Advanced civilizations with small populations...

[Alder]

Something I've found odd about both SG-1 and Atlantis on occasion:

The number of times they meet with a fairly advanced race that has a planetwide population of only a few thousand, or less. I'm thinking, at the moment, about the race in Inferno (Atlantis, 2/19) with the supervolcano. Advanced enough to make Ancient technology work, even if they didn't entirely understand it - but the evacuation was only of a fairly limited number of people. There was no mention of, say, hundreds of thousands of people dying elsewhere on the planet when the volcano finally went up!

Does anyone else find this odd? Do you have an explanation for it, or even an educated guess?

[janus 510]

they were being culled by the wrath and only found the outpost for a year

[Jeffala]

I'm not sure that I could call them "advanced" just because they could turn on and use a shield.

[Alder]

Shall I say 'post-industrial' then? As in 'able to recognise what a machine is'? They're not the first race to have the low population thing, just the first that came to my mind since I watched the episode last week.

Let me rephrase the question:

Has anyone found it odd or interesting the number of times Stargate used a race which had a relatively advanced level of technology with a population that was unexpectedly small by comparison?

[PG15]

I think it's a trend that developed nations don't breed as much compared to developing nations.

If I've got that right, then perhaps "developed" civilizations wouldn't breed as much either.

[Alder]

Even so, sometimes there are planetwide populations that are smaller than the population of my town...which I find a trifle odd...

[PG15]

Example?

And of course, they must be advanced by your standards.

[obsidian1771]

Well, the WRAITH are one reason for the small populations, but logically if you wanted to advance to such a high level of tech. as the Lantians then it would only be possible with a small population. Applying it to a global population scale would be impossible - it would be like getting all 6 billion of us to dance in time with one another to the Macarena!

[apollo22]

i can think of one planet that had a large advanced civilization. The planet haberdan, with the serrakins and hebridians, form what we could tell , they had quite a large population

[segaxgames]

Shall I say 'post-industrial' then? As in 'able to recognise what a machine is'? They're not the first race to have the low population thing, just the first that came to my mind since I watched the episode last week.

Let me rephrase the question:

Has anyone found it odd or interesting the number of times Stargate used a race which had a relatively advanced level of technology with a population that was unexpectedly small by comparison?

They're not post industrial {mod snip}...... we're post industrial. Post industrial is an economic term, not a term of scientific advancement. It deals with the amount of factories a country has. Back in the 50s we had lots of factories. Now, all our factories are in other countries, making the American workforce look for other ways to obtain capitol (i.e. retail, office jobs, service jobs etc.).

So no... they are not even Post industrial. What I think you are trying to say is that they are industrial...

[CarsonsKitty]

well first off, Post Industrial technically does describe them in the example in a way... as with the whole massive crisis they didn't seem to be *making* anything much or even living in their own society

You would think on these things though that someone would go (using Earth countries as an example) 'oh the poor Australians didn't make it off the planet!' or similar... or 'yes! I always knew the peple of so-n-so deserved to be erradicated'

example: in SG1 they frequently came in touch with countries at war with each other, the Breeders and Clones (forgot the series/episode)

and in SGA it is occasionally reffered to, ie when Sheppard and Weir are taken over by the conciousness of 2 enemy fighter pilots...

but 95% of the time they rescue a population they seem to be pleased that they saved everyone... when everyone is the population of a small village

Remember that the Wraith were mostly in hibernation for a long time and many planets had almost forgotten they were a threat... and until this great awakening there were only limited cullings which didn't dessimate a planet. It is mentioned several times that they used to only require a few at a time, the planet with the gate on it's prison island springs to mind, they suddenly have death penalty for any crime where as before it was only the most severe of crimes that sent a very limited number of people there...

[Alteran of Atlantis]

Well in Pegasus, the Wraith are probably the cause of that. But in the Milky Way I have no explination, the Goa'uld could probably be a possibility. But we don't know the exact populations of other planets, so it is hard to say.

[Professor D.H.D. Puddlejumper]

This is something that goes way back to the various incarnations of Star Trek as well. Civilizations of a few thousand people on a planet, not a single one with billions like on Earth. Not only that but planets with a single global-wide climate (sometimes possible, but not too likely) whereas Earth has a diversity of climates. Reason: Well, probably the writers just weren't up to conceiving entire civilizations and entire planetary biospheres.

[Coela Bellatore]

They may be divided up into nation-states like on Earth. If some interplanetary traveler contacted England than I doubt they would tell anyone else about it. Also these many planets could exist in city-states as that has been the dominant form of government for most of humanity's run.

[dahok]

1) They're smart enough not to grow a massive population and suck up the planet's resources.
2) Numbers diminished through war with each other, Goa'uld, Wraith, etc.
3) Sci-Fi can't afford hundreds of additional extras running around a set, giving the illusion that a civilization is massive.