Resurrection
the technology of prolonged consciousness
Resurrection was an advanced computer technology, developed repeatedly across the Cycle of Time, whose underlying purpose was to prolong a sentient being's conscious mind. Long known to the Messengers, it appeared on Kobol, on Earth, on Caprica, and finally among the Cylons.
Resurrection was an advanced computer technology developed repeatedly throughout the Cycle of Time. Long known to the Messengers and developed in different ways at different times, its underlying purpose was always to prolong a sentient being's conscious mind. From its earliest appearance on Kobol to its final form among the Cylons, Resurrection allowed a consciousness to survive the death of its body.
Origins on Kobol and Earth#
The earliest example of Resurrection technology was developed on Kobol by the Twelve Tribes and was used by the Thirteenth Tribe, a race of sentient biologically-synthetic beings, as a means of prolonging an individual's life. The technology was abandoned at some point after the Exodus of the Thirteenth Tribe, and subsequent generations on their Earth colony were born through procreation instead. It was later redeveloped by the Final Five, a team of Earth researchers, in order to escape a nuclear holocaust. While it is unknown how the technology functioned on Kobol, the Final Five were able to digitally duplicate their conscious minds and, upon their deaths, upload those minds into cloned bodies.
The Avatar Program on Caprica#
Some two thousand years later, Resurrection technology was developed once more by the descendants of the Twelve Tribes, in the form of the Caprican computer genius Zoe Graystone, who dubbed it the "Avatar Program." Graystone was in contact with a Messenger for much of her life and was steered toward designing this technology as a counterpart to her father's independent research on artificially-sentient battle robots dubbed "Cylons." She succeeded in creating a copy of herself, Zoe-A, whom she urged to develop as her own person separate from herself. Following Graystone's death in a terrorist attack in 1942, the Avatar Program was used to create Tamara-A, based on a digital mining of information about Tamara Adams, who died in the same attack. The program was later used by the terrorist group the Soldiers of the One, who created a number of other Avatars, though these were destroyed when their server was destroyed. Zoe-A herself was stranded in various computer terminals until she was placed within a robot body sometime between 1942 and 1947.
The Cylon Resurrection system#
Resurrection technology was developed a final time when the Final Five made contact with the Cylon race around 1960, during the brutal war for mutual survival between Cylons and humans. This version differed once more, shaped by the Cylons' own needs. As part of the agreement to end the conflict, eight biologically-synthetic Humanoid Cylon models were produced. Uninterested in reproduction or greater numbers, the Cylons instead created millions of clones of these eight prototypes, into each of which a copy of the prototype's digital consciousness was uploaded. A cloud server system was further developed in which the memories of all individuals of a single model could be updated, meaning that any Cylon that died would undergo Resurrection and gain new memories while sharing its own with the rest of its line.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Resurrection in Battlestar Galactica?
- Resurrection was an advanced computer technology whose underlying purpose was to prolong a sentient being's conscious mind. It allowed a consciousness to survive the death of its body.
- Who developed Resurrection technology?
- Resurrection was developed repeatedly throughout the Cycle of Time. It first appeared on Kobol and was used by the Thirteenth Tribe, was redeveloped on Earth by the Final Five, was reinvented on Caprica by Zoe Graystone, and was finally brought to the Cylons by the Final Five.
- How did Cylon Resurrection work?
- The Cylons created millions of clones of eight humanoid prototype models and uploaded a copy of each prototype's digital consciousness into them. A cloud server system updated the shared memories of a single model, so any Cylon that died would undergo Resurrection and gain new memories while sharing its own with the rest of its line.
- What was the Avatar Program?
- The Avatar Program was the name Caprican computer genius Zoe Graystone gave to her version of Resurrection technology. She succeeded in creating a copy of herself called Zoe-A, and after her death in a 1942 terrorist attack the program was used to create Tamara-A.
- How did the Final Five use Resurrection to survive Earth's destruction?
- The Final Five, a team of Earth researchers, redeveloped Resurrection to escape a nuclear holocaust. They were able to digitally duplicate their conscious minds and, upon their deaths, upload those minds into cloned bodies.
Sources
- WikiResurrection — Battlestar Wiki entry
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Related entries
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Humanoid Cylons were a form of biological Cylon engineered to look and behave exactly like human beings. Created by the Final Five after the Cylon War, these synthetic humans were both wholly organic and wholly artificial, and their infiltration of the colonies made the Fall possible.
Kobol
Kobol was the ancestral homeworld of the Twelve Tribes and the Thirteenth Tribe, abandoned for over two thousand years and rediscovered by the refugee fleet during its search for Earth.
Tamara-A: the avatar of a lost daughter
Tamara-A was a sentient artificial intelligence created in the years before the Cylon War through the Avatar Program. Based on Tamara Adams, a girl killed in the Caprica City Maglev bombing, she was conceived as part of a bargain between Daniel Graystone and the Adama family and was abandoned soon after her creation.
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The Thirteenth Tribe were a race of cybernetic beings who originated on Kobol and left it to found their own world. They settled Earth, where the sentient machines they built rose against them in a war that ended in mutual destruction.
Zoe-A
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