GateWorld Podcast Feedback!

[Stargate4Eva]

<b>RE: Spaceships VS Stargates </b>

I think Spaceships were ok on the show, I didnt mind them because they were helpful in some ways, for instance if the gate stop working and you had get off the planet all you had to do is wait for the ship to find you or if you know that the ship was in the area then you could just call.

[Lewisco]

I can never understand why people think it was immoral to destroy the replicator planet Asuras. The replicators aren't people, no matter how much they may appear to be. As McKay put it, their, "consciousness is just a bunch of 1s and 0s". They may have developed a society, but that doesn't make them sentient. As for their rights? They threw away all their rights when they started relentlessly consuming world after world in order to replicate. Personally, i see no ethical issue in destroying a world populated with replicators. They're just machines. The only exception i can think of is Fifth, who appeared to develop human emotions. However, the fact he was one of a kind only further proves other replicators are not "alive" so to speak.

[Jedi_Master_Bra'tac]

Response to this week's question; (I may record this if I find my mic)

I believe the human form Replicators and Asurans are sentient. A human being is just a biological machine controlled by a supercomputer. All that we are, our emotions, our thought processes, our memories are controlled by our brains. A machine of equal complexity made from mechanical parts shouldn't be any inferior to one made of biological parts. If you made a TV out of biological material, it wouldn't be alive and it certainly wouldn't be sentient.
As for do they have rights? Yes. However we still need to defend ourselves and if it's a choice between them and us I know what I would choose. Although genocide is a bit overkill.

[Psi]

I wonder, if in an SG1 or SGA team had come across a world where machine type lifeforms had somehow evolved on their own. (ie, no organic life had come first and build it) Would that change how we view that type of "life"?

If we once found proof that life based on mechanical/electrical/computing principles could evolve naturally wouldn't that mean all mechanical life can be alive?

And if we did find that, couldn't it also be possible that the mechanical life in its evolution became smart enough to build organic life and organic beings to perform tasks it finds difficult itself, as we build computers to do tasks we find difficult?

Ok, my head hurts, i have to stop now.

[Mrja84]

I just finished listening to all the podcasts over this last couple of months.

I loved the podcasts and I wanted to ask, how would you compare season 1 of SG-1 with season 1 of SGA in terms of character and plot development?

What positive aspects of each should SGU take and which aspects should it leave behind?

[Darren]

Episode #34 is now available!

This week’s podcast is the first in a new series of “Stargate Metaphysics!” Darren and David talk about the age-old topic of whether an artificial life form can be considered “alive.” For the Stargate franchise, the question is about Replicators — particularly the Asurans and other human-form Replicators, some of which are portrayed as very sympathetic characters. Are they alive? Are they sentient? And do they have rights?

Also this week:

Stargate News! The latest headlines from the Stargate universe

Interview Preview! Be the first to preview our next interview, this week with composer Neal Acree

Listener Mail! This week your comments on Replicators are again a part of the main discussion

This Week's Listener Question: It’s our second installment of Open Line Night! Call in and tell us what you want to hear us talk about, ask a question, or share your thoughts on the past, present, and future of Stargate.

CALL US! You can call the hotline and leave us a voicemail any time, day or night. Give us your thoughts on this week's listener question, leave feedback on the podcast itself, or talk about anything Stargate-related you want.

Dial: 616-712-1647 (long distance rates apply)

Thanks for listening and contributing!

[Mac Jackson]

For the Podcast:

I would love to know what cross-overs you two would like to see between Stargate and other TV or movie series. For me I would love to see a cross-over between SG-1 Shows like Highlander:The Series,Dead Zone and Quantum Leap. I also think a SG-1 Jack O'Neill and CSI Gil Grissom crossover would be great but the one I think we would all love to see would be a SG-1/MacGyver crossover. Thoughts?

Enjoy the my photoshop pics to fuel your imagination

Spoiler:

PS-I also posted a new blog about the MacGyver Movie at
youtube.com/macwjack

[Descent]

A 'Trek' question for the Podcast:

I would love to know your thoughts and overall opinions on Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Personally, I feel that Deep Space Nine successfully tapped into its potential and provided a dark and refreshing take on Star Trek, while Voyager was very much the underachiever of the franchise and settled on doing the same old stuff we had been seeing for years already. Did I mention I hate reset buttons?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these two shows. Thanks!

[Pharaoh Atem]

open line night two

i wouldn't mind a bsg discussion seriously you bring up bsg a lot during the stargate discussion so why not spent a little time talking about the series.

the series is ending this week so it would be fitting IMO

[Redhooks]

I have a suggestion for open line night. How about a discussion of the pros and cons of a serialized show versus an episodic based show in the science fiction genre? My opinion is that today's Sci-Fi shows should not follow the Trek TOS and TNG model, but should follow the Babylon 5 and new BSG model. I think B5 is the best SF show ever and thought that Atlantis would have benefitted by being a serialized show because it would have pushed it away from the SG-1 formula of storytelling and might have brought in more viewers like me who were never interested in SG-1 before.

I only watched SGA Rising due to my fascination with the Atlantis myth. The first season was great with an excellent arc of shows ending the season starting with The Brotherhood that kept ratcheting up the tension every week with the impending Wraith attack. Unfortunately, none of the other 4 seasons had that build up to the end of the season and I think that is why I never enjoyed any other season as much as season 1. Instead of moving ahead into the 21st century with a different way of writing, the following seasons reverted back to the outdated (IMHO) SG-1 formula of episode writing.

If Universe is truly going to be a serialized show, then I will probably stick around, but I am not sure if this group of writers can change their ways. I hope they can for the sake of the franchise, but I still have doubts.

The only two criticisms of the podcasts I have are that both of you are clearly SG-1 fans first and sometimes you definitely come across as having a huge bias in favor of SG-1 over SGA. Someone else who is a bigger SGA fan than SG-1 would be nice to have to provide a more fair and balanced show. The other criticism is that you guys start making a big criticism against the writers/producers, but then sugar-coat the comment seemingly so not to upset the people who give you a lot of interviews. Now I know this is more a fansite than a news/critique site but it detracts from an objective review in my opinion.

[quade_1]

Sentient life and being "alive" is a very opinionated topic. To define a soul is beyond comprehension. Technically we are nothing but electrical impulses and chemical reactions, very much like a machine. It could be concluded that machines have souls based on the assumption that we are just complex machines.


Listener Question: What did you think about the BSG finale, and more importantly the SGU promo??? Was it worth the 4 year wait to see how BSG ended and did it satisfy your questions??

[Eternal Density]

My open line night question:
What do you each think was the coolest piece of alien technology (not counting the Stargate) seen on each Stargate series, and do you wish it had been used more than it was?



In response to the Replicator podcast, I think that it is implied that the Asurans lack something (perhaps a soul?) which is necessary for ascension. However, in Ghost in the Machine it seems that building themselves organic bodies would fix this problem. This being fiction, I think the question of what a soul is and who/what has one can not be deduced by the observations of the audience - either the writers decide, or it's irrelevant. It's easy for us to forget that in a science fiction show, our personal experiences and opinions (both on 'metaphysical' issues and regarding scientific theories) don't hold any weight.

Cheers, ED (who is pleased that he was named twice, two weeks running)

[Pharaoh Atem]

Listener Question: What did you think about the BSG finale, and more importantly the SGU promo??? Was it worth the 4 year wait to see how BSG ended and did it satisfy your questions??

what he said

[UngoauldedUnas]

I had a comment about this past week’s podcast on whether replicators are alive. There was a question/comment about whether people with mental disabilities are more or less alive than those without mental disabilities. My opinion is that they are most definitely alive and worth as much as any other human being. My brother was severely handicapped and functioned at the level of a 6 month old. I don’t believe he was any less human than I am. I myself have a vision impairment and therefore am not as “advanced” as most others who do have good vision or have vision problems that can be fixed with simply glasses or contacts.

In terms of whether replicators are alive or not, I would have to say they are not. If replicators were real, I could not, as a person of faith, put them in the same category as humans. God created humans. Any kind of replicator or android or anything like that would have been created by humans (or aliens). To me, that is a HUGE difference. Only God can create a soul. Machines have programming that motivates them to do what they do. Humans ARE in many ways biological machines, but we have souls that can motivate us to do what we do.

On whether machines have rights, I would say that depends on how they treat others. An android like Data deserves to be treated with respect because he treats others with respect. But for a replicator like Oberoth who does not treat others well, he does not deserve to have rights.

[Optimus Chekov]

Open line night:
I once heard that Ben Browder was originally meant to play Shepard or at least the lead. First off, is this true? Second, do you think a Browder Shepard would change the show for the better or worse?
And with your mention of that unmade episode about the Asgard and Aschen, can you detail any other 'lost episodes' off the top of your heads? I found the idea very interesting.