Why?What If? If They Are The Ancients..

[President-CommanderOfAtlantis]

If these are the ancients how come their are no stargates in atlantis.(maybe they havent found them )
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If The Ancients made ZPMs How come McKay hasnt searched the database for a tutourial to MAKE A ZPM!
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Do u Think That Atlantis Is Like 1 of more Atlantises to A BIG ANCIENT HOMEWORLD

[pillwokie]

1) there's no stargate in atlantis? , eeee, u sure about that?
I thinks u made a mistake here and u were trying to say something else.
2) From what they said, the ancients database is huge, i guess that's why they haven't found that yet.
3) Well, that sound reaaally interesting, I mean, thinking that atlantis is just one city of a bigger complex, mm, could be, I read on the spoilers that they will find another city similar to atlantis, so it could be.

[MarshAngel]

oooooooook then.

um....There is a stargate in Atlantis they came through it to get there. They go through it almost every episode. Did you watch the show?

obviously making a ZPM isn't so easy or everyone would have one. How come you havn't searched the internet for a tutorial on how to make a nuclear power plant? Because it isn't the kind of thing one would make a tutorial for and it's not something easy to accomplish. I'd have to assume the making of a ZPM is somewhat complex and we're not there in our understanding of their technology yet.

Not sure if I get the last question but if I do. No... There may be more Ancient cities but I don't think there are many of them. I don't think if there are any that they are in as good a condition as Atlantis. And I'm betting none of them are sitting on an Ancient homeworld.

[President-CommanderOfAtlantis]

oooooooook then.

um....There is a stargate in Atlantis they came through it to get there. They go through it almost every episode. Did you watch the show?

obviously making a ZPM isn't so easy or everyone would have one. How come you havn't searched the internet for a tutorial on how to make a nuclear power plant? Because it isn't the kind of thing one would make a tutorial for and it's not something easy to accomplish. I'd have to assume the making of a ZPM is somewhat complex and we're not there in our understanding of their technology yet.

Not sure if I get the last question but if I do. No... There may be more Ancient cities but I don't think there are many of them. I don't think if there are any that they are in as good a condition as Atlantis. And I'm betting none of them are sitting on an Ancient homeworld.

i know besides the STARGATE in the control room where is a pile of stargates at?

[LORD MONK]

What MarshAngel said.
Well put.

[James_the_Wraith_Sympathiser]

Heh...I also wondered whether making a ZPM would be possible....hopefully they bring that up in a future episode....I tried doing a google search for how to make one but came up with nothing

I'm not sure, but I've got a sneaking feeling that the planet they visited on Condemned (can't remember the name) may come back into it, as the magistrate told them they had found an ore that was fissionable but not radioactive (if I remember rightly). We know McKay knows how to build nuclear devices...perhaps in a later episode they get some of this ore and McKay could build a smallish power source...? maybe a crazy theory but you never know...

oh and this is my first post on these forums, hello to everyone

[President-CommanderOfAtlantis]

Heh...I also wondered whether making a ZPM would be possible....hopefully they bring that up in a future episode....I tried doing a google search for how to make one but came up with nothing

I'm not sure, but I've got a sneaking feeling that the planet they visited on Condemned (can't remember the name) may come back into it, as the magistrate told them they had found an ore that was fissionable but not radioactive (if I remember rightly). We know McKay knows how to build nuclear devices...perhaps in a later episode they get some of this ore and McKay could build a smallish power source...? maybe a crazy theory but you never know...

oh and this is my first post on these forums, hello to everyone

OMG i thought about that too!

[RalCaladan]

i know besides the STARGATE in the control room where is a pile of stargates at?

I think they sort of built them and placed them all at once. I don't think they made a stockpile. I think that when they went to the PG, or ours for that matter, they flew ships around to find habitable planets, then built stargates for them. I don't think they had a stargate stockpile, it wouldn't be efficient, as there are few worlds they would want to put them on (relative to the sheer number of stars/planets), and if you have 30 extra, they're pretty useless.

The ZPM thing: If they have a tutorial, we'd have to stumble across it, as we are trying to translate the database to English, we can't search it while it is in Ancient. That is why in Seige I we learn that they have all sorts of things translated, not just relevant stuff. Also, if they built a tutorial, it'd be far too complex. They would be written on a level an intelligent Ancient interested in that field would understand. So it'd be like a high level college textbook. Which are hard enough to understand, especially if translated (something loses an estimated 13% in translation at minimum), and add to that the fact that it is hundreds of years ahead of us. McKay can give you a one sentence description of Zero-Point energy, but that's it for our most advanced knowledge on the subject. Step one would be:
"Stabilize keryon-actonin crystals", and we have no idea what either a keryon or actonin is.

[MarshAngel]

i know besides the STARGATE in the control room where is a pile of stargates at?

Why would anyone make a pile of stargates? They aren't exactly any use sitting in Atlantis. The whole point of making gates is to put them on a planet. You wouldn't make a nearly indestructible wormhole maker and put it in your closet. They were in the Pegasus galaxy for MILLIONS of years. I think it's safe to say they had plenty of time to have placed all the gates they made and were using them.

[RalCaladan]

Why would anyone make a pile of stargates? They aren't exactly any use sitting in Atlantis. The whole point of making gates is to put them on a planet. You wouldn't make a nearly indestructible wormhole maker and put it in your closet. They were in the Pegasus galaxy for MILLIONS of years. I think it's safe to say they had plenty of time to have placed all the gates they made and were using them.

I could see the usefulness of a back-up gate though, in case anything went wrong. But I imagine they could fix any problems.

If they had any gates lying around, they'd have to seal them, lest some accident or unforeseen circumstance (Solitudes, Watergate) cause the Wraith to open to the backup gates rather than the "iris"-ed gate. Specifically if they locked the gate to any incoming wormholes aside from Earth, the Wraith dial-ins (assuming there were any) would reach some Atlantis closet (very, very bad for Alterans)

[MarshAngel]

I could see the usefulness of a back-up gate though, in case anything went wrong. But I imagine they could fix any problems.

If they had any gates lying around, they'd have to seal them, lest some accident or unforeseen circumstance (Solitudes, Watergate) cause the Wraith to open to the backup gates rather than the "iris"-ed gate. Specifically if they locked the gate to any incoming wormholes aside from Earth, the Wraith dial-ins (assuming there were any) would reach some Atlantis closet (very, very bad for Alterans)

I think the ancients were past the need for backups. Whenever one of the gates in the milkyway (which are millions of years old and maintenance free) has had a problem it has been something we've done wrong because of our ignorance. The stargate system is probably the most flawless scifi technology ever invented. What else could last millions of years through earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, ice ages, nuclear and chemical disasters, and a blackhole? Just about the only thing a gate hasn't survived is an exploding sun. It's safe to say a backup is just not needed. You wouldn't even be around for it to malfunction.. it probably has a lifetime warranty of about a hundred million years.

a gate malfunction without human error is beyond unlikely.

[pillwokie]

The ZPM thing: If they have a tutorial, we'd have to stumble across it, as we are trying to translate the database to English, we can't search it while it is in Ancient. That is why in Seige I we learn that they have all sorts of things translated, not just relevant stuff. Also, if they built a tutorial, it'd be far too complex. They would be written on a level an intelligent Ancient interested in that field would understand. So it'd be like a high level college textbook. Which are hard enough to understand, especially if translated (something loses an estimated 13% in translation at minimum), and add to that the fact that it is hundreds of years ahead of us. McKay can give you a one sentence description of Zero-Point energy, but that's it for our most advanced knowledge on the subject. Step one would be:
"Stabilize keryon-actonin crystals", and we have no idea what either a keryon or actonin is.

Mmmmmmmm, well, Mckay and Zelenka had a pretty good understanding of the weapon and technology they found on trinity, which base in what they said was more complex than a ZPM( I assumed), so, if they were able to understand ans analuyze this, i think they could understand a tutorial for making a ZPM. Mckay didn't make the devide in trinity work because it wasn't possible, Zelenka figure that out, but ZPMs are a reallity, i think both of them can figure that out without any problem

[PG15]

But they didn't really understand the weapon because of what happened at the end.

[tomchris45]

Mmmmmmmm, well, Mckay and Zelenka had a pretty good understanding of the weapon and technology they found on trinity, which base in what they said was more complex than a ZPM( I assumed), so, if they were able to understand ans analuyze this, i think they could understand a tutorial for making a ZPM. Mckay didn't make the devide in trinity work because it wasn't possible, Zelenka figure that out, but ZPMs are a reallity, i think both of them can figure that out without any problem

Yeah but they were only using the technology of the weapon, they didn't build it. Understanding how something works, and building something are two different things. You may know how a car works for example, and you may be able to change things in the car to increase performance etc. Doesn't mean that given a pile of raw materials you would be able to build a car from scratch!

[MarshAngel]

Yeah but they were only using the technology of the weapon, they didn't build it. Understanding how something works, and building something are two different things. You may know how a car works for example, and you may be able to change things in the car to increase performance etc. Doesn't mean that given a pile of raw materials you would be able to build a car from scratch!

Agreed.

Knowing how something works and even operating it just isn't the same as building it. I even have diagrams on how computers work, taken classes on the basics, and the internet is flooded with information on the subject but I couldn't even fabricate the casing. I don't know how plastic is made, how sillicon is made, how the copper for the wires is refined..... I've even seen a short documentary on how fiber optic cables are made and all I got from that is that there is no way in hell I could make one.

It's vastly oversimplifying reality if you think that you can just look up a blueprint, grab a screwdriver and some quartz and build a ZPM. The average person could barely build a small brick building even if they had the bricks on hand and a architect's blue print, so to jump to technology that's millions of years ahead of us would be preposterous.