7. Troubling Notions of Reality in Caprica

ERIN BROWNLEE DELL

7. TROUBLING NOTIONS OF REALITY IN CAPRICA

Examining “Paradoxical States” of Being

To pass beyond the end—into the excess of reality, the excess of positivity, the excess of events, the excess of information—is to enter a paradoxical state, a state which can no longer be content with a rehabilitation of traditional values, and demands a thinking that is itself paradoxical: a thinking that no longer obeys a truth principle, and even accepts the impossibility of verification. (Baudrillard, as cited in Redhead, 2008, p. 146) Science fiction (SF), particularly in television, has traditionally offered an escape from the confines of our seemingly boring and “normal” existence. Indeed, popular SF television shows, like Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series gained cult-like followings from fans eager to tune in to weekly adventures of excitement and suspense involving compelling characters, spaceships and other technological advances. As viewers, we can identify with familiar characters in unfamiliar landscapes; such programs offer an alternative reality of sorts, a vision for the future. However, these visions may also offer reflections of current realities and struggles as exemplified by the Sy Fy network’s short-lived series, Caprica. A prequel to his wildly successful re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, writer and creator Ron Moore’s Caprica offers a historical framework for future BSG events, including the creation of the initial Cylons. Set 58 years prior to the beginning of the Battlestar Galactica series, the planet of Caprica exists as a society both replete and dependent on advanced technology. The arc of the series focuses on these advances as providing the foundation for alternate realties and identities, where fixed notions of what is real and what is human are disrupted. If we traditionally turn to SF to escape to more utopian worlds, Caprica remains eerily familiar: a world struggling with large corporate interests, terrorism, religious extremism and virtual realities. Indeed, Caprica complicates the very idea of what is considered real. Central to this idea is the work of French philosopher and theorist Jean Baudrillard. His idea of a “paradoxical state” troubles conceptions of fixed realities and truths. Such a state of being allows for a simultaneous existence, one able to disrupt traditional boundaries between realities, virtual or otherwise. For Baudrillard (as cited in Lane, 2009), signs and symbols both simulate and permeate perceived realities, ultimately moving towards the “hyperreal” (p. 30). Simulation allows for multiple representations of reality so that any distinction is ultimately blurred and any one “true” reality questioned. This postmodern stance complicates perceptions of what is real, welcoming the chaos of uncertainty.

This “paradoxical state” of being frames much of Caprica and what follows in this chapter is a close examination of Baudrillard’s concept of three levels or orders of simulation: an artificial representation of what is considered real, blurred boundaries between reality and representation and ultimately, the “hyperreal,” a new reality based on its own symbols (as cited in Lane, 2009, p. 30). A close examination of Caprica through this Baudrillardian framework of simulation and, ultimately, the hyperreal, reveals identities, technologies and reality itself in flux, allowing a re-examination and re-imagination of what we consider “real,” indeed problematizing notions of self and our existence both in the series itself and reflected in SF television.

HOLOBANDS, MEDIA AND CYLONS The immense majority of present day photographic, cinematic and television images are thought to bear witness to the world with a naïve resemblance and a touching fidelity. We have spontaneous confidence in their realism. We are wrong. They only seem to resemble things, to resemble reality, events, faces. Or rather, they really do conform, but their conformity itself is diabolical. (Baudrillard, as cited in Redhead, 2008, p. 85) Baudrillard’s first order of simulation focuses on the artificial representation of what is considered real. For Daniel Graystone, Caprica’s central protagonist, marketing a simulation of reality exists at the heart of his business empire, Graystone Industries. A leader in technology research and development, Graystone is recognized as a computer genius and inventor of both the holobandi and ultimately the robots known as Cybernetic Life-Form Node (Cylons). Holoband technology allows for participation in a virtual reality, one allowing the creation of and interaction with an alternate environment. While the wide-use of holobands is not immediately obvious, it is understood they are as present in Caprican culture as the iPod in contemporary America. Interaction with this technology allows for an escape to another space, following Baudrillard’s observation that “[t]he aim of simulation is not to do away with reality, but on the contrary to realize it, make it real” (as cited in Butler, 1999, p. 23). This notion of “doing away with reality” informs much of the interaction with this virtual or “V-world.” Holobands offer new ways of seeing, both literally and figuratively, allowing for alternate spaces of existence. While these virtual worlds are modified copies of Caprican life, they represent an artificial reality, one where identities and experiences may be explored free from the confines of the real world. As Giroux and Simon (1989) observe, these are spaces where individuals may “…test the ways we produce meaning and represent ourselves, our relations to others and our relationship to our environment” (p. 244). This idea of meaning- making is particularly salient to Caprica’s young adults. Holoband users are able to represent themselves in avatar form, a simulation of their bodies and thoughts. V- world allows them an alternative place to interact and experiment with their re- imagined identities.

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