Unnatural Selection (612)

[Liebestraume]

Jack's sense of duty supercedes everything else, so he'd bring someone along only if doing so would not endanger his team/planet. The most fundamental problem here lies not with Fifth's being a "machine" but rather with this particular kind of "machine" -- his natural instinct to replicate poses a threat against which there is no known defense.

I agree that Jack would have a much tougher call had Fifth been inside the protection of Jack's code, and I am not saying that the "humanity" question made no difference to Jack. It did, but only in his rationalization, not his judgment.

[omnian]

Ooh, I love Fifth. He's so cool and yet I bet he's gonna turn so evil when he reaches that device.

The advanced Replicators were an interesting storyline. How they evolved from those blocks to nanites is quite interesting. At least I think they were composed of nanites...maybe I'm forgetting something.

[Dramaqueen]

I have a question... at the beginning Thor told SG-1 that they activated the single command that was left in Reese's programming to make the Replicators come to their planet (or wherever) to trap them in the time-bubble... so does that mean that Daniel was wrong in "Menace" and Jack right? Because in that episode the question whether Reese told the Replicators to shut down or not was pretty much left open.
And, was Reese lying when she said that she lost control over the Replicators... cause if there was a command in her programming telling the Replicators to go after the Asgard technology...
or did I just miss something explaining all this?

[KorbenDirewolf]

I think the command that was activated was a call for them to come to her, wherever she happened to be. And since the Asgard had her, that's where the Replicators went when the signal was sent.

[bcmilco]

so does that mean that Daniel was wrong in "Menace" and Jack right? Because in that episode the question whether Reese told the Replicators to shut down or not was pretty much left open.
And, was Reese lying when she said that she lost control over the Replicators... cause if there was a command in her programming telling the Replicators to go after the Asgard technology...
or did I just miss something explaining all this?

Korben is right in that the command was just a "come to me where I am" command.

I think she was telling the truth in Menace about loosing control.

The replicators are programmed to replicate at all costs, so as they continue to replicate some will get farther and farther away from her. If just one got out of range she'd no longer be able to control what it does or where it goes, and it would stick to it's original programming: "replicate at all costs". And at some point she was turned off, so any replicators that she was still in control of would eventually start to do their own thing too.

I'm not completely convinced she'd lost total control at the SGC but that one replicator that Carter and Hammond were looking at did act on it's own, so she was either lossing control or she was ordering it to attack either way she had to be stopped and I think Jack did the right thing.

[Dramaqueen]

Korben is right in that the command was just a "come to me where I am" command.

I think she was telling the truth in Menace about loosing control.

The replicators are programmed to replicate at all costs, so as they continue to replicate some will get farther and farther away from her. If just one got out of range she'd no longer be able to control what it does or where it goes, and it would stick to it's original programming: "replicate at all costs". And at some point she was turned off, so any replicators that she was still in control of would eventually start to do their own thing too.

I'm not completely convinced she'd lost total control at the SGC but that one replicator that Carter and Hammond were looking at did act on it's own, so she was either lossing control or she was ordering it to attack either way she had to be stopped and I think Jack did the right thing.

Well first, thanks for helping me to clear up the mess in my head ...but I'm still wondering how the command for the Replicators to come forth in her programming can work if she's lost control over them and, if Reese knew about the command and that it still worked, I mean she would, wouldn't she?

[sgeureka]

...but I'm still wondering how the command for the Replicators to come forth in her programming can work if she's lost control over them and, if Reese knew about the command and that it still worked, I mean she would, wouldn't she?

I always saw Reese as controlling the Replicators with her will, and since the human will is in connection with feelings and other irrational things of the mind...

I think Reese just paniced, got indecisive and hence lost control. Now if she is dead (her emotions are shut off) and the Asgards can somehow interconnect with the "all-Replicators-come-here"-routine, then there shouldn't be a problem.

[Mr Prophet]

Reese got herself shut-down, didn't she? Moreover though, some of the Reps might have got out of range, but the Asgard boosted the signal 'throughout the known universe'.

[infopackrat]

I think there are actually two possibilities: One, Jack shooting her probably caused a lot of flux and shorts, so the only retrieveable command remaining was "come to me." Two, as the replicators replicated, their programming evolved farther and farther from Reese until the only command they still recognized was the recall signal.

[Mio]

I think there are actually two possibilities: One, Jack shooting her probably caused a lot of flux and shorts, so the only retrieveable command remaining was "come to me." Two, as the replicators replicated, their programming evolved farther and farther from Reese until the only command they still recognized was the recall signal.

I believe from the way Thor worded it:

"The android, Reese, that you discovered and provided to us for study retained a single core command in her base programming which we believed all Replicators would still follow."

The second one is what he meant.... They hadn't evolved past the 'come to me' command.

[bcmilco]

Reese got herself shut-down, didn't she? Moreover though, some of the Reps might have got out of range, but the Asgard boosted the signal 'throughout the known universe'.

Jack shot Reese and then removed the battery from her neck.

Otherwise I agree, once the replicators were out of range there was nothing that Reese could do to stop them, she didn't have a powerful enough broadcast system to reach the replicators over any great distance, espceially not interstellar.

So until she can communicate with the replicators she has effectively lost control of them.

The Asgard implied that they connected her to something that would broadcast her "come to me" command to all the replicators, and that that is what made it possible for the Asgard to do what they did in Unnatural Selection.

[Roatbaum]

Jack was willing to leave Fifth because he refuses to see anything mechanical as having a right to life. His robot double had to die before he could accept that maybe it had been alive and he never had the slightest interest in reasoning with Reese.

As is my right, I have to disagree. Jack does what he has to do for the 'good' of the country he has chosen to protect. He knows the replicators are dangerous, he knew it would be dangerous for his robot double to be on the loose, (he didn't kill any of them) and Reece was flawed, therefore dangerous. He zatted Sam once too, because his job is to protect. Of course its all a matter of perception, this is how I perceive it, you perceive it in another way.

[Mr Prophet]

Jack shot Reese and then removed the battery from her neck.

I meant the first time. Why was she shut down when they found her?

[bcmilco]

I meant the first time. Why was she shut down when they found her?

Ah!

Didn't she say something about her "father" telling her to go to sleep? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

Edited to add:

REESE: My father knew there was danger. He told me to go to sleep. He said he would wake me when the danger went away.

Snagged this from the transcripts. Now this assumes she's telling the truth.

[Jill_Ion]

Both the Reese episode and Unnatural Selection made me think about what it is to be alive or sentient. The end of Unnatural Selection still bugs me. I wonder if Jack traded one problem for another? Yes, he solved the issue of the potential danger of taking an Advanced Replicator out of the time bubble in the short term, but in the long term, this very "human" Rep. has now experienced betrayal, which could completely mess him up and turn what appeared to be a "good" Rep into a "bad" Rep. Maybe cuz they expect the time bubble to last for thousands of years, Jack figures the issue will be solved long after everyone is dust?

Still, it bugs me that Sam had to lie to Fifth, even if it was the best thing (in the short term) for SG-1. It's like when Jack killed Reese. It may have been the right thing to do, but it didn't sit well with me. Guess that's why he's the colonel and I'm the viewer, eh?

I guess I'm an optimist and try to believe people (or machines) when they say things. Not that I want myself or the troops defending our planet to be gullible, but I think in both situations Jack was a little quick on the trigger. I'm not saying he was out of character, though, just making a decision I may not have made in the same situation.

As for why the Advanced Reps looked like humans, well, the obvious reason is for FX savings and getting some cool actors on the show. And they explained it by saying they wanted to look like their creator, Reese. (Problem though, with none of them being black, but I'm sure they weren't concerned about Earth's race relations.) But I sometimes see the "to be advanced we have to be like humans" concept rather arrogant. Kinda like Data from Star Trek:TNG always wanting to be "human." Yeah, being human is pretty neat most of the time, but I sure don't think we're the endall and beall of the Universe. Especially considering all of the neat creatures we've "met" through SG-1, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.

Take care!