Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/5219
64 winter 2009 During the two-hour Caprica pilot, creators Ronald Moore and David Eick show the beginnings of the BSG universe — the creation of the human level AI cybernetic life-form node or "Cylon" fifty years before the Cylon attack that destroys the Earth-like planet Caprica and most of humanity. With elements of The Matrix, the Terminator series, Second life, religious jihad, the politics of race in the age of Obama, The Sopranos, and more than just a little Mary Shelley, this new series isn't just for BSG fans — there's something in here for everybody. Centering on the troubled relationship between two families, Moore compares Caprica to the1980s prime time soap opera Dallas and refers to it as "television's first science fiction family saga." Maureen Ryan from the Chicago Tribune reports that David Howe, SyFy Channel president, intends to air the Caprica Series starting January, 2010. BSG fans are used to nuclear explosions, spaceships, and deadly encounters with robotic Cylons. While there is sex, passion, intrigue, political backbiting, and family conflict in the Caprica pilot — and all these, of course, make for great Tv — there are no Star-Wars-style battle scenes or armies of cool robot Cylon Centurions. BSG fans may find themselves longing for more action scenes with early Cylons and a better view of the BSG world history as the Caprica series progresses. Caprica, home planet to President laura Roslin and several other principal characters in BSG, is an Earth-like planet settled by the Capricorn tribe of Kobol, part of the BSG mythos. It is also the location of Caprica City, the capital city of the Twelve Colonies, and the setting for the Caprica prequel. The pilot for the prequel follows the lives of two families, the Graystones and the Adamses (the family of young William Adams, who will later become Admiral William Adama in the BSG series). The Graystone family includes computer scientist father Daniel and surgeon mother Amanda. Daniel Graystone is the founder and CEO of Graystone Industries and is contracting with the Caprican government to develop new military technology. To his dismay, his eerily Cylon-like u-87 Cyber Combat unit is a dismal failure. The pilot opens inside a wild teenage "v-Club," a virtual environment where there are "no limits." Activities including sex, killing, and human sacrifice, and "you can frakking be anyone you want." We meet the Graystones' daughter zoe, and a surprising lookalike zoe, who has trouble "rezzing" in the virtual environment. We also meet zoe's friends lacy and Ben. The v-Club is a 3D photorealistic convergence of Second life with Facebook, Extreme Fight Night, the movie Goodfellas, and your teenage son's favorite porn site. We later learn that zoe, lacy, and Ben have turned away from the gaudy hedonism of the v-Club by finding "the way through the love of the One True God." zoe is a closet monotheist in the polytheistic society of the Twelve Colonies. The pilot cuts to zoe sitting in the girl's bathroom at the exclusive Athena Academy wearing very cool shades — a "holoband" that provides full immersion into the v-Club — looking much like SBG labs' Wearable PC Display glasses. (See resources) The morning after the encounter in the v-Club, zoe, Ben and lacy are at the Mag-lev train station running away to the planet Gemenon to live with other followers of the One True God. In the heavily crowded train station, we also meet Joseph Adam's wife Shannon and Tamara Adams, the mother and sister of William Adams (later changed to Adama). Just about to board the train, lacy backs out. The train doors close and the train leaves. Ray Kurzweil has famously suggested that humanity will achieve human-level artificial intelligence (aI) sometime in the next 20 years. (See "Ray Kurzweil: The h+ Interview" in this issue.) he has also predicted that virtual reality will be so high-quality that it will be indistinguishable from real reality. The new Sci Fi (now SyFy) channel television series Caprica explores this possible future using the fictional universe of Battlestar Galactica (affectionately known as BSg to fans). IMAgE COURESTy Of jUSTIn STEPHEnS/Syfy