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    The City of Atlantis and Ancient Technology

    I have enjoyed Stargate: Atlantis so far (through 110, "The Storm"), but I am disappointed by the lack of mention given to Atlantis itself and the Ancient technologies therein. Let me try to explain myself. This post makes reference to features of already aired episodes.

    The atlantis team arrived at Atlantis to find everything in apparent working order, except for the lack of an appropiate energy source to power much of the city. Most unfortunatley for them, they cannot power the shields.

    So far the only technologies that have been pressed into regular use by the atlantis team are the puddle jumpers, and to a lesser extent the "life signs finder", the transporters, and some small shields such as their version of the iris and the cell where they kept Steve.

    Though it is apparent the atlantis team has started to make a survey of the city and how it functions, the only indication that this is true is when familaritarity with Ancient systems is demonstrated. For example, has anyone open up a transporter to try to figure out how it works? It is likely that it has been looked at, but the only indication we will get is when Dr. McKay is either able or not able to work some magic with the transporters in order to further the plot.

    I know that such details may not necessarily make sense within the context of the stories that the episodes are trying to tell, but I feel uneasy that Atlantis to this point is simply the well from which any technolgy may be drawn in order to further a plot. For example the personal shield device that McKay had in 103, "Hide and Seek".

    Some of the questions I have include the following:

    What was the political structure of Atlantis? What was its purpose? How did Atlantis figure in greater Ancient society?

    It seems that Atlantis held the seeds for establishing the Ancient society within the Pegasus galaxy including the ability to manufacture Ancient technology. Is this true? Why has this manufacturing capability not been discovered or even hinted at in the series?

    Why must the city derive its major power from ZPMs? That is to say, even if the Ancients prefered the ascetics of such small, yet powerful supplies of energy, what prevents the Atlantis team from picking up an Ancient physics textbook and then creating an equally powerful yet considerably more bulky fusion generator? Especially given all of the examples shields that they have found, and conceivable usfully in the creation of such a generator?

    Is the technology left behind in Atlantis not in such pristine condition as has been previously intimated?

    I enjoy the series; these are just some of the questions that irk me, especially since one of the stated goals of the atlantis expedition was to acquire new technolgies.

    #2
    Very good first post might i say to begin with! Thoroughly good read!

    I do agree with you that the technology hasn't be explored to its fullest yet, but i would lay alot of this down to simply the plot and timeline of Stargate: Atlantis. Afterall it wouldn't be fun if they realised all of the cities powers within the first series, it would weaken the content of the further 7 series (fingers crossed).

    I believe also that the technology is very complicated and hence slow to discover, and when the band of happy campers that is the Stargate:Atlantis team actually have time to spare inbetween their missions and encounters, they may want a little bit of rest before they attempt to understand the technology!

    Equally, isn't it possible that Dr.Weir has emphasised caution when playing around with the technology in Atlantis. One 'accident' that comes to mind being the unleashing of a semi-ascended being that drained their powersupplies and threatened the fate of the city!

    All in good time i say, all in good time. It cant be too easy now!

    Comment


      #3
      You can't just "discover" ancient technology and MacGyver (Haw) a way to get it to work given human limitations. The Asgard have been studying the Ancient library of knowledge for a long time, and according to Thor, they've only "scratched the surface".
      Thor: The Asgard would never invent a weapon that propels small weights of iron and carbon alloys, by igniting a powder of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur.

      Comment


        #4
        Very good first post dude, I can tell you put some thoughts into it. As for the questions you raised if you look around the forum you might find some threads to answer some of your question. I will try answering some of your questions.

        Atlantis was under the sea for about 10, 000 years (or something like that) in that time the power source was slowly depleted hence they can’t raise Atlantis shields. The technology is so advance that it will take them sometime to fully work out how it works. As for the purpose of Atlantis it was said by in a recent interview by Joe Flanigan that there is “higher purpose to Atlantis” we’ll just have to wait and see what he means by that next season.
        "Love is not for life, it's for one week only" Wass

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        “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up, because by that time I was too famous.” Robert Benchley

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        “Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes.” Billy Connolly

        Comment


          #5
          Good call, and an even better first post.

          Keep up the good works.

          Oh, and yes- I do agree with you.

          Comment


            #6
            as the post above said, even thor said they have only scrathced the surface of the ancient library and they have been working on it for sometime.

            also if u look at the episodes coming up, u can clearly see they begin to concentrate on the ancients much more.....til i sleep, brotherhood, hot zone, and most likely the seige.

            but yeah, there failure to really address anything is dissapointing...especially through ten episodes..
            come read my website!!!!!!!!!

            www.xanga.com/keppiezbt

            Comment


              #7
              I'd argue that they have discovered quite alot of technology in the city as of yet, if not by accident.

              Things that come to mind, The Ascendant entity holding unit, The puddle jumper, the advanced personal shield..

              Just brings anticipation as for what is to come.

              OT: Is Atlantis on a mid-season break in the US at the moment?

              Comment


                #8
                'T is
                sigpic

                SGU Continued....

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Pookz
                  OT: Is Atlantis on a mid-season break in the US at the moment?
                  Yep, due to return with ten all new episodes in January.
                  Rocky

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I appreciate the comments that have been made so far. I too, feel that exploring the potential of atlantis is a theme that is rightly explored over the course of many seasons. Consider then some of the questions and musing I have.

                    The Atlantis team did not find ruins or some abandoned device. They found Atlantis, an apparantly functional Ancient city in good repair (assuming things go well in 111, "The Eye"). So far the only differences between Atlantis, the center of Ancient society in the Pegasus galaxy and Atlantis, the base for a small group of earth humans, are the lack of a large number of Ancients living there and the lack of a source of energy to power all of its systems.

                    Since Atlantis was the seed from which the Ancients established themselves in the Pegasus galaxy, I assume that atlantis had all of the educational materials and prototyping equipment necessay both to teach generations of Ancients and recreate ancient technology including Stargates, Puddle jumpers, and ZPMs.

                    How were young ancients educated? Did they use textbooks, that can perhaps be found within the computers of Atlantis? Did they use devices simular to the knowledge repositories found by SG-1? Did the Ancients even have generations, or were they like the Asgard and only perpetuated existing individuals?

                    All of these questions, along with the questions originally posted can be explored through future episodes and seasons. I do have one quiet fear - Atlantis may be used simply as the source of one off technologies that are called into existence merely to further the plot, and then never seen again, or dismissed to prevent the Atlantis team from becoming overpowered.

                    I also fear that the Atlantis team's familiarity with Ancient technology may be inconsistantly portrayed from one episode to another. For example, in 103, "Hide and Seek", Dr. McKay is able to instruct Lt. Ford over the radio how to bypass some frozen door controls. Thus Dr. McKay has either already taken a look at the door controls and come to understand them to a small degree, or he has a familiarity Ancient systems architecture. In 110, "The Storm", he is able to look up the control codes for the grounding stations from the computer. These examples seem to indicate that Ancient technology is not beyond the abilities of the Atlantis team to operate or even crudely understand.

                    This brings up the question, what kind of access control mechanisms are in place within the Atlantis systems? So far it seems that the computers and technology do not require any sort of authenticion or passwords or what have you beyond, in some cases, the presence of the ATA gene. Did the Ancients simply trust that the systems anyone can use are harmless enough that they can be generally accessable, and that everyone with ATA gene are so trustworthy that no further authentication is necessary? Did the ancients disable access controls mechanisms when they abondoned Atlantis, so that any future discovers of the city would not be impeded from using its systems? Maybe the atlantis team has already discovered computers functions are devices that they can not use because they don't know the passwords, have the proper keys, creditentials, etc., and this hasn't been mentioned in the show. Maybe Atlantis is programmed to hid certain functionality until specific conditions have been met, providing a means whereby discoverers of Atlantis must prove themselves before they can gain the full benefits of the city.

                    A previous poster suggested that the lack of substantial mention of Atlantis technologies is that Dr. Weir is making sure the scientist are suficiently cautious as the explore technologies they do no fully understand. I can accept this; I just wish the show would demostrate at least partially the system that the team was using to survey and understand Atlantis, or alternatively have well the team has progressed in their understanding. After all, all of those scientists have to be doing something all day.

                    OT: Thor tells SG-1 that the asgard have recovered several knowledge repositories, and that they have still not explored the full extent the Ancient knowledge. This suggests that the asgard have not used the repositories to transfer the knowledge directly to their own minds, but are exploring the knowledge perhaps through a computer interface. In "the fifth race" two people look into the repository - Teal'c and Jack. Since the repository only responded to Jack, it was theorized that the repositories were programmed specifically against the Goa'uld. Given that the asgard have not used the repositories to transfer the knowledge to themselves, it seems reasonable to speculate that the repositories, instead of being simply programed against the Goa'uld, are instead programmed to respond to humans or even just ancients. Does Jack have the ATA gene? If he does, maybe it can be surmised that the repositories will only respond to people with the gene and may have been intended for the use of the ancients or humans the ancients hoped would follow their development. If it is true that the repositories only respond to the ATA gene, then perhapes the first repository SG-1 discovered would still activate for anyone who has the gene and is not inactivated as was suggested in "the Lost City."

                    Comment


                      #11
                      ^^ lovely post to read enjoyed the points brought up

                      Bring on 111

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by LiquidBlue
                        Does Jack have the ATA gene?
                        He was able to use The Chair! in TLC, So we're assuming he has the gene.
                        sigpic

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Mio
                          He was able to use The Chair! in TLC, So we're assuming he has the gene.
                          He was able to use the chair, true. He was also able to heal Bra'tac. That raises the question. Is the ability to heal people as the Ancients do, an ability a human would have if they simply had the knowledge how to do it, or did the repository accomplish some psyological changes in Jack.

                          I too lean towards the theory that the repository responded to Jack because he had the Ancient gene.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by LiquidBlue
                            He was able to use the chair, true. He was also able to heal Bra'tac. That raises the question. Is the ability to heal people as the Ancients do, an ability a human would have if they simply had the knowledge how to do it, or did the repository accomplish some psyological changes in Jack.

                            I too lean towards the theory that the repository responded to Jack because he had the Ancient gene.
                            yes only people who have the gene can use the chair or heal people with the knowlegde so Jack has the gene.And probably more than others because he is the only one who could heal Bra'tac.And Daniel said that he was a bit more special than the last time.
                            Lord Zedd

                            Comment


                              #15
                              about that ancient gene...does rodney still have it from "hide and seek"? or does the effect wear off, like beckett said it might at the beggininign of the show. i mena, there really haven't been any epsiodes where they find tech that would require the gene, which brings us right back to the orginal point of this thread.

                              i agree that they haven't shown much ancient tech, and they should, because it would make the series just a whole lot more interesting.
                              ROFLMAO Check This Out!!!

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