One of the prime theories I advance in my backstory is the idea that everybody in the show is a Cylon, which is to say an artificial being, rather than a natural Earth human. That the colonials are AIs programmed to think they are human. This idea is not directly supported in the show, but there are a few items which point to it. In addition it’s a very interesting idea.

The most compelling clue within the show is the tremendous similarity between the Cylons and the “humans.” They are way too similar, particularly the final five. So similar that the humans can’t tell the difference with microscopes or medical scanners. In theory Baltar’s scanner can spot the difference in 11 hours, but we don’t learn much more about that. They are similar enough to interbreed, something that is used as part of the definition, in biology, of being closely related. Yet even though medical scanners can’t tell the difference, the Cylons have an FTL transmitter that can send out the contents of their mind when they die, and fiber optic interfaces in their arms. They can communicate at high data rates with their ships by touching an underwater interface. They have superior strength and resistance to radiation but are more subject to certain kinds. They can receive VR “projections” directly into their minds.

These differences are just too much to be undetectable to advanced medical equipment. A far simpler explanation is that there simply is no major difference — all the players are Cylons. The “humans” however have never seen anything else, and also may have programming which blinds them to the artificial elements of their own nature.  read more »

An eBay reputation is important if you’re going to sell there. Research shows it adds a decent amount to the price, and it’s very difficult to sell at all with just a few feedbacks. Usually sellers will buy a few items first to get a decent feedback — sometimes even scam items sold just for feedback. Because savvy buyers insist on selling feedback, it’s harder, and sometimes sellers will also sell bogus items just for feedback as a seller. eBay has considered offering a feedback score based on the dollar volume of positive and negative transactions but has not yet done this. Some plugins will do that.

One thing I recommend to low feedback sellers it to offer to reverse the “normal” payment system. If the seller has little feedback and the buyer has much better feedback, the seller should send the item without payment, and the buyer pay on receipt. Many people find this foreign but in fact it makes perfect sense. In real stores you don’t pay until you get the item, and many big reputation merchants allow payment on credit for known buyers. Another idea is to offer to pay for escrow. This costs money, but will make it back in higher sale prices.

However, here’s a new idea. Allow high-reputation sellers to “lease out” feedback, effectively acting as a co-signer. This means they vouch for the brand new seller. If the new seller gets a negative feedback on the transaction, it goes on both the new seller’s feedback and the guarantor’s. Positive feedback goes on the seller and possibly into a special bucket on the guarantor’s. The guarantor would also get to be involved in any disputes.

Seems risky, and because of that, guarantors would only do this for people they trusted well, or who paid them a juicy bond, which is the whole point of the idea. Guarantors would probably use bonds to issue refunds to badly treated customers to avoid a negative, though you want to be careful about blackmail risks. It’s possible the breakdown of true and as-guarantor negatives might be visible on a guarantor if you look deep, but the idea is the guarantor should be strongly motivated to keep the new seller in line.

With lendable reputation, new sellers could start pleasing customers and competing from day one.