Making the Stargate public - issues to consider

[LC_]

Hi:
I've been writing a fairly large "opus" almost since "Unending" aired that covers 30 years of life post-Unending and I'm reaching a point where I was planning on introducing the concept of making the "program" known to the public. One of the hallmarks of my work is realism so I'm interested in a serious discussion about what the consequences would be if/when the program goes public.

There are certain things that have already occurred to me; like "fear of aliens" because they are unfamiliar, the devoutly religious having issues with Daniel's experiences.
So what I"m looking for is other 'issues and consequences" that I haven't thought of.

For context: The year is 2023. The thinking at the highest level is that the public would deal better with the information about the Stargate if it isn't given to them when the world is at risk.
And I've also put forward the premise that the earliest of the classified files about the program would be becoming public domain in another five years(don't know if that's valid or not....the govt can probably keep things "classified" as long as they want) and it's better to start before that happens so the govt can control the way the program is presented to the public instead of the press controlling how it is presented.

So I'm looking for anyone's thoughts or comments about issues or repercussions that haven't occurred to me.
(if this thread topic already exists someplace else then please just point me in the correction direction).
thanks

[SaberBlade]

I think that if the program were to be made public, the biggest problem would be economics.

An Intar could revolutionise personal security and non lethal police action without having to rely on tasers or stun guns. Plus they can be turned into any weapon possible. However, this in turn would put gun companies out of business.

Fuel (oil, gas/petrol, nuclear power) is huge business but imagine what would happen with clean, safe naquadah reactors powering cities.

Same thing with the motor industry if people started Atlantis style transporters to travel around (which we saw in 2010 with Aschen style transporters)

NASA could save billions if they had a single civilian issue Daedalus class and could do a lot of cool space stuff around the solar system, but what about businesses trying to develop commercial space flight.

The same thing with Aeroplane builders. 6 hour flight time would become a thing of the past if commercial shuttles were produced.

Tretonin could also be used to put the Health Care business obsolete. Take regular injections, never get sick again. Have a serious health issue, the SGC has to have a few sarcophagus' by now.

[Nirvaeus]

Oil companies don't matter they crash anyways if they don't adjust. Car companies will BE the ones making those vessals, and everyone else will adjust as such. Why keep the wars secret? They WON the wars. They lost only the Prometheus (and Sun Tzu, but thats Chinese) and one damaged. That would instill pride in being human. You WANT the people to be proud of being human when they just discovered there are people with power like the Asgard.

I think it would be good. America could finally scrap it's maritime fleet, who the money of the military (and not just the SGC) to biuld 304's, as well as have more ability to construct (no longer needing only one drydock with limited personnel), they could use their army en masse (obviously upgrade), and they could scrap and replace the airforce with 302's (again, more money and capability). Yes it would be expansive, but they could discount sell their ships (3 Ha'taks destroyed a carrier group, imagine the 304 fleet. the world maritime navies combined couldn't challenge that).

I'm thinking replace the entire U.S. Navy with 20 or 30 304's. The Airforce with 302's. Marines and Army could get better weapons, and better equipment.

Expensive? Sell the marintine fleets, aircrafts, tanks, and weapons. Mix that with about a fifth our military budget alone (around 100 million a year), I'm sure they can do it in unde 5 years.

Actually... they would prolly have obsoleted the Daedalus and 302's... prolly bigger stronger faster ships now.

[Nirvaeus]

and no sarcophagus's! BAD side effects! And Nasa wouldn't be given a 304. Thats like giving the zoo a tank for giving a joy ride. 304's are built for battle. Maybe a more research based ship.

[garhkal]

..snip..
So I'm looking for anyone's thoughts or comments about issues or repercussions that haven't occurred to me.
thanks

Ok.. You got the obvious ones of:
Fear/hate/loathing at the US, China, UK and all the other nations in the IOA that it was kept secret for so long, PLUS all the technological superiority we have (Beam weapons, teleportation devices etc).
The economic fall out, that it is now knowledge we have the capacity to get to anywhere, and some devices that can ween us fully off oil.
The citizenry fall out in the US, from all those deaths from that Prior plague, the deaths caused by that device Jonas messed with (the ones that sent those freeky bug things), and all the other deaths caused by our interference in outer planetary affairs for so long with out considering the masses.
Wars from all over, to try and figure out who WOULD control the gate/atlantis etc.

An Intar could revolutionise personal security and non lethal police action without having to rely on tasers or stun guns. Plus they can be turned into any weapon possible. However, this in turn would put gun companies out of business.

Then you add in the mind reading devices we have gained, that would revolutionize interrogations, which would peeve off many companies.

Tretonin could also be used to put the Health Care business obsolete. Take regular injections, never get sick again. Have a serious health issue, the SGC has to have a few sarcophagus' by now.

We have had 2 Sarc in our posession iirc. BOTH got destroyed.
BUT the tretonin would be a Massive issue. Especially with knowledge the mil had this wonder drug for so long and did NOT release it to the common man.

[LC_]

I think that if the program were to be made public, the biggest problem would be economics.

An Intar could revolutionise personal security and non lethal police action without having to rely on tasers or stun guns. Plus they can be turned into any weapon possible. However, this in turn would put gun companies out of business.

Fuel (oil, gas/petrol, nuclear power) is huge business but imagine what would happen with clean, safe naquadah reactors powering cities.

Same thing with the motor industry if people started Atlantis style transporters to travel around (which we saw in 2010 with Aschen style transporters)

NASA could save billions if they had a single civilian issue Daedalus class and could do a lot of cool space stuff around the solar system, but what about businesses trying to develop commercial space flight.

The same thing with Aeroplane builders. 6 hour flight time would become a thing of the past if commercial shuttles were produced.

Tretonin could also be used to put the Health Care business obsolete. Take regular injections, never get sick again. Have a serious health issue, the SGC has to have a few sarcophagus' by now.

and no sarcophagus's! BAD side effects! And Nasa wouldn't be given a 304. Thats like giving the zoo a tank for giving a joy ride. 304's are built for battle. Maybe a more research based ship.

Ok.. You got the obvious ones of:
Fear/hate/loathing at the US, China, UK and all the other nations in the IOA that it was kept secret for so long, PLUS all the technological superiority we have (Beam weapons, teleportation devices etc).
The economic fall out, that it is now knowledge we have the capacity to get to anywhere, and some devices that can ween us fully off oil.
The citizenry fall out in the US, from all those deaths from that Prior plague, the deaths caused by that device Jonas messed with (the ones that sent those freeky bug things), and all the other deaths caused by our interference in outer planetary affairs for so long with out considering the masses.
Wars from all over, to try and figure out who WOULD control the gate/atlantis etc.



Then you add in the mind reading devices we have gained, that would revolutionize interrogations, which would peeve off many companies.



We have had 2 Sarc in our posession iirc. BOTH got destroyed.
BUT the tretonin would be a Massive issue. Especially with knowledge the mil had this wonder drug for so long and did NOT release it to the common man.

Thanks for playing...you've all made some interesting points. And NO to SARCs...if Earth ended up with any I think there would be a point made to render it unusable and only for display. And was tretonin ever created to be used by humans? I thought it was meant for the Jaffa.

I wonder if making the program public could be less disruptive if disclosure was done gradually over time. I would also think that the spokesperson should NOT be military...perhaps the civilian head of IOA. And if the elements you all have mentioned as contentious were given a positive spin....like tretonin wasn't introduced earlier because the medical community wanted to be sure about the hazards of possible side effects.
Yes there would definitely be economic consequences of no longer having to depend on oil(altho it's pretty sad to suppose that even in 10 years time we still haven't been able to stem that dirty dependence.)
Thanks again...you've given me some interesting things to think about.

[SaberBlade]

Tretonin can be used by anyone, it's just got the unfortunate side effect of being something you can never come off once you start.

The Tok'ra did seem to have some success in create a remedy (or antidote) for humans that will cause a persons normal immune system to recover and start working again (removing the dependence on it). The Jaffa aren't so lucky because they seem to be genetically modified to lose their immune system once they hit puberty and needed a symbiont to survive but they can use Tretonin instead. It could be used to cure any number of immunity diseases, help people who have a high genetic chance of developing cancers and things like that or cure people of diseases that they current have.

As for the sarcophagus, it would only be used in serious conditions. It wouldn't be used for simple crap like a cold, a few broken bones or minor stuff that will sort itself out (Hand healers could be used for that), but for serious conditions. It's only when you start using it without having a medical need that it starts to mess with your head (which is what happens to the Goa'uld because as symbionts, there is nothing medically wrong with them but host instead.

[blazingfire]

(Hand healers could be used for that)

There aren't that many former Goa'uld hosts on Earth, so mass production is out of the question... although the same effect could be possible with naquadah injections?

I think one of the biggest changes would be modern religion. It would either be vanquished or they would have to adapt quickly with the new knowledge (Jesus suddenly being an Ancient, for example). And the existence of other aliens certainly puts a damper on man being at the center of the universe.

[garhkal]

There aren't that many former Goa'uld hosts on Earth, so mass production is out of the question... although the same effect could be possible with naquadah injections?

I think one of the biggest changes would be modern religion. It would either be vanquished or they would have to adapt quickly with the new knowledge (Jesus suddenly being an Ancient, for example). And the existence of other aliens certainly puts a damper on man being at the center of the universe.

Heck, the whole current religious establishment (well christianity through islam, not sure on buddisim, etc) would drop since they all exist on the premise of god created man, and we exist alone (well if you listen to many religious people when talk of ufo's/aliens comes up)..

[LC_]

Heck, the whole current religious establishment (well christianity through islam, not sure on buddisim, etc) would drop since they all exist on the premise of god created man, and we exist alone (well if you listen to many religious people when talk of ufo's/aliens comes up)..

Which is why I said that Daniel's experiences particularly would upset the devoutly religious.

[thekillman]

2023? the ideal time to reveal the gate was shortly after the wraith attacked. the galaxy at peace, ideal calmth.



anyway, there will be riots. for various reasons:


-the world governments lying to the public for decades
-the world governments covering up SEVERAL major attacks on earth
-withholding advanced and most of all, beneficial technology.
-unethical research
-unethical actions against other races.
-the Stones
-blowing up several planets
-nearly destroying another universe
-not helping other universes
-helping other universes
-destroying the Ori
-bringing the replicator threat here
-letting people continue their jobs after being possessed by aliens, brainwashed or otherwise manipulated
-having half-crazy people work at the SGC/wherever


the Pegasus expedition would be enough to get riots specifically aimed at that

[darth_timon]

I love pondering this- the revelation that the gate program exists would transform the way we do things almost overnight. Imagine Asgard transporters to zip across the planet in an instant. Imagine using their replication technology to produce almost anything you need. Most of all, imagine being able to explore the stars!

[garhkal]

I love pondering this- the revelation that the gate program exists would transform the way we do things almost overnight. Imagine Asgard transporters to zip across the planet in an instant. Imagine using their replication technology to produce almost anything you need. Most of all, imagine being able to explore the stars!

There will be a lot of downsliding in society with riots, war etc, before we get to that type of utopia, where we are all hunky dory with these techs.

[Ben 'Teal'c would WIN!!' Noble]

You can't just introduce all this technology overnight it has to be done slowly. OK so naquadah generators come on the market, everyone invests in the technology instead of oil. Now there a limited number of people can produce the generators so they can't make them fast enough, no one makes any money and our economy is screwed.

You also cannot give the earth based military F-302s, using alien technology on earth would look very bad.

And are you telling me we can produce enough tretonin for 6 billion people, the goa'uld have been nearly wiped out. Unless we can roll out this technology to everyone we shouldn't everyone has a sob story. We should use what technology we do have in places like Africa where people die every day from diseases that are preventable TODAY.

[garhkal]

Before we go doing that for Africa, we need to solve the food/water issue, otherwise all those extra mouth's to feed will die anyway from starvation/thirst.

[Mr Evil 37]

I think that, had SGU's "Alliances" been a bigger deal and featured a full-scale attack by the Lucian Alliance (possibly as a two-part episode), then that would have been a great way to introduce the Stargate program to the public. The political and social fallout from the massive attack, and presumably hundreds of deaths, would also create some opportunities for interesting stories.

I can just imagine all of Earth's 304s fighting attacks Ha'taks in space/in Earth's orbit.

[garhkal]

While the visuals would be awesome, the devistation on the ground wouldn't.. Unless all those battles were over non inhabited areas.

[Bane]

I couldn't really be bothered reading all the other posts right now.

One that i don't think many people would have thought about is democracy. One of the flaws with democracy is that people who have no idea get to choose the best course of action.

With the mindless masses not interfering it could really mean survival or destruction in the line of work at the SCG.

There would also try to be power grabs, big corporations and banks have a big voice among politics because it is really them, for the most part, who run the country. They would want to get some profits from off-world minerals or alien technology.

There would be economics, with Asgard transport beams thousands will be out of a job, ect.

~~~~~~~

On the other hand people could find it enlightening and maybe exactly what we as a world need. Knowing that we are not alone, there are others like us and some more powerful people may stop thinking that we are the center of the universe, and instead of thinking inwardly start thinking outwardly.

New cultures and philosophy would be made available. With people able to see the hight we as a race are able to reach (Like the Ancients) we would put aside our differences and try to reach them. Goals like Ascension could also unify the world.

[garhkal]

WEll, it would also peeve of the scienceologists!

[Puddle-Jumper]

I think this could have been a fantastic story arc in or around season 6ish SG1, like before Earth became the most powerful force in the known universe, but after they've acquired a few bits and bobs....