SGU stargate glyphs

[songar87]

Does anyone have any ideas how the symbols on the Destiny's gate are supposed to work? Someone said that JM posted on his blog that they are Ancient names for stars....but if the ship is moving from galaxy to galaxy, how does that work?

[Kidwizz]

that information was old, when the rough pics of the gate had what looked like words on it.

But now... noone knows but the writers... if they even know hehe.

BTW: there has been many threads about this. try the search next time

[tNsRAoL]

Does anyone have any ideas how the symbols on the Destiny's gate are supposed to work? Someone said that JM posted on his blog that they are Ancient names for stars....but if the ship is moving from galaxy to galaxy, how does that work?

Quote from JMs blog word for word or I wouldn't believe it.
It doesn't even make sense considering it's going into uncharted galaxies. So why would they have names for stars they don't even know about.

[escyos]

maybe the seeder ships choose stars based on where the gates arre deposited and trasmit this to the destiny, which then allows you to dial

[Encoder]

Wow I bet Brad and Robert are sitting there reading this thread going, crap, we should have put more thought into that scene!

[K^2]

maybe the seeder ships choose stars based on where the gates arre deposited and trasmit this to the destiny, which then allows you to dial

Yeah, basically how it has to work. Then the Destiny's address database would simply assign a particular glyph on the gate to a particular star on particular network. Of course, since Destiny dials gates automatically, I'm not sure we even need to know any of this.

[diMaggio]

You forgot one thing though:
It takes tremendous power to dial the Destiny gate.
Now I don't know if that was because it was very far away (many galaxies) or if this much power is needed everytime you dial a 9-code address.
My guess is that it's the former. That would explain, why they only have a window of several hours on each planet after which they don't have the energy anymore to reach the ship which, after the time window, moves along again (probably even another galaxy?).

And another thing: Since the Stargates the seed ships are dropping are most probably of a very old design and will have either generic symbols like the one on the Destiny, or symbols especially made for the constellations in the galaxy the Stargate will reside in... it stands to reason that even though they know the code to the Destiny using milky-way symbols, they might not know which symbols to use when they have to use the ones of another galaxy (or the generic ones like on the Destiny).

[K^2]

My guess, Destiny's computers already gave Rush its coordinates in local network. Otherwise, I doubt they'd simply get up and walk through a gate to an unknown planet in an unknown galaxy with no way back...

Okay, so they've done that once already. But in terms of the show, it wouldn't make sense if they couldn't get back. So I'm assuming that's how it is.

[Medicman]

Maybe its some sort of Ancient Binary.

[BackStageJim]

My suggestion is following the network mindset that all the galaxies are linked with-in the whole.
(PROTOCOL = TCP)
(Host = xxx.xx.xxx.xxx)

[Cecil Brax]

Wow,

Its been forever and a day since I posted, but here we go I guess. (I've been reading these forums for years, I just never really post.)

One thing to consider is where is the solid evidence that the gates ever had different symbols on them? We have seen the DHDs have different symbols on them back in Season 1 'Solitudes' when they found the original earth gate, but that gate had the 'A' symbol on it from years 4-5 whenever they dialed another world. This indicates that the gates infact have the same symbols on every gate but its the DHDs that have the special symbol to identify point of origin.

To my knowledge, off world gates don't spin when activated unless you dial manually as the result of not having a DHD. So how would they know what the point of origin is if they have to dial manually? Maybe the 'A' symbol is the point of Origin on every gate when dialing manually.

This makes sense also because 'A' was the symbol for Atlantis, as well as the Altarans (The original name for the Ancients).

We also know that 'A' was the symbol for earth because in the Ancient Outpost in the first Episode of Stargate Atlantis, A was identified as the point of Origin for earth in the 8 Symbol Address to get to Atlantis.

We never got to see the DHD that RA brought to Earth other then a few shots of it from a side or top angle, so who knows what the 'Point of Origin' symbol looked like on that DHD.

Basically, to sum it up: 'A' was the symbol for earth. It was shown on BOTH gates earth had, as well as identified in the Ancient Outpost which was at least several million years old.

Finally, one thing no one is considering is that Icarus might have been a world without a Stargate originally. We know that the world had a unique energy they needed. They never said they found the world with a gate on it. What they said was it was the only world they found that had the energy they needed. They might have brought the gate there themselves and simply calculated what the point of origin would need to be in order to make the gate work on that world. Then when Eli did his whole 'Unlock the Code for the 9th Chevron' they used the 'A' symbol because it was part of the code; the point of Origin really didn't even mater.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

- CB

[JacksonClone]

Wow,

Its been forever and a day since I posted, but here we go I guess. (I've been reading these forums for years, I just never really post.)

One thing to consider is where is the solid evidence that the gates ever had different symbols on them? We have seen the DHDs have different symbols on them back in Season 1 'Solitudes' when they found the original earth gate, but that gate had the 'A' symbol on it from years 4-5 whenever they dialed another world. This indicates that the gates infact have the same symbols on every gate but its the DHDs that have the special symbol to identify point of origin.

It's called using stock footage and props, unfortunately. The only gate they made that had the inner track spin was the Egypt/Alpha Gate, so any shots of the gate spinning will use the "At" symbol for Earth's Point of Origin.

But that does bring up support for the "computer only showed the 'At' symbol" issue. Since the Beta gate had a different symbol but the computers could have been reprogrammed to show the Beta gate's Point of Origin symbol, maybe whatever was reprogrammed to be "Earth" was just simply shown with an "At" symbol. (Yes, I know this could also be the 'stock footage' argument, but I would think computer graphics are much easier to fix than a whole Stargate).

To my knowledge, off world gates don't spin when activated unless you dial manually as the result of not having a DHD. So how would they know what the point of origin is if they have to dial manually? Maybe the 'A' symbol is the point of Origin on every gate when dialing manually.

If you have 39 symbols and you've seen at least two Stargates, then you should recognize 38 symbols being the same and 1 being different. That's your Point of Origin.

This makes sense also because 'A' was the symbol for Atlantis, as well as the Altarans (The original name for the Ancients).

Explain please.

We also know that 'A' was the symbol for earth because in the Ancient Outpost in the first Episode of Stargate Atlantis, A was identified as the point of Origin for earth in the 8 Symbol Address to get to Atlantis.

I don't remember seeing it in the Ancient Outpost itself, but rather on Daniel's whiteboard. Screenshot, please?

Finally, one thing no one is considering is that Icarus might have been a world without a Stargate originally. We know that the world had a unique energy they needed. They never said they found the world with a gate on it. What they said was it was the only world they found that had the energy they needed. They might have brought the gate there themselves and simply calculated what the point of origin would need to be in order to make the gate work on that world. Then when Eli did his whole 'Unlock the Code for the 9th Chevron' they used the 'A' symbol because it was part of the code; the point of Origin really didn't even mater.

This is possible, too.

In fact, here's another idea...

What if the gate address really was a code?

Bear with me here.

The gate program analyzes a gate address and checks to make sure it's a valid address. Then if it is, it attempts to establish a wormhole, assuming the offworld gate isn't blocked by a coverstone or buried.

If the Icarus Base gate saw the "code", it might have recognized that it was a Destiny code, so it checked with the Destiny to see where it was (hence why we saw it stop before the gate actually dialed, because you can't dial a ship in motion due to its location constantly changing), Destiny's gate responded back with the current address, and the Icarus Base gate dialed the current location of Destiny.

As a check to make sure it wasn't someone else dialing (the Ancients may have thought no one would be smart enough to reprogram the gate and didn't put an "authentication code" into the gate itself like we saw in "Prototype"), the 9th chevron was a "password", here being Earth's location in space. Once everything checked out, a wormhole was established.


Again, I have no canonical evidence for this.

[diMaggio]

[...] In fact, here's another idea...

What if the gate address really was a code? [...]

But that's exactly what they said in the pilot, it is a code.
The question remains, if the whole address is a code or only the last symbol, as you've suggested.
I'd go with the former thought for the very reason that you can't know the current whereabouts of a constantly moving Stargate.
Hence the address cannot possibly be an address in this case, but rather a general code for "Destiny Stargate" which will always remain the same, no matter where Destiny is at the moment.
But I agree with you that the only possibility then for a Gate dialling into Destiny would be to first send out some sort of broadcast ping like "Where is Destiny?" and then receive the actual coordinates from the Destiny Stargate.

Kind of like the often used comparison of domain name resolution.
You enter www.destiny.com and get the IP address it currently has.
Continuing this comparison, to enter normal Stargates would be like to enter a set of city names (or similar) as the address of the server you want to reach. That's because the server the is at the (geodesic) intersection of these cities. So the cities would kind of act as the constellations.
Surfing the internet really would be a pain though.^^

[Cecil Brax]

If you have 39 symbols and you've seen at least two Stargates, then you should recognize 38 symbols being the same and 1 being different. That's your Point of Origin.

This is assuming that the Stargate's themselves have different symbols on them for each world, which I don't think is true. Not once in the history of Stargate have they ever said "Each Gate has a different symbol". Also taking into consideration that the puddle jumpers are designed to use any gate, there has to be a 'stock' symbol in the Puddle Jumpers as well for dialing any possible gate.

Now I have no evidence to support that all the gates have exactly the same symbols, but neither is there any evidence to support that every gate on every world has a different symbol to identify its point of origin. The only thing we know for sure is that the DHDs do have unique symbols on them for their point of origin.

Unless someone shows me proof otherwise, I think all the gates have the same symbols, but its the DHDs that have a unique one.

I don't remember seeing it in the Ancient Outpost itself, but rather on Daniel's whiteboard. Screenshot, please?

You're right, it was on the whiteboard. Actually they never once showed any of the 'writings' that Daniel was talking about finding in the Ancient Outpost on earth. Looking back at the Season 1 Atlantis DVD, they did only find a 7 symbol address, and they added the point of Origin themselves to make it 8 symbols.

So really, there isn't any direct proof that the 'A' symbol stands for earth. Though the DHD found with the Beta Gate which had the unique 'Point of Origin' symbol was never on the Beta Stargate itself. In seasons 4 and 5, the Stargate still had the 'A' symbol. Which yes, could be explained away by "They just used stock images" but I would think for something that major that the creators of the show would have changed the symbol.

There's no way to prove my theory that all Stargates have the same symbols, just like there is no way to prove that each world has a Stargate with a unique symbol on it for the 'Point of Origin'. I guess this is going to be one of those 'Mysteries of the Stargate' kind of like the Furlings. hehe

This is possible, too.

In fact, here's another idea...

What if the gate address really was a code?

Bear with me here.

The gate program analyzes a gate address and checks to make sure it's a valid address. Then if it is, it attempts to establish a wormhole, assuming the offworld gate isn't blocked by a coverstone or buried.

If the Icarus Base gate saw the "code", it might have recognized that it was a Destiny code, so it checked with the Destiny to see where it was (hence why we saw it stop before the gate actually dialed, because you can't dial a ship in motion due to its location constantly changing), Destiny's gate responded back with the current address, and the Icarus Base gate dialed the current location of Destiny.

As a check to make sure it wasn't someone else dialing (the Ancients may have thought no one would be smart enough to reprogram the gate and didn't put an "authentication code" into the gate itself like we saw in "Prototype"), the 9th chevron was a "password", here being Earth's location in space. Once everything checked out, a wormhole was established.

Again, I have no canonical evidence for this.

I completely agree with this statement. While there isn't any direct evidence to prove this, Eli did put this same idea forward in the Stargate Universe premier which said relatively the same thing. That the address was a code.

Thanks for the discussion, it gives me a lot of things to look forward to hoping they will explain in the new series.

- CB

[jrd231]

A very interesting thing.
Since the seeder ships and the Destiny are very very old... maybe the gates we see at Universe are "Mk.I" gates, primitive "stand-in" gates, so the ancients could get there, see what was going on on the planet, and then think of planting another kind of gate. Maybe they were gates like these at the beginning in the Pegasus Galaxy, then the Ancients arrived there and made the "Mk.III"(Mk.II being the Milky Way ones), definitive ones.

Joe Malozzie has said in a blog that the Destiny gate is the original Stargate design. As far as we know the glyphs on the gate are just numbers or words or anything and a combination of them connects to a gate in a galaxy. One combination could be the gate address for many different gates, all in different galaxies.

For example: 3-5-9-6-1-7-2 could take you to planet X when your in one galaxy and planet Y when you're in another galaxy. Since they are short range gates, the same combination could be used in each galaxy. You just have to assign each gate a specific address like a telephone. You don't have to use constellations for the Stargate as long as the dialing device knows how to connect to a Stargate you're dialing.