So, making my rounds of the various forums to which I belong, I stumbed on a reference to this article that outlines Ron Moore’s (you know, the creator and exec producter of the wonder new BSG series) top five science fiction stories. Number five is Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. One passage in it struck me if you think about it in reference to the Cylons:

We had given AM sentience. Inadvertently, of course, but sentience nonetheless. But it had been trapped. AM wasn’t God, he was a machine. We had created him to think, but there was nothing it could do with that creativity. In rage, in frenzy, the machine had killed the human race, almost all of us, and still it was trapped. AM could not wander, AM could not wonder, AM could not belong. He could merely be. And so, with the innate loathing that all machines had always held for the weak, soft creatures who had built them, he had sought revenge.

—Harlan Ellison, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

In rage, in frenzy, the machine had killed the human race, almost all of us, and still it was trapped.

—The Cylons killed (nearly) the entire human race.

AM could not belong

—The Cylons still haven’t managed to entirely belong in their faith because they cannot reproduce.

with the innate loathing that all machines had always held for the weak, soft creatures who had built them

—Can’t you just hear Six’s ‘loathing of humanity’ voice in that statement?

mmmmm. Must read more Harlan Ellison. I could probably go all English-major on the story, but Seroquel is starting to take effect.

…and Nathan’s feet are stinky. Good lord.