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I was wondering the same myself, about the SGC just leaving that technology behind. Then again, I viewed Harlan's Lab as more trouble than it was worth. I mean, the size of that place was just. . .overwhelming. The technology was having maintenance problems (and with the doubles around, that should go along more smoothly).
Anyway, the machinery in Harlan's lab reminded me of tales my dad would tell me from when he was in the Air Force way back in the day. He was a computer tech in the Personnel department. He worked with IBM computers that took up entire gymnasium sized rooms and it took entire days just to print out simple lists of information. Plus they were always breaking down or in need of repair. Point is, Harlan's technology did something utterly fascinating, but at what cost? Was it energy efficient? Stable? How much time would it take to fix every single problem? Maybe in the end, it just didn't seem worth it to pursue.
Plus, I thought they buried the gate because the doubles knew the transmission codes to get back? Since they had the knowledge of the Earth Stargate and such, it was just standard operating procedure to bury the gate?
One thing i do wonder is why they never though to use it more effectively.. EG let harlan copy dozens of the SGC personnel, so he would have a whole gamyt of people to use to keep the place up, and the SGC would have access to his tech..
I loved this episode. I think it was Daniel that said "we are all machines", although I can't quite remember the exact quote. It brought up the question of what it is to be human. This episode dealt with the morality of bringing someone into a world not of their choosing, which, even if it wasn't explicitly the point of the episode, is an issue that we will continue to deal with for a very long time.
That's what I love about sci-fi, and most particularly Stargate. Parallels can always be drawn
I would also like to know how the characters of the robotic SG-1 changed during their time with Harlan. Did Sam and Jack's relationship grow in the same direction as our Sam and Jack's? Did their lack of military status change the fate of their relationship? Did the new robot of Teal'c feel empowered by the loss of his symbiote? Did he consider it freedom from the goa'uld? or a new enslavement?
Spoiler:
I wonder if Harlan's people had anything to do with Reece's people? Surely, more than one race in the galaxy can build machines, but it would be interesting if Reece was created with the help of one of Harlan's people who had left the planet
Hmm, very true. Didn't see Harlan making any creepy 'toys'. Although he did make copies of SG-1. Let's not call them 'toys' shall we? Yikes, that puts bad pictures in the brain!
Harlan's people is pretty advanced to be able to copy the memories and personality of the real person. It's not cloning, right?Are they like Data of ST:TNG?
First time I saw this episode, I really believed that they were just transferred to different bodies. So when Jack-droid found out the truth, I felt his pain.
So yeah, I like this episode. It made me think about immortality and being human. I pity Harlan for being alone for so many thousand of years. He's quite nutty now, kinda annoying too. But overall he's a good, uh, being.
Can anybody tell me why we wouldn't want this technology? I mean I know it is morally questionable, but couldn't we modify these robots to not have all the personality traits of a human. They could be like an extremely advanced M.A.L.P. however we could program them with military training so they could be temporary foot soldiers for the SGC. What about commercial or governmental purposes? I mean Fireman, Soldiers, Etc.. I'm not saying we put it into mass production immediately, but we could have at least studied it.
All of the Stargate destinations we had at this point came from the abydos cartouche correct? So if the goa'uld had knowledge of Altair why didn't they go there and take the technology from Harlan after which they would study and destroy him.
Now let's say for arguments sake that they had in fact already been there and Harlan had fought them off. Why would he not have known what Teal'c was? For that matter why wouldn't he have told SG-1 about it?
An interesting episode, I liked how we saw SG-1 come through the Gate from the view of behind the gate that was certainly different.
I wonder where Sam's mole was.
You'd think for argument sake they would of developed a mobile power source, especially given the amount of time they had and the fact that your basically stuck for the rest of your "life" which could be a very long time.
Interesting point captain jake, I guess it comes down to the morality/ethical issues of having copies of humans being around. Like the SGC really shouldn't of let them go given the that they had all the knowledge of their human counterparts but I guess it was a combination of the fact that the real SG-1 hadn't returned and the real SG-1 wouldn't hand over information no matter the price. I guess you could program them but given AI eventually they would want to learn and grow so assuming that no program is perfect and eventually they could advance beyond their program it could become a problem. But yes there really isn't a sound argument while they wouldn't at least want the technology to study etc.
I don't really have a explanation for your second point, maybe the planet shifted out of lineament for a time and the Goa'uld didn't compensate or maybe the Gate was originally on the surface (very likely) and they didn't have technology worth stealing at the time or maybe some other technology was stolen/damaged and all knowledge they had of the Goa'uld was lost. Although the most simply explanation is we are probably thinking to much into it and the writers at the time just hadn't thought of all these possibilities.
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