First, we see Soldiers of the One (STO) member Sister Clarice on Gemenon, trying to convince the leaders of her monotheistic religion that her plan for apotheosis can bring them followers. She begins by using V-World to show her leaders a proposed terrorist attack at a large pyramid game, but then she gets to the heart of things. Clarice asks them to "imagine a world in which death has been conquered, in which eternal life is not just a dream but a reality." In Clarice's dream, thirty-thousand Capricans would die, but those who accepted the one true God would be saved and rewarded with a virtual heaven which she built.



Daniel Graystone, meanwhile, seems to have lost everything. His daughter, his pyramid team, his wife, and now his company. But he's not ready to give up, and he hopes to use software to bring an end to the pain of death.

Daniel wants to give people the ability to reunite with the loved ones they've lost. It's worth noting how uploading and other attempts at immortality are often thought of as a means of self-preservation, or even a selfish use of resources. Daniel seems to have the right idea and is much more effective at marketing, realizing that many people fear the death of their loved ones more than their own, and certainly, the pain of that loss is much more acute than the oblivion of death.

Whereas cryonics and other life extension technologies can be unappealing because they are seen as offering life in a radically different future, Daniel is selling the preservation of what we care most about in our lives today.

While Daniel tries to get the Taurons to invest in his cure for human grief, Joseph Adama is hesitant. Joseph says that the copy of Tamara Adama that was made was terrible, that Tamara couldn't feel her heartbeat and was frightened. That's easy for Joseph to say now that he's lost any chance of seeing her in V-World, but while he still had that chance he tried as hard as he could to find her, wasting away on drugs.

Joseph says that we need to grieve and move on. The prospect of not grieving over a family member's death may seem to dishonor their memory, but looking at that grieving from the other side, who would really want to leave as their legacy the suffering of the people they care most about? Dying is painful enough, why put others through even more pain?

Of course, there are lots of philosophical issues regarding the identity of any copy. There are all sorts of reasons why you could argue that the virtual Tamara and Zoe Graystone are not the same as the originals, from the potential for multiple copies to the lack of continuity. Understanding these questions may be important on some level, but philosophy will not be the determining factor in whether such technologies are adopted or sought after.

Even Daniel admits that he offers copies. But if you're grieving for a loved one, what matters to you isn't the philosophical answers to identity or what makes a person the person that they are, what matters is the chance to say goodbye. What matters is having the chance to say the things you wished you had said, and the ability to have that lover, child, or friend back in your life again.

Sister Clarice's ambitions aren't too different from Daniel's. Although some members of her religious order cling to tradition and find the idea of creating a heaven which is created by humans, not God, blasphemous, the leaders clearly see the practical benefits of her proposal.

Clarice has some humility, saying that the hand of God brought her a little girl, Zoe, with the ability to turn code into a soul. However, her greater ambition seems to be transparent, as she is asked whether she really wants to serve God or if she wants to be God.

With ever-increasing technological capabilities, we have an ever greater responsibility to try to make real the hopes that were once the domain of the supernatural and perpetually unrealizable wishes. We can take the easy route, and rationalize the losses we endure and the incalculable suffering that accompanies a single death. But there's an alternative. As Daniel Graystone says, "we can either sit and wail at the gravity of our loss, or we can rise up and redress it," and take a path that is much more challenging, but also more rewarding.

As the season continues, one can hope that Caprica will not be afraid to explore the potential for using technology for such ambitious goals as cheating death or creating artificial heavens.