The Chair

[garhkal]

It was meant so that the Ancients who boarded Destiny, thousands of years after it's launch, could have instant access to the knowledge collected thus far.

After more thought (and a rewatch) that is my opinion now as well.

[TwoLL's]

But it isn't 'Rush said it, so it must be so'. He's always disbelieved, made out to be a liar, or undermined. They blame him for getting them stranded there but there was a valid scientific reason for dialling the nineth chevron instead of Earth or anywhere else in the Milky Way. So far, no one has said 'Why did you do that?' They just seem to assume that he did it maliciously.

Actually, I think there was a fair bit of discussion about why Rush dialled the Destiny rather than Earth or another MW address in "Air", though it seems to have been dropped rather quickly since then, and the disbelief and undermining comes mostly from Young so far that I've seen. In "Earth", it was clear Rush was working with at least a couple of the other scientists to set up his little performance art piece, but since then we haven't seen any real interactions there. We do know that Young is using Eli as a spy against Rush, but we don't really know what the other scientists/civilians think at this point.

Who knows, maybe they actually are having these discussions on board the Destiny and we just don't know because the writers thought we'd all be more interested in Scott's ex and the Telford/Young/Young's wife story-lines.

It goes back to whether SGU is really making the best use of its sci-fi elements to drive the story. To me, the chair offers some real potential to examine the crew's morality concerning "ends justifying the means" type situations given the potential for knowledge the chair might represent versus the risk to whatever poor sod they choose to sit in it. Its the sort of question good sci-fi would explore. We'll just have to wait and see if SGU decides to do so in any meaningful fashion.

[EllieVee]

I think in Earth, they went to him. I also, from her attitude, think that Wray was asking him to intervene.

I don't recall much of a discussion in Air aside from when Young was bellowing, 'Dammit Rush!' at him.

It's interesting because:

Spoiler:

In Life, at the end when Young is spying on Rush, we see Brody come into frame and give a glare. Now, the transcript suggests he's glaring at Rush (now presumably knowing that Rush lied) but to me, Brody actually looks past Rush and glares at the kino. Should there be a division, Brody will be on the front line. That much was obvious from the conversation he, Park and Volker had in front of Rush, saying that Rush would get the blame if anything went wrong with the chair.

[frankr]

Trust is earned. The scientist in question has earned very little thus far in the series. He's proven time and time again that he's willing to either flat out lie, omit or bend/stretch the truth in order to suit his own personal agenda. The writers have succeeded in getting me to question the accuracy of literally every word that comes out of his mouth.

Blindly trust him if you like, but I'll need a good deal more evidence before I do the same.

So Rush is the only scientist on board?
And only Rush can tell the difference between a control chair and a download device?

If it is a control chair; don't you think one of the other scientists would have come forward with "Rush is wrong.. it's a control chair" during the episode?

-frank

[Telemachus]

From the ads for next weeks show, seems like a murder mystery.


Thinking someone unexpected could covertly sit in the chair... go a little nuts kill and not remeber it ? Maybe it's not calibrated for humans or something.

[GhostPoet]

I think they are making a big mistake by not letting someone sit in the chair. There are a handful of people who would be more than willing to do it, I say let them. Science isn't safe 100% of the time...in science there are always opportunities of great risk, but often times the rewards are greater.

I'm with Rush...let someone sit in the chair.

[beafly]

I believe that someone will sit in the chair.

[nx01a]

My first reaction was that it was a predecessor to the Ancient Control Chairs, rather than the repositories.
Judging from what happened/was said in this episode though, I'm thinking that at some point Rush and Greer will agree to put him (Greer) in the chair. Whether that results in Greer dying or not, I'm not prepared to speculate just yet.

Same thoughts exactly.
The fact that the chair's got restraints means that the process isn't an easy one. Jack's experiences with the far more advanced repositories left him weak afterwards, so who knows what'll happen with this chair.
Now... Wouldn't it be hilarious if the device doesn't actually download anything but instead uploads your consciousness into the computer? You want the ship? Control it yourself. Even if that's not the case, I just know the chair doesn't work the way they think it does. Merely sacrificing someone for the relevant codes would be far too easy.

[Count]

Same thoughts exactly.
The fact that the chair's got restraints means that the process isn't an easy one. Jack's experiences with the far more advanced repositories left him weak afterwards, so who knows what'll happen with this chair.
Now... Wouldn't it be hilarious if the device doesn't actually download anything but instead uploads your consciousness into the computer? You want the ship? Control it yourself. Even if that's not the case, I just know the chair doesn't work the way they think it does. Merely sacrificing someone for the relevant codes would be far too easy.

The stones are some of the oldest tech known, next to the gates themselves, maybe the Destiny control chair/repository acts the same way? Keeps the mind in the body, but allows the mind to sort of act as tho it's directly in the ship itself, the person feels the ship as if it were their body. Tho we've seen the repositories themselves, they can hold an "advanced" ancient consciousness (Merlin) so it's not a far cry.

[Control_Chair]

Since we're speculating, since Rush was able to access the database of the seeder ships from that room that the chair was in, the chair is a means of automating that process. It's neither a control chair for the Destiny, nor an "ancient repository" of their knowledge ... I think is it specific to that ship, and that mission.

It was meant so that the Ancients who boarded Destiny, thousands of years after its launch, could have instant access to the knowledge collected thus far.

Despite my name, having watched the episode I agree with what you have said about the chair being a precursor to both the control chairs and the repositories of knowledge, both seem to use a neural interface to link with the subjects mind, either to download information or allow access to various systems. It is possible the technologies diverged at a later date to become the control chairs and the repositories,

However

Spoiler:

On the stargate wiki it lists several rooms on the Destiny
http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Destiny,
(and although there is no page on it yet) one of the rooms listed is something called the Nexus room. Now as the word nexus means

1. A means of connection; a link or tie:
2. A connected series or group.
3. The core or center: "

I am wondering if the chair room is the nexus room and serves as a connection to the ships computer? and the chair on the Destiny is capable of both downloading information into a person’s brain and allowing access to the ships computer which would make for some interesting storylines IMO.

[EllieVee]

I think they are making a big mistake by not letting someone sit in the chair. There are a handful of people who would be more than willing to do it, I say let them. Science isn't safe 100% of the time...in science there are always opportunities of great risk, but often times the rewards are greater.

I'm with Rush...let someone sit in the chair.

You'll like this one. The 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to two Australian scientists who discovered that ulcers were not caused by stress but were a gastric bacterial infection. One of them infected himself with some pretty dangerous bacteria to cause an ulcer so they could prove that it could be cured by a course of anti-biotics.

Science is risky. If someone wants to take the risk of sitting in the chair, let them. We already know that if it goes pearshaped that Rush will get the blame; he knows it, too.

[Count]

You'll like this one. The 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to two Australian scientists who discovered that ulcers were not caused by stress but were a gastric bacterial infection. One of them infected himself with some pretty dangerous bacteria to cause an ulcer so they could prove that it could be cured by a course of anti-biotics.

Science is risky. If someone wants to take the risk of sitting in the chair, let them. We already know that if it goes pearshaped that Rush will get the blame; he knows it, too.

Not _quite_ right, but close. They discovered that _most_ ulcers are caused by bacteria, not all For those who are interested, the bacteria is Helibacter Pylori B.

But i digress..

[Carter1994]

I've been giving the trailers an in-depth review, and if you look at this one (released late October/early September, spoilers for all of season one),

(spoilers for an unknown episode)

Spoiler:

you can see someone in the chair around 0:24. Or, see the pic below:

Spoiler:

And by looking at that, it seems like this person is male, is wearing black shirt, is caucasian... and is wearing a watch. Obviously it can't be Greer, and since they appear to be wearing black, this excludes Rush. This leaves Young, Scott, or a redshirt. If I were to guess, I'd say it's Scott.

[Eternal Density]

Maybe it's actually a Zanax detector.

[Count]

I've been giving the trailers an in-depth review, and if you look at this one (released late October/early September, spoilers for all of season one),

(spoilers for an unknown episode)

Spoiler:

you can see someone in the chair around 0:24. Or, see the pic below:

Spoiler:

And by looking at that, it seems like this person is male, is wearing black shirt, is caucasian... and is wearing a watch. Obviously it can't be Greer, and since they appear to be wearing black, this excludes Rush. This leaves Young, Scott, or a redshirt. If I were to guess, I'd say it's Scott.

Urm, where did you see black? I see in that shot is white and grey being washed out by blue, a caucasian man wearing a partly rolled up shirt and wearing rush's watch on his left wrist... amazingly enough, just like rush does.