The wraith are an advanced species there's no doubt. Their culture has evolved to levels our own will not see for some time. But I wonder sincerely about their economic system. My first question is how the wraith were able to attain their current number while thinning their food source to it's current state. How does it make sense for half of them to be asleep while the rest are awake (I'm not sure the actual percentage that exist in hybernation, I'm sure it's more than half). Thirty or forty years ago a man wrote a book about the problem of feeding people in our world in general. They used data about crop yields to prove mathmatically that India, even in a best case scenario, could never feed itself. Then a man came along with a strain of wheat that didn't grow quite as tall and was able to change all of that. It did wonders for third world countries everywhere, especially through some of the poorest nations in Africa, it won him a nobel peace prize. We're limited in our advancement, but we can innovate beyond our food problems. Why can't the wraith? Moreover, how do the wraith choose who feeds?
Economics is the study of how a society with unlimited wants allocates scarce goods and services. In this case we'll look at food. The wraith need humans as a food resource. They need them so much to the extent that they keep extras wrapped up on ice on all their ships. We've seen from the captured Wraith "Steve" that if kept without food for too long their body begins to metabolize itself. This is expected because that's how metabolisms work. But the real question is, based on this need to feed frequently, if all the wraith are awake, how do they decide who gets to eat. I've not seen any currency exchange hands so they don't have a monetary economy. Is it a simple first come first served (pardon the pun). But in a first in first out sort of arrangement there would certainly be fighting over who got to be the first. Is it somehow need based? The wraith who gets to feed next is the one who's had to wait the longest? The question of allocation is an important one, because if there was no system of allocation then the wraith number should have dwindled long ago simply through natural competition.
The wraith mental network is the only solution I can see to this problem of allocation. Since they are all connected it is natural to assume that the race functions as one entity rather than a group of many entities. Now rather than having many small consumers, there is one large consumer. It still does not seem to justify the lack of an economic system that the wraith maintain. The wraith have been portrayed in an enigmatic manner. In one episode they are shown as being very self centered in terms of their pursuit of survival. And in other episodes they are shown as an army of automatons pursuing the same goal. It leads me to believe that they are functioning in some form of Nash equilibrium, where they are making choices where the benefit of the group is put in context only when the group is present. Not exactly the prisoners dilema, but a game nonetheless.
The next question is how long a generation is for the wraith. If they truly have no real age limitation, are they still affected by a Kondratieff wave or cycle? If Kondratieff's theories are correct (although this is debated) then somewhere every two or three generations a society goes through an economic cycle. That said, in explaination for you who are unfamiliar. The Kondratieff wave is a long term statistical representation of an economice sycle. Kondratieff was able to show using economice data that every 50 to 60 years every country in europe would go through an econimic long cycle. the cycle consisted of a rapid growth in the economy, followed by a recession of some kind, followed by a slight return in growth to a plateau, and ending with a depression in the economy. For any out there that think of Kondratieff as being wrong, the mayan civilization was able to note the same occurence in their society. The period for these waves, when put into generational terms, is 2 to 3 generations. Anycase, how old are the wraith? Certainly they're still effected by economic cycles. Where are they genrationally, and where, within that, are they on their Kondratieff wave?
There are many other questions as to the wraith economy. Or the Ancients economy for that matter. I doubt anyone will want to post in this thread, but I'll wait and see. Perhaps there's some of you out there.
~Teddy
(This was intended to give people an opportunity to go huh? and for me to throw around some jargon from class. For me the questions are legitimate, but it'd be nice to see someone in here to knock around the idea of the wraith or ancients as communists or socialists, or whatever the case may be)
Economics is the study of how a society with unlimited wants allocates scarce goods and services. In this case we'll look at food. The wraith need humans as a food resource. They need them so much to the extent that they keep extras wrapped up on ice on all their ships. We've seen from the captured Wraith "Steve" that if kept without food for too long their body begins to metabolize itself. This is expected because that's how metabolisms work. But the real question is, based on this need to feed frequently, if all the wraith are awake, how do they decide who gets to eat. I've not seen any currency exchange hands so they don't have a monetary economy. Is it a simple first come first served (pardon the pun). But in a first in first out sort of arrangement there would certainly be fighting over who got to be the first. Is it somehow need based? The wraith who gets to feed next is the one who's had to wait the longest? The question of allocation is an important one, because if there was no system of allocation then the wraith number should have dwindled long ago simply through natural competition.
The wraith mental network is the only solution I can see to this problem of allocation. Since they are all connected it is natural to assume that the race functions as one entity rather than a group of many entities. Now rather than having many small consumers, there is one large consumer. It still does not seem to justify the lack of an economic system that the wraith maintain. The wraith have been portrayed in an enigmatic manner. In one episode they are shown as being very self centered in terms of their pursuit of survival. And in other episodes they are shown as an army of automatons pursuing the same goal. It leads me to believe that they are functioning in some form of Nash equilibrium, where they are making choices where the benefit of the group is put in context only when the group is present. Not exactly the prisoners dilema, but a game nonetheless.
The next question is how long a generation is for the wraith. If they truly have no real age limitation, are they still affected by a Kondratieff wave or cycle? If Kondratieff's theories are correct (although this is debated) then somewhere every two or three generations a society goes through an economic cycle. That said, in explaination for you who are unfamiliar. The Kondratieff wave is a long term statistical representation of an economice sycle. Kondratieff was able to show using economice data that every 50 to 60 years every country in europe would go through an econimic long cycle. the cycle consisted of a rapid growth in the economy, followed by a recession of some kind, followed by a slight return in growth to a plateau, and ending with a depression in the economy. For any out there that think of Kondratieff as being wrong, the mayan civilization was able to note the same occurence in their society. The period for these waves, when put into generational terms, is 2 to 3 generations. Anycase, how old are the wraith? Certainly they're still effected by economic cycles. Where are they genrationally, and where, within that, are they on their Kondratieff wave?
There are many other questions as to the wraith economy. Or the Ancients economy for that matter. I doubt anyone will want to post in this thread, but I'll wait and see. Perhaps there's some of you out there.
~Teddy
(This was intended to give people an opportunity to go huh? and for me to throw around some jargon from class. For me the questions are legitimate, but it'd be nice to see someone in here to knock around the idea of the wraith or ancients as communists or socialists, or whatever the case may be)
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