Signifying Our Data
Our data presents two different conclusions.
Cylons in Battlestar Galactica erode the boundaries between non-humans and humans. The myths outlined by the Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) reify those boundaries by embracing the use of technology to become more authentically human.
The cylons in Battlestar Galactica occupy a space articulated by Brubaker as the Trans of Between. They do not occupy fully the realm of non-human or human. They are sentient cyborgs who can feel, love, copulate, and practice religion. Any difference between human and cylon can only be detected through a blood test, and even then those results are often not communicated throughout the series.
Similarly, the human condition described by the Mormon Transhumanist Association represents a counterpoint to Brubaker's ideas of thinking with "trans". In their mythology, technology becomes the signifier of the human condition. Answering difficult questions about what it truly means to be human, the MTA believe that through technological advancement, the fulfillment of theological principals of exaltation can be achieved. There is no movement, rather a reification of the uniqueness of the category of the human.
According to Haraway,
This is what cylon's signify within Battlestar Galactica. The cylon exists to challenge the category of the human by demonstrating how easily the boundaries can be challenged, how the maze of dualisms can be navigated and transgressed. Similarly to Brubaker's ideas about the Trans of Between, the cylons "transgress" the boundaries of both categories: machine and human. This is how they can occupy the space between, eroding the boundaries of "the human".Cyborg imagery can suggest a way out of the maze of dualisms in which we have explained our bodies and our tools to ourselves. (67)
Haraway also says,
The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centers structuring any possibility of historical transformation... (7)
The image of the human described by the MTA is a cyborg of both imagination and material reality. Exaltation is a myth, in Barthes terms, that relies on the consumer of the myth to believe in the promises of theosis it provides. However, that myth also promises a divine destiny to the one who consumes it. It reifies the categorization of the human by promising that to be more human is to achieve exaltation.
