considers the past and the present will readily observe that all cities and all peoples ... ever have been animated by the same desires and the same passions; so that it is easy, by diligent study of
8046-407: The democracy that brought them to power. Ben-Ghiat primarily dissects Silvio Berlusconi , Vladimir Putin , and Donald Trump , with Viktor Orbán , Jair Bolsonaro , Rodrigo Duterte , Narendra Modi , and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan given perfunctory assessments. Dorfman notes the absence, from Ben-Ghiat's study, of many authoritarian rulers, including communists like Mao , Stalin , Ceaușescu , and
8195-547: The novels published; according to Amis, novels follow current political trends. In the Victorian era, when Britain was the ascendant power , British novels were large and tried to express what society as a whole was. British power waned during the Second World War and ended after the war. The British novel was then some 225 pages long and centered on narrower subjects such as career setbacks or marriage setbacks:
8344-475: The torpedo . Differential speed on the wires connected to the shore station allowed the torpedo to be guided to its target, making it "the world's first practical guided missile ". In 1897 the British inventor Ernest Wilson was granted a patent for a torpedo remotely controlled by "Hertzian" (radio) waves and in 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a wireless-controlled torpedo that he hoped to sell to
8493-559: The 4th century BC, the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical steam-operated bird he called "The Pigeon". Hero of Alexandria (10–70 AD) , a Greek mathematician and inventor, created numerous user-configurable automated devices, and described machines powered by air pressure, steam and water. The 11th century Lokapannatti tells of how the Buddha's relics were protected by mechanical robots (bhuta vahana yanta), from
8642-477: The Basestar. The biological models have (at times) demonstrated enhanced strength, stamina, and an ability to interface with computer systems; however, they also feel pain, hunger, and fear. Cylon biological technology has also shown weaknesses to radiation and disease as some of their few vulnerabilities. All Cylons in the re-imagined series use a digital consciousness employed in mechanical or biological media;
8791-477: The British novel's "great tradition" increasingly looked depleted. Ascendance, according to Amis, had passed to the United States, and Americans such as Saul Bellow , Norman Mailer , Philip Roth , and John Updike began writing huge novels. Novelists and historians have discerned recurrent patterns in the histories of modern political tyrants . Gabriel García Márquez , in his novel The Autumn of
8940-526: The Colonial military and received the call sign "Athena". Ten months after the initial attacks, Eight Sharon Valerii (call sign "Boomer"), attempted to assassinate Commander Adama under the influence of programming unknown to her. She was unaware that she was a Cylon before the attack, though she had been uneasy because of unexplained blackouts (during various attempts to sabotage Galactica ). A vengeful crew mate, Cally Henderson killed her. She downloaded into
9089-477: The Cylon's primary capital ships, equivalent to the Colonial's Battlestars. Basestars were used by the Cylons as early as the First Cylon War. These original Basestars were identical in appearance to the Basestars of the 1978 series, though utilizing kinetic armaments instead of energy weapons. A later model used by The Guardians incorporated the original design in addition to features of the newer models, acting as
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#17327717994519238-691: The Cylons Landed ". The concept of humanoid Cylons would become a primary element of the 2000s reboot series . The Centurions were initially depicted in preproduction art by artist Ralph McQuarrie , but the final design was largely the work of Andrew Probert . Similarities with the McQuarrie-derived look of the Stormtroopers from Star Wars are sometimes suggested as a factor that prompted 20th Century Fox 's lawsuit for copyright infringement against Universal Studios , owners of
9387-436: The Cylons to conclude that the missing component was love. They tested this by using an Eight posing as Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii from Galactica to seduce a marooned Galactica officer, Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon on Caprica. They fell in love. The Eight abandoned the Cylons, helping Helo to escape. The couple later produced the first viable human/Cylon birth. This Eight joined the fleet with Helo. She later married Helo, joined
9536-403: The Cylons to occupy the human settlement unchallenged. Initially, the occupation was peaceful, but later the Cylons became more forceful and vicious in response to increasing human resistance . In the end, they used punitive methods to keep the humans in line, including summary executions and infiltration by seemingly sympathetic Cylons. Four months later, the colonials escaped with the help of
9685-408: The Cylons. The virus persisted through the download process, so the Basestar that had been dispatched for the investigation was abandoned to avoid contamination. The colonial fleet discovered the Basestar and captured the ailing Cylons. The colonial fleet's attempt to use the virus to wipe out the Cylons was defeated when Helo, repulsed by the strategy, had the captive Cylons killed while out of range of
9834-442: The First Cylon War, are alive, with a complex system of veins, organs and biological fluids contained within their main body. The Raiders are programmed, but began with some measure of autonomy and personality. When one Raider saw a Final Five in the human fleet during an attack, it retreated, leading the remaining Raiders back to the Basestar. The Raiders then refused to fight the humans, for fear of harming their Cylon kin. This led to
9983-889: The Fuji Yusoki Kogyo Company. In 1973, a robot with six electromechanically driven axes was patented by KUKA robotics in Germany, and the programmable universal manipulation arm was invented by Victor Scheinman in 1976, and the design was sold to Unimation . Commercial and industrial robots are now in widespread use performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans. They are also employed for jobs which are too dirty, dangerous or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used in manufacturing, assembly and packing, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods. Various techniques have emerged to develop
10132-585: The Greek Hellenistic historian Polybius (c. 200 – c. 118 BCE), the Greek historian and rhetorician Dionysius of Halicarnassus (c. 60 BCE – after 7 BCE), Luke the Evangelist , Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), Correa Moylan Walsh (1862–1936), Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975). An eastern concept that bears a kinship to western concepts of historic recurrence
10281-506: The Greek designs, these Arab examples reveal an interest, not only in dramatic illusion, but in manipulating the environment for human comfort. Thus, the greatest contribution the Arabs made, besides preserving, disseminating and building on the work of the Greeks, was the concept of practical application. This was the key element that was missing in Greek robotic science. In the 14th century,
10430-688: The Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle (384–322 BCE), would recur centuries later in the works of the French philosopher and sociologist Auguste Comte (1798–1857), the English philosopher and polymath Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), and the French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Niccolò Machiavelli , analyzing the state of Florentine and Italian politics between 1434 and 1494, described recurrent oscillations between "order" and "disorder" within states: when states have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline. In
10579-567: The Italian physicist Galileo Galilei in 1636 in Florence. Humans, empirically -minded, tend to doubt what has not been presented by their own senses or by unquestioned authorities, and inertly to not act unless compelled by circumstances. John Vaillant writes, in reference to the global warming crisis, of "the self-protective tendency to favor the status quo over a potentially disruptive scenario one has not witnessed personally." While it
10728-665: The Patriarch (1975), ... create[d] a composite character: a mythical, unnamed autocrat who has held sway, seemingly forever, over an invented Caribbean country akin to Costaguana in Joseph Conrad's Nostromo . To portray him, García Márquez drew upon a motley cohort of Latin American caudillos ... as well as Spain's Generalissimo Francisco Franco ... Ruth Ben-Ghiat in Strongmen: Mussolini to
10877-465: The Present (2020), writes Ariel Dorfman , documents the "viral recurrence" around the world, over the past century, of despots and authoritarians "with comparable strategies of control and mendacity". Ben-Ghiat divides the narrative into three – at times, overlapping – periods: The era of fascist takeovers runs from 1919 and the ascent of Mussolini until Hitler 's defeat in 1945, with Franco as
11026-512: The Thirteenth Tribe settled on "Earth" and developed sexual reproduction, resulting in resurrection technology falling into disuse and eventual loss. About 2,000 years before the events of the re-imagined series, the descendants of the Thirteenth Tribe created their own race of self-aware machines for subservient labor and were, in turn, killed by their creations in a nuclear war. Five scientists survived due to their work on re-inventing
11175-701: The Twelve Colonies of humanity. They are led by a Cylon known as the Imperious Leader who, though seemingly unique, can be replaced if needed. The IL-Series are a class of Cylons below the Imperious Leader who serve the Cylon Empire in non-military roles as administrators and diplomats. They have human-shaped, metallic heads and faces with glowing red eyes, and translucent conical craniums with visible crystalline brains. The IL-Series possess humanoid bodies covered in long, sparkling robes, and speak in refined, masculine voices. The Cylon foot soldiers are
11324-439: The Twelve Colonies. The initial physical form developed is a Graystone Industries U-87 drone soldier, with a revolutionary new MCP ("Meta-Cognitive Processor"). This forms the foundation for other Cylon technologies incorporated throughout the Twelve Colonies. Cylons are originally accepted into Caprican culture as robotic workers after a group of them (under direct remote control by Graystone himself) successfully thwart an attack on
11473-419: The ability to download consciousness from a dying body into a new one. Ostensibly, this provides an advantage in preventing the loss of knowledge and experience by making death a learning experience. The sophistication of Cylon consciousness also made this a liability, as biological models carried the trauma of their deaths into their "resurrections." About 6,000 years before the events of the re-imagined series,
11622-591: The annual Makahiki festival honoring Lono , the fertility and peace god , was reputedly facilitated by the natives' identification of Cook with Lono, who had left Hawaii, promising to return on a floating island, evoked by Cook's ship under full sail. Poland's Queen Jadwiga , dying in 1399, bequeathed her personal jewelry for the restoration of Kraków University , which would occur in 1400; and Leland Stanford 's widow Jane Stanford attempted, after his 1893 death, to sell her personal jewelry to restore Stanford University 's financial viability, ultimately bequeathing
11771-577: The armistice line to gather intelligence on Cylon activity. A stealth ship from the Valkyrie crossed the armistice line, but was intercepted by the Cylons. Three years later the Cylons began a surprise attack on the Colonies. The attack was successful because a Cylon agent, later known as Caprica Six , infiltrated Caprica 's colonial defense network with the unwitting complicity of renowned scientist Gaius Baltar and created backdoor programs to shut down
11920-509: The artificial doves of Archytas , the artificial birds of Mozi and Lu Ban , a "speaking" automaton by Hero of Alexandria , a washstand automaton by Philo of Byzantium , and a human automaton described in the Lie Zi . Many ancient mythologies, and most modern religions include artificial people, such as the mechanical servants built by the Greek god Hephaestus ( Vulcan to the Romans),
12069-413: The bottom of the sea. There are concerns about the increasing use of robots and their role in society. Robots are blamed for rising technological unemployment as they replace workers in increasing numbers of functions. The use of robots in military combat raises ethical concerns. The possibilities of robot autonomy and potential repercussions have been addressed in fiction and may be a realistic concern in
12218-478: The brain worked lay in how it was wired up. His first robots, named Elmer and Elsie , were constructed between 1948 and 1949 and were often described as tortoises due to their shape and slow rate of movement. The three-wheeled tortoise robots were capable of phototaxis , by which they could find their way to a recharging station when they ran low on battery power. Walter stressed the importance of using purely analogue electronics to simulate brain processes at
12367-429: The clay golems of Jewish legend and clay giants of Norse legend, and Galatea , the mythical statue of Pygmalion that came to life. Since circa 400 BC, myths of Crete include Talos , a man of bronze who guarded the island from pirates. In ancient Greece, the Greek engineer Ctesibius (c. 270 BC) "applied a knowledge of pneumatics and hydraulics to produce the first organ and water clocks with moving figures." In
12516-482: The concept of a robot is the field of synthetic biology , which studies entities whose nature is more comparable to living things than to machines. The idea of automata originates in the mythologies of many cultures around the world. Engineers and inventors from ancient civilizations, including Ancient China , Ancient Greece , and Ptolemaic Egypt , attempted to build self-operating machines, some resembling animals and humans. Early descriptions of automata include
12665-481: The conflict, the Cylons began experimenting with their first attempts to evolve with biological components, using captured humans as resources and creating their prototypes for the next generation of basestars and hybrids. The Cylons opted to cease hostilities, declaring an Armistice and promptly disappearing. After forty years, the Colonial Admiralty sent Battlestar Valkyrie on a covert mission close to
12814-459: The coronation of Richard II of England featured an automata angel. In Renaissance Italy, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) sketched plans for a humanoid robot around 1495. Da Vinci's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contained detailed drawings of a mechanical knight now known as Leonardo's robot , able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw. The design was probably based on anatomical research recorded in his Vitruvian Man . It
12963-512: The crippled Galactica , but the crew survived, joining Galactica . The Cylons then adopted the colonials’ mission to find the home of the Thirteenth Tribe, a planet they called Earth, intending to settle there. They resumed pursuit of the fleet, but upon reaching the Lion's Head Nebula, dispatched a Basestar to investigate. The Basestar took on board a canister left by the Thirteenth Tribe. The canister contained an airborne virus that proved deadly to
13112-868: The distinctive, oscillating red "eye", as well as a rudimentary mouth (even though they cannot speak). The hands are much thinner and visibly segmented, and more claw-like (they can cut flesh and mortally wound a human, making them effective close-combat weapons.) These claws can be modified at will, to a more "finger-like" digit or less of a razor-sharp weapon. The Centurions carry heavy weapons, such as anti-aircraft rockets that are strapped to their backs, for missions where their cannons are not enough. Most Centurions can be destroyed or at least damaged by small-arms fire, however most require substantial artillery or special rounds to be destroyed (a Centurions party that boarded Galactica were especially strong, and required explosive rounds to be destroyed, as regular rounds proved completely ineffective). These Centurions greatly outmatched
13261-424: The drink. Al-Jazari invented a hand washing automaton incorporating a flush mechanism now used in modern flush toilets . It features a female humanoid automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the female automaton refills the basin. Mark E. Rosheim summarizes the advances in robotics made by Muslim engineers, especially al-Jazari, as follows: Unlike
13410-428: The earliest known automatic gates, which were driven by hydropower, created automatic doors as part of one of his elaborate water clocks . One of al-Jazari's humanoid automata was a waitress that could serve water, tea or drinks. The drink was stored in a tank with a reservoir from where the drink drips into a bucket and, after seven minutes, into a cup, after which the waitress appears out of an automatic door serving
13559-472: The eventual downfall of his dynasty or state. Joshua S. Goldstein suggests that empires, analogously to an individual's midlife crisis , experience a political midlife crisis: after a period of expansion in which all earlier goals are realized, overconfidence sets in, and governments are then likely to attack or threaten their strongest rival; Goldstein cites four examples: the British Empire and
13708-469: The expense of her predecessors — Assyria , Media , Persia , and Macedonia —anticipated Rome's eventual decay. He thus implied the idea of recurring decay in the history of world empires —an idea that was to be developed by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE) and by Pompeius Trogus , a 1st-century BCE Roman historian from a Celtic tribe in Gallia Narbonensis . By
13857-404: The first Cylon war. Unaware of the events on Kobol or with the Thirteenth Tribe, the Twelve Colonies developed self-aware, artificial intelligence in the form of the Cylon race, which rebelled and began a decade-long war across the colonies. Colonial veterans of this conflict remarked that the Cylons were relentless, highly adaptable, and resourceful in their ability to wage war. Nearing the end of
14006-494: The first law and often the third law. "People think about Asimov's laws, but they were set up to point out how a simple ethical system doesn't work. If you read the short stories, every single one is about a failure, and they are totally impractical," said Dr. Joanna Bryson of the University of Bath. ) Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location. An example of
14155-505: The form of reproducible findings obtained through experiment or observation , are essential to the natural and social sciences ; and, in the form of observations rigorously studied via the comparative method and comparative research , are essential to the humanities . In his book The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought , G. W. Trompf traces historically recurring patterns of political thought and behavior in
14304-687: The future. The word robot can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents , but the latter are usually referred to as bots . There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots but there is general agreement among experts, and the public, that robots tend to possess some or all of the following abilities and functions: accept electronic programming, process data or physical perceptions electronically, operate autonomously to some degree, move around, operate physical parts of itself or physical processes, sense and manipulate their environment, and exhibit intelligent behavior, especially behavior which mimics humans or other animals. Related to
14453-404: The intent of conducting a first strike surprise attack against the Colonies. BSGr Cylon society consists of several classes differentiated by function and form. Cylon "Centurions" are the fully mechanical core of Cylon culture, developed and evolved from the first laborers and proxy soldiers designed during the events of Caprica . During the armistice, the Centurions met the "Final Five" Cylons,
14602-633: The jewelry to fund the purchase of books for Stanford University. On 27 April 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan , in the Philippine Islands , foolhardily, with only four dozen men, confronted 1,500 natives who defied his attempt to Christianize them and was killed. On 14 February 1779, English explorer James Cook, on Hawaii Island , foolhardily, with only a few men, confronted the natives after some individuals took one of Cook's small boats, and Cook and four of his men were killed. In 1812, French Emperor Napoleon – born
14751-563: The kingdom of Roma visaya (Rome); until they were disarmed by King Ashoka . In ancient China, the 3rd-century text of the Lie Zi describes an account of humanoid automata, involving a much earlier encounter between Chinese emperor King Mu of Zhou and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an 'artificer'. Yan Shi proudly presented the king with a life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical 'handiwork' made of leather, wood, and artificial organs. There are also accounts of flying automata in
14900-440: The late 19th century in the form of several types of remotely controlled torpedoes . The early 1870s saw remotely controlled torpedoes by John Ericsson ( pneumatic ), John Louis Lay (electric wire guided), and Victor von Scheliha (electric wire guided). The Brennan torpedo , invented by Louis Brennan in 1877, was powered by two contra-rotating propellers that were spun by rapidly pulling out wires from drums wound inside
15049-674: The late 5th century, Zosimus (also called "Zosimus the Historian"; fl. 490s–510s: a Byzantine historian who lived in Constantinople ) could see the writing on the Roman wall, and asserted that empires fell due to internal disunity. He gave examples from the histories of Greece and Macedonia. In the case of each empire, growth had resulted from consolidation against an external enemy; Rome herself, in response to Hannibal 's threat posed at Cannae , had risen to great-power status within
15198-409: The lobotomy vote. Well-trained Colonial pilots, even nuggets, can beat a Raider in most situations. The Raiders' primary advantage seemed to be in their massive numbers: while Galactica carries around 40 Vipers, Cylon Basestars support 300–600 Raiders. The Raiders are maneuverable, once described by Kara as a "squirmy son of a bitch", and most human pilots were unable to keep them in sight for more than
15347-536: The metaphorical "children" of humanity; as such, they envisioned the design of their biological models as a natural evolution in becoming closer to their creators and as a way of eventually surpassing them. Theologically, the Cylon Centurions developed a monotheistic religion that they passed along to their biological "offspring"; a key tenet in this theology is a mandate to reproduce. When the biological Cylons determined that they could not reproduce sexually,
15496-488: The method used to destroy them, in essence causing them to return as more skilled pilots. Raiders are subservient, and were compared to trained animals by the humanoid Cylons. A Raider nicknamed Scar developed a personality ("Scar"). Scar was the Cylons' top gun, driven by a bitter hatred of humans. He was killed and reborn many times. Raiders do not use vocal communication, appearing to communicate through unspecified electronic signals. Modern Raiders, unlike their predecessors in
15645-407: The mining company Rio Tinto Coal Australia . Some analysts believe that within the next few decades, most trucks will be self-driving. A literate or 'reading robot' named Marge has intelligence that comes from software. She can read newspapers, find and correct misspelled words, learn about banks like Barclays, and understand that some restaurants are better places to eat than others. Baxter
15794-449: The more dogmatic faction experimented with a forced breeding program on captured human women, with no success. Conversely, several biological models theorized that emotional connection was missing and that a hybrid between human and Cylon may represent their best possible future. This led to a contrived, but ultimately fruitful pairing between a model "Eight" and Karl Agathon . As an alternative to biological reproduction, Cylons developed
15943-402: The naturally evolved humans of Kobol existed in twelve tribes with advanced technology, eventually developing self-aware machines that rebelled and waged a devastating war. The machines were highly advanced, developing both biological models and resurrection technology for digital consciousness transfer. At the end of hostilities, all the inhabitants of Kobol (both human and machine) chose to leave
16092-521: The network and its defenses. The thermonuclear attacks wiped out billions of humans, nearly the entire colonial population. Two Battlestars – Galactica and Pegasus – survived. A fleet of civilian ships was scattered throughout the neighboring space. Together they fled into deep space. The Cylons pursued them while beginning the next phase of their evolution, procreation . Female human survivors were detained and used in experiments to create Cylon-human hybrids. The experiments were unsuccessful, leading
16241-412: The newly sentient life forms to wage catastrophic wars against their creators. This pattern seems immutable, as even the Cylons of the Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol, who eventually created biological bodies and practiced natural reproduction, eventually created new subservient AI that rebelled in turn on "Earth". The prequel series, Caprica (2010), depicts the initial development of the Cylons by humans on
16390-489: The once militant polities settle into a relatively peaceful habitus. Martin Indyk observes: "Wars often don't end until both sides have exhausted themselves and become convinced that they are better off coexisting with their enemies than pursuing a futile effort to destroy them." Polities ignored Jan Bloch 's 1898 warnings of the railroad - mobilized , industrialized , stalemated, attritional total war , World War I, that
16539-440: The original Resurrection technology; having been warned in advance by mysterious " angels " that a Kobol-like disaster was coming, the "final five" members of the Thirteenth Tribe downloaded into an orbiting vessel. Hoping to prevent history from repeating itself, they traveled to the Twelve Colonies hoping to avert a war between the humans there and the Cylons, eventually interceding with the Centurions to agree to an Armistice during
16688-497: The other models, they may be "boxed" and stored within the Cylon Resurrection Hub. This status is not permanent and a model can be "unboxed" for downloading into a new body at the Cylons' discretion. As a byproduct of digital consciousness, Cylons have an ability referred to as "projection", a form of realistic daydreaming that allows them to change the appearance of their surroundings in their own mind (e.g. making
16837-413: The otherwise identical corridors of a ship look like a forest, etc.). They have the ability to touch, smell, etc. the fantasy environment. They can share projections and create virtual individuals as part of the fantasy. This ability allows them to express their subconscious desires. Cylons share both philosophical and theological motivations to reproduce. Philosophically, the Cylons recognize that they are
16986-890: The painter and writer Josef Čapek , as its actual originator. In an article in the Czech journal Lidové noviny in 1933, he explained that he had originally wanted to call the creatures laboři ( ' workers ' , from Latin labor ). However, he did not like the word, and sought advice from his brother Josef, who suggested roboti . The word robota means literally ' corvée , serf labor ' , and figuratively ' drudgery, hard work ' in Czech and also (more general) ' work, labor ' in many Slavic languages (e.g.: Bulgarian , Russian , Serbian , Croatian , Slovenian , Slovak , Polish , Macedonian , Ukrainian and archaic Czech) as well as robot in Hungarian . Traditionally
17135-526: The past are condemned to repeat it." Plutarch 's Parallel Lives traces the similarities between pairs of a Roman and a Greek historical figure. Stanisław Szczepanowski , Poland's Catholic primate , was murdered by his former friend, King Bolesław the Bold (1079), and England's Catholic primate Thomas Becket was murdered at the behest of his former friend, King Henry II (1170). Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan 's attempted conquest of Japan (1274, 1281)
17284-627: The past, to foresee what is likely to happen in the future in any republic, and to apply those remedies that were used by the ancients, or not finding any that were employed by them, to devise new ones from the similarity of events. In 1377, the Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun , in his Muqaddima (or Prolegomena ), wrote that when nomadic tribes become united by asabiyya — Arabic for "group feeling", " social solidarity ", or " clannism "—their superior cohesion and military prowess puts urban dwellers at their mercy. Inspired often by religion , they conquer
17433-563: The pegs to different locations. Samarangana Sutradhara , a Sanskrit treatise by Bhoja (11th century), includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical contrivances ( automata ), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu mythology. 13th century Muslim scientist Ismail al-Jazari created several automated devices. He built automated moving peacocks driven by hydropower. He also invented
17582-504: The planet and seek out new homes in space, with the twelve human tribes departing together on the Galleon. The departing humans mythologized their machine counterparts, stylizing them as the "Thirteenth Tribe" of Kobol, and described their journey to a new home, called "Earth". Lacking accurate records, the descendants of the twelve tribes on the colonies assumed that the Thirteenth Tribe was, in fact, entirely made up of humans. Eventually,
17731-400: The previous model. They were better-armoured, stronger, and carried internal weapons (as opposed to their predecessors, who needed to carry weapons such as rifles and pistols, like their human creators). The later form of Cylon Raiders are biomechanical entities integrated into small fighter spacecraft. They resurrect when they die, complete with a burst transmission containing the knowledge of
17880-444: The primary antagonists to the naturally evolved humans of the Twelve Colonies, who are descendants of a single race of humans from the planet Kobol. One of the series’ core themes is that of historic recurrence , made explicit in the line "All of this has happened before and will happen again". Characters within the series either experience or discover instances where naturally evolving humans developed artificial intelligence, only for
18029-412: The primary capability this allows is the ability to "download" or "resurrect" into a new body. Because of this, it is possible for some Cylons to share memories, have their memories repressed as Sleeper agents , or have their personalities modified. Because of this ability, Cylons use the confinement of an individual or an entire line in cold storage as a form of capital punishment; if deemed dangerous by
18178-519: The prototype to rip her own arm off. After catching it interacting with the family dog, he realises that the prototype contains Zoe's consciousness and attempts without success to force her to admit her identity. She is able to defeat the tests he attempts, and convinces him that she is just a robot. Upon learning that Graystone is about to erase her memory, she escapes. The Battlestar Galactica miniseries displays an original model Centurion on display in Galactica 's museum hangar. The original Centurion
18327-549: The public at Atlas Stadium by the terrorist group Soldiers of the One (STO). Battlestar Galactica takes place roughly 40 years after the end of the first Cylon war, fought between the end of the Caprica prequel and the start of the re-imagined series. In the war, both sides fought to a standstill until the Cylons agreed to an armistice and promptly disappeared. In the interim, they improved their technology and heavily militarized with
18476-498: The recurrence patterns identified by G. W. Trompf involves "the isolation of any two specific events which bear a very striking similarity ". In the 18th century, Samuel Johnson wrote that "whatever can happen to man has happened so often that little remains for fancy or invention" and that people are "all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure". Karl Marx , having in mind
18625-400: The respective coups d'état of Napoleon I (1799) and his nephew Napoleon III (1851), wrote acerbically in 1852: " Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy , the second time as farce ." Poland's Adam Michnik believes that history is not just about the past because it
18774-501: The rises and falls of empires ), to repetitive patterns in the history of a given polity , and to any two specific events which bear a striking similarity. Hypothetically, in the extreme, the concept of historic recurrence assumes the form of the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence , which has been written about in various forms since antiquity and was described in the 19th century by Heinrich Heine and Friedrich Nietzsche . While it
18923-566: The same manner, having been reduced by disorder and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend, and thus from good they gradually decline to evil and from evil mount up to good. Machiavelli accounts for this oscillation by arguing that virtù (valor and political effectiveness) produces peace, peace brings idleness ( ozio ), idleness disorder, and disorder rovina (ruin). In turn, from rovina springs order, from order virtù , and from this, glory and good fortune. Machiavelli, as had
19072-660: The same year built the first wire-guided rocket. In 1928, one of the first humanoid robots, Eric , was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society in London, where it delivered a speech. Invented by W. H. Richards, the robot's frame consisted of an aluminium body of armour with eleven electromagnets and one motor powered by a twelve-volt power source. The robot could move its hands and head and could be controlled through remote control or voice control. Both Eric and his "brother" George toured
19221-410: The science of robotics and robots. One method is evolutionary robotics , in which a number of differing robots are submitted to tests. Those which perform best are used as a model to create a subsequent "generation" of robots. Another method is developmental robotics , which tracks changes and development within a single robot in the areas of problem-solving and other functions. Another new type of robot
19370-687: The second-in-command of a Cylon Basestar battleship under the command of human traitor Lord Baltar ( John Colicos ), is voiced by Jonathan Harris in nine episodes. An EMS Vocoder 2000 was used to produce the voices of the Centurions. Cylons in Battlestar Galactica continuity post- Galactica 1980 are a fictional, artificially-intelligent race of machines envisioned in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction series and related franchises. Originally created as purely mechanical devices to serve human needs, they eventually evolve into sentient, self-aware beings. Later models incorporate biological components and near-perfect replication of human biology. They are
19519-402: The third member of this atrocious trio ... [In] the next phase, the age of military coups (1950–1990) [t]he main representatives ... are Pinochet , Muammar Qaddafi , and Mobutu Sese Seko , along with minor figures like Idi Amin , Saddam Hussein , and Mohamed Siad Barre . Finally, starting in 1990 [is] the ... cycle of new authoritarians, who win elections and proceed to degrade
19668-713: The three Kims of North Korea. Nor is there mention of Indonesia's Suharto or the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , "though the CIA engineered coups that led to both ... lording it over their lands, and the agency can also be linked to Pinochet's military putsch in Chile." Dorfman believes that Juan Domingo Perón would also have been an instructive example to include in Ruth Ben-Ghiat's study of Strongmen . British political commentator Ferdinand Mount brings attention to
19817-399: The towns and create new regimes . But within a few generations, writes Ibn Khaldun, the victorious tribesmen lose their asabiyya and become corrupted by luxury, extravagance, and leisure. The ruler, who can no longer rely on fierce warriors for his defense, will have to raise extortionate taxes to pay for other sorts of soldiers, and this in turn may lead to further problems that result in
19966-545: The west since antiquity. If history has lessons to impart, they are to be found par excellence in such recurring patterns. Historic recurrences of the "striking-similarity" type can sometimes induce a sense of "convergence", "resonance" or déjà vu . Ancient western thinkers who thought about recurrence were largely concerned with cosmological rather than historic recurrence (see " eternal return ", or "eternal recurrence"). Western philosophers and historians who have discussed various concepts of historic recurrence include
20115-452: The word has evolved relatively quickly since its introduction. In the U.S. during the late 1930s to early 1940s it was pronounced / ˈ r oʊ b oʊ t / . By the late 1950s to early 1960s, some were pronouncing it / ˈ r oʊ b ə t / , while others used / ˈ r oʊ b ɒ t / By the 1970s, its current pronunciation / ˈ r oʊ b ɒ t / had become predominant. The word robotics , used to describe this field of study,
20264-445: The world's cities, and could still do so in future. The dangers of the fissile-fossil complex ( nuclear power generation and fossil-fueled power generation) have been denied or minimized by power interests, as the dangers of tobacco smoking have been denied or minimized by tobacco interests. Jessica Tuchman Mathews , daughter of The Guns of August author Barbara Tuchman , observes that "powerful reasons to doubt that there could be
20413-499: The world. Westinghouse Electric Corporation built Televox in 1926; it was a cardboard cutout connected to various devices which users could turn on and off. In 1939, the humanoid robot known as Elektro was debuted at the 1939 New York World's Fair . Seven feet tall (2.1 m) and weighing 265 pounds (120.2 kg), it could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words (using a 78-rpm record player ), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move its head and arms. The body consisted of
20562-482: Was Karel's brother Josef Čapek who was the word's true inventor. Electronics evolved into the driving force of development with the advent of the first electronic autonomous robots created by William Grey Walter in Bristol, England in 1948, as well as Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine tools in the late 1940s by John T. Parsons and Frank L. Stulen . The first commercial, digital and programmable robot
20711-400: Was added in 2015 for smaller, more precise tasks. Prototype cooking robots have been developed and could be programmed for autonomous, dynamic and adjustable preparation of discrete meals. The word robot was introduced to the public by the Czech interwar writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) , published in 1920. The play begins in a factory that uses
20860-407: Was born on Galactica. Fearing that the Cylons might capture the child, President Laura Roslin faked Hera's death and secretly had her adopted by a human woman. The humans settled on a harsh and barren planet they dubbed New Caprica. The refuge lasted a year before the Cylons found them. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Galactica , Pegasus , and the rest of the colonial fleet in orbit fled, leaving
21009-692: Was built by George Devol in 1954 and was named the Unimate . It was sold to General Motors in 1961 where it was used to lift pieces of hot metal from die casting machines at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in the West Trenton section of Ewing Township, New Jersey . Robots have replaced humans in performing repetitive and dangerous tasks which humans prefer not to do, or are unable to do because of size limitations, or which take place in extreme environments such as outer space or
21158-613: Was clear from the laws of physics that rising levels of " greenhouse gases " in Earth's atmosphere must eventually cause disastrous climate warming , with consequently enhanced droughts , floods , forest fires , and cyclones , people were easily lulled into complacency by the mendacities of fossil-fuel interests. Similarly, navies continue building aircraft carriers , at enormous expense, despite their clear vulnerability to attack, because their construction creates civilian jobs and because, says Stephen Wrage, political science teacher at
21307-462: Was coined by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov . Asimov created the Three Laws of Robotics which are a recurring theme in his books. These have since been used by many others to define laws used in fiction. (The three laws are pure fiction, and no technology yet created has the ability to understand or follow them, and in fact most robots serve military purposes, which run quite contrary to
21456-673: Was early offered by Poseidonius (a Greek polymath , native to Apamea, Syria ; c. 135–51 BCE), who argued that dissipation of the old Roman virtues had followed the removal of the Carthaginian challenge to Rome's supremacy in the Mediterranean world. The theme that civilizations flourish or fail according to their responses to the human and environmental challenges that they face, would be picked up two thousand years later by Toynbee . Dionysius of Halicarnassus (c. 60 BCE – after 7 BCE), while praising Rome at
21605-473: Was frustrated by typhoons ; and Spanish King Philip II 's 1588 attempted conquest of England was frustrated by a hurricane . Hernán Cortes 's fateful 1519 entry into Mexico's Aztec Empire was reputedly facilitated by the natives' identification of him with their god Quetzalcoatl , who had been predicted to return that very year; and English Captain James Cook 's fateful 1778 entry into Hawaii , during
21754-459: Was invented by George Devol in 1954 and was ultimately called the Unimate . This ultimately laid the foundations of the modern robotics industry. Devol sold the first Unimate to General Motors in 1960, and it was installed in 1961 in a plant in Trenton, New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them. The first palletizing robot was introduced in 1963 by
21903-428: Was on the way and would destroy an appreciable part of mankind; and polities ignore geologists ', oceanographers ', atmospheric scientists ', biologists ', and climatologists ' warnings of tipping points in the climate system that are on course to destroy all of mankind. Humans tend to behave in accordance with the principles of social physics described by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes after he had met
22052-487: Was reported as being a 'robot' in contemporary descriptions The first electronic autonomous robots with complex behaviour were created by William Grey Walter of the Burden Neurological Institute at Bristol , England in 1948 and 1949. He wanted to prove that rich connections between a small number of brain cells could give rise to very complex behaviors – essentially that the secret of how
22201-496: Was still primitive and was mechanical rather than biological. Centurions do not download into new bodies when they are destroyed, according to screenwriter Ronald D. Moore. The Hybrids have something to do with the programming of the Centurions. When the virus infected the Hybrid on the infected Basestar, the Centurions shut down (" Torn "). However, Centurions can function independently when no Basestars or skinjobs are nearby. A Centurion immediately fires upon an Eight when she unplugs
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