Why customer service is not like that everywhere... that's not a question of law suits but rather a question of corporate image. Sadly enough, in Brazil nobody gives a ... about corporate image and we have to deal with cockroaches and rodents even in expensive restaurants...
Well... so they patented PCSX2 like stuff... seems some years delayed to me...
The problem with the use of robots is that, as they're attacking defenseless humans, it makes legit to counter strike in full power. Just imagine Pakistan. They have atom bombs and they can get materials and tech to make big ones. They may get pissed about being bombed by predators and reason that things may get better (or more even) if they blow NY or London.
When you put people to fight people, issues are settled in personal basis. Machines against people is genocide: never mind how many predators you down, there will be more at the end of the day.
Surviving in savage hostile environment is not impossible. Just remember the Japanese soldiers lost in Filipino jungles for more than 40 years. I even recall one that kept an aircraft sort of airworthy condition...
Hey... sometimes critics are incongruous...
Last episode (part 1 of grand finale) was really good. Criticism arises from the fact that it is 1/3 of something that should be a whole. IMHO, the flashbacks will show their value next Friday.
Anyways, it is hard to put an end to a good series like BSG.As someone pointed out in a past entry of this blog, BSG took SciFi series related to space exploration/space travel/space wars out of the realm of geek public. Producers and writers had lots of guts to deal with certain themes. Its a kind of revolution reaching its end.
Someone has written that democracy consists in choosing people to take decisions we don't want to take. That's wrong.
When I choose a manager I don't want he decides about things I'm not willing to mind about. On the contrary, he is hired to represent my will and do things that he is 100% certain that are in accordance with my points of view. If he is unsure, he must consult me. And above all, he must answer to me about his actions.
When I choose a president, governor, mayor, senator or representative, it is the same way: he must represent his voters will and if he is unsure, he must consult. Above all, he must answer for his actions.
In BSG most human leaders represent only themselves. They presume the needs and the will of other people but they never ever care for a consult. One exception is Lee Adama. All moral values are relative.
In BSG most people (humans) in charge of command are blindly guided by hatred and prejudice. In this particular, the conflict against Cylons is very similar to conflagrations in Gaza and Iraq. I think it is not coincidental that Cylon domination over New Caprica is so similar to the intervention of US in Iraq: they went to save a people that didn't want to be saved and caused mayhem to them and to humans.
Other interesting points in BSG are:
1) Contrary to humans, cylons had a democratic process: all issues were voted. While they adhere to democracy they ruled absolute. Dissent ruined them.
2) They have a monotheist religion that clearly have higher moral standards than the polytheist religion professed by the humans but they lack tolerance.
With this, the series writers present us with some interesting questions: a democratic country is good only their people but may be appalling bad to everybody else and moral values without tolerance are not a good thing.
In this context, Zarek is the counterpart of Roslin. She was moved by religious conviction and regarded herself superior to the average of her people. Zarek is pragmatic and regards himself superior (like in "the wise guy") to his people. Both play with people lives. Gaeta is just the geek that lost too much and understands too little and became the perfect prey for Zarek.
I'm really sorry for Gaeta because I feel he will play the role of Iscariot in this farse. I'm expecting either a suicide or an execution. The irony is that, somehow, it is possible that Zarek manages to walk away from this mess in one piece.
And that's the problem: if you have robots killing people, wouldn't it be legitimate if the one with less technology use viruses and resistant bacteria to counter attack? Or to use dirty nuclear devices to do so?
US bombed Iraq and other parts of Islamic world using robots. At what price? Now they'll have to work for decades (or centuries) to reverse the hatred they instilled and will have to expend seas of money preventing terrorist attacks that seem justified in the eyes of the perpetrators. Positively not an intelligent course of action.
I don't agree on several points of the analysis:
1) BSG deals with the gray moral areas in all human beings. It has been like that since S01E01. Unlike other series, there are no absolute values.
2) Although Cylons were depicted as "forces of evil" in S01 things have progressively changed and in S03 it was not possible to state that they're worse than average human beings. Cylons are not that inhuman. The metaphor of copies, each with a given personality, is effective to discuss psyche. Many Cylons are not "killing machines" (not more than human counter parts).
3) All human leadership with the current exception of Lee Adama and Baltar have the tendency of loving a dictatorship and eternal power. The writers have been successful in describing what kind of problems arise when these tendencies materialize into actions.
5) Baltar is not bad nor evil. He wanted something better in New Caprica but it turned out that one year after the settlement the land was occupied. One must ask: why didn't Galactica and Pegasus secured the perimeter? It sounds like NY being invaded while the Atlantic fleet is partying somewhere else... BTW, it must be a real problem when you have an "imaginary friend" talking to you at the most improper times...
6) When it comes to Gaeta, the writers are developing a character whose actions are motivated by resentment and anger. He is the "guy next door" that is talented in his job and is promoted to a position just to discover that someone have just screwed things up. Like a clerk promoted to VP in the "America's Bank" to discover that the company is irrevocably broken and there will be nobody else to let the guilt fall upon. He is not bad, but he will be the escape goat and he realized that when Zarek showed discontempt to konw that Admiral Adama was still living. Standard FUBAR situation.
As far as BSG deals with human dilemmas, collective behavior and troubles that have plagued humanity since its birth, I don't think it will become obsolete in the years to come.
I really would be disappointed if Lost derail because all past seasons are extremely interesting and well done.
I care about BSG because they had some bad written episodes but the overall result is fine. Interesting thing is that in several senses BSG is something 'old' for SciFi but it works as a thriller...
I think that either Watchmen or Dollhouse will be disappointments.
