| Summary: | This article discusses the possibility that Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi, then Syfy, 2003-2009) is not merely a science-fiction television series, but a strong philosophical critique of the modern dualistic thinking of René Descartes, in which a distinction between Man (constituted by a rational language) and his Other (the animal-machine) constitutes the basis for humanism. By engaging with the philosopher Jacques Derrida, a new interpretation emerges concerning the origins of the relationship between Cylons (Battlestar Galactica’s androids) and humans (one revealed in the last episodes of the show): what can be found on the level of the machine – the mechanical or the repetitive – is a prosthesis to nature that is required in order for humanity to be thinkable. Humanity is thus not the opposite of the machine, but what can arise from the machine.
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