Did the Atlantis Expedition commit genocide?

[Snowman37]

In "Be All My Sins Remember'd," the Atlantis Expedition joined forces with the Travelers and even the Wraith to wipe out the Asurans once and for call. Though they are artificial life forms, is this not genocide given that the Asurans emulated the Lanteans?

[escyos]

Thats sort of like saying that melting all the worlds guns is genocide. Its not quite the same.

[Quizziard]

Thats sort of like saying that melting all the worlds guns is genocide. Its not quite the same.

It would be if the guns were sentient...

[Snowman37]

Thats sort of like saying that melting all the worlds guns is genocide. Its not quite the same.

You can have a conversation with an Asuran, not with a gun. I fail to understand your analogy. I'm guessing you feel the same way about Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation?

[morrismike]

The ausurans "chose" to be a threat to humans and wraith. That was a rational decision they were able to make because McKay gave them "free will".

[Flyboy]

Certainly 'acts of genocide', if not 'genocide'.

[SaberBlade]

It's not genocide if they want to kill you.

Killing Reese was fine.
Killing Fifth was fine (but pathetically sad).
Killing RepliCarter was fine.
Wiping out the Replicators was fine.
Wiping out the Ori was fine.
Wiping out the Asurans was fine.
Turning Wraith human and allowing them to be used as food is fine.
Tok'ra poison would have been okay until friendly Jaffa started to get killed.

However if they are friend then it's bad. The Jaffa for example, Asgard going boom was sad. Couldn't let Urgo die. Killing Niam was sad because he was hacked.

[magictrick]

Technically, yes it was because they were considered to have "free will". When the term genocide was coined though I don't think it accounted for a computer program that evolved so much that it came to almost mimic humans.

[EdenSG]

I think it was acts of genocide. But then the Asurans were in the process of killing all the humans in the Pegasus Galaxy. Technically that too would be an act of genocide. So one could ask if the killing of the Asurans was an act of genocide or survival of the fittest or self preservation or even self defense?

[WraithRichard]

However if they are friend then it's bad.

What if they are neither friend nor foe or think of you as the same kind of threat?

[Inquisitor]

It's not genocide if they want to kill you.

Killing Reese was fine.
Killing Fifth was fine (but pathetically sad).

I didn't like these two, well, the betrayal of Fifth instead of his death (since it was really RepliCarter who killed Fifth).
Reese was no longer a threat, she was shutting them down in the end. If she remained alive (or at least in tact) she could have helped us destroy the replicators sooner. The Asgard said she was damaged beyond repair but they managed to find the command to 'come forth'.

[Snowman37]

It's not genocide if they want to kill you.

Pull out your dictionary and look up genocide. It is killing off either an entire people, but not necessarily a species. The argument is if the Atlantis Expedition committed genocide on the Asurans. Did the entire population and the planet itself have to be totally destroyed?

[mandogater]

Being that the Asurans were in the process of slaughtering every man, woman and child in the Pegaus Galaxay I'm inclined to call it self-defense not genocide.

[caribsci]

I look at it this way.The Atlantis expedition indirectly committed genocide on all those humans the Asurans wiped out.So wiping out the Asurans was their way of fixing their screw up.

[Quizziard]

It's not genocide if they want to kill you.

Yes it is. It arguably justifies the act, but that makes it justifiable genocide. The genocide bit is still true.

Technically, yes it was because they were considered to have "free will". When the term genocide was coined though I don't think it accounted for a computer program that evolved so much that it came to almost mimic humans.

I would think the key question is not necessarily one of possessing "free will" but possessing "life". An example of the concepts for the latter were discussed in ST:TNG about Data's existence (i.e. in "The Measure of a Man" identifies intelligence, sel-awareness and consciousness). My query really comes down to the definition of genocide: is it simply the killing of an entire group of living beings, or do they need free will? Or is it that the free will is an indicator of "life"?