Loose Ends: Technological Legacies

[Cold Fuzz]

"The giants have left the playground...but they left their guns behind."

-- President John Sheridan in "The Fall of Centauri Prime"


I just realized the strange and rather twisted irony of that quote considering my avatar, signature, and which team I'm supporting in the World Series. Anyway, the point of this particular thread is to discuss the fallout from the advanced technologies we saw in the Shadow War and other conflicts, as well as the Interstellar Alliance's policies about those technologies.

It was established by a line of dialogue from Dr. Franklin in "Movements of Fire and Shadow" that certain technologies, like the Shadow control pods, would have to be turned over to the Alliance. This sets up an interesting political and ethical situation: Does the Alliance have the right to confiscate or otherwise control advanced technology that's found in the hands of its member worlds?

Reasons why the Alliance does not have the right to control advanced technologies

• The Alliance has promised that it would share technological advances with its member worlds, namely things like artificial gravity. By confiscating advanced technology, like the Shadow control pods, they're essentially contradicting themselves.
  
• The Alliance has stated that it would not interfere with the internal policies of its member worlds. By confiscating technology, especially if a member world legalizes the use of advanced technology, the Alliance would again be in a position where it's contradicting itself.
  
• The Alliance itself uses lots of advanced technology, again somewhat contradicting their own policies. We have seen how devastating Minbari technology can be in the hands of the Warrior Caste. With the White Stars and their Vorlon technology as well as the creation of the Victory-class destroyers, the Alliance essentially has cornered the advanced technologies market. The only parties that could oppose the Alliance would be the Drakh and the Technomages.

Reasons why the Alliance should regulate advanced technology

• Safety and security of its member worlds. The parties who would be interested in getting their hands on advanced technology have historically used it for evil purposes. They cannot be trusted to use advanced technologies for good purposes.
  
• There's even a hidden Shadow device in the Warlock-class destroyers. EarthForce R&D isn't even sure what the device does but there it is. This device, which EarthForce thinks will be helpful for the Warlocks, could conceivably take control of the ship, endangering the crew.
  
• EarthForce's bioweapons division deliberately infected their own people with the Drakh plague just to cover up their secrets thus dooming Robert Black, his colonists, and the last remanent of Dureena's people to death. Had Crusade panned out the way it was supposed to, it would have shown that Earth was trying to create their own Technomages using scrounged Shadow technology. I'm pretty sure they weren't doing it for magic tricks.
  
• The Technomages sequestered themselves from the rest of the galaxy during the Shadow War to prevent their secrets from falling into the wrong hands—and those secrets are far more destructive than the 14 words to make someone fall in love with you. With the Spell of Destruction, a single Technomage commands the same energies as a Vorlon. That kind of power in the hands of EarthForce black ops or any other similar organization is absolutely unacceptable. The Technomages themselves ordered Galen to make sure Shadow tech doesn't fall into the hands of younger races so the mages already know what horror can result if advanced tech gets loose.
  
• Almost all Shadow technology we have seen on screen is inherently destructive. Let's be realistic: There's no good reason why anyone should be owning or using a Shadow planetkiller. The same could be said of the Drakh nanovirus. The organic armor could be used for strictly defensive purposes. However, much of the Shadow tech loose out there is in the hands of people who have no understanding of how it works but is eminently willing to use it to harm others.

I personally don't believe that the ends justifies the means. There are exceptions to this however, and the advanced technology issue I think is one of them. I believe that the Alliance can and should regulate advanced tech for the good of the galaxy. There are way too many parties out there who will use all of this tech for nothing but destruction.

The Alliance has been shown to use their advanced technology for good purposes. To me, Vorlon technology seems to be more adaptable and more benign in nature, like self-repair systems, sensors, and the like. The Shadow tech we've seen is just nothing but trouble. The only things I've seen from the Shadows that isn't inherently destructive is their bioarmor and the control pods for the ships. Aside from that, we've got: A terminal anti-telepath virus that could turn every telepath in the galaxy into slaves, a semi-sentient nanovirus that can kill a population within 5 years, and of course, their planetkillers.

There are some who may cite the US Constitution's 2nd amendment and the right to bear arms. It's a specious analogy. There's a big difference between having a personal firearm and having weapons of mass destruction. The 2nd amendment may work on a small scale like in a single country but on a large scale, you're going to have nothing but trouble. Nobody has the right to own or create nanoviruses to infect others. Frankly, nobody has the right to own a Shadow planetkiller. It's meant for one purpose only and it's not protection.

[Ulkesh47]

First of all... I just wrote you a message about baseball matters before seeing this post. I understand now.

Second of all, I agree with you on your opinions of ISA regulation on First One technology. I don't think that the argument against (interference in internal policies) is very strong at all given the fact that any younger race in possession of First One technology simply is not meant to have it. But then you get into the whole issue of Quantum Space and the like, and the argument goes round and round.

[Cold Fuzz]

I personally think that the member worlds should gradually advance their technologies in proportion to their peacefulness, though admittedly "peacefulness" isn't wholly objective. However, the alternative would be that we could just dump a whole lot of Shadow tech on a pre-industrial world...and have nothing but absolute chaos and destruction, which was what the Shadows were after in the first place.

It's like a gun safety class. If you're going to use a weapon, you have to know how to use it properly, safely, and to respect its power.

Edit: And if you're not ready to have a gun, you shouldn't have one. Like with the Shadow implants on those helpless telepaths, there's no good reason to have that technology around...except for how to undo the damage to the telepaths that have been implanted with the wetware.

Galen was mandated by the Circle (the Technomage leaders) to locate and neutralize those who would abuse the Technomages secrets (because the mages' tech is Shadow-based) as well as other Shadow technology. I can picture the Alliance doing the same with the Rangers.