Hypotheses about Destiny's countdown clock.

[tshetz]

That's funny...didn't think of that. Well, education of those less informed is never a bad thing.

[tshetz]

Although if they are not bright enough to think that this



is the same as this:



Well then...

[Ben 'Teal'c would WIN!!' Noble]

I want to know how the people on Destiny know how to read the clock. Was there a manual on the ship or something? Are the numbers in Ancient?

I found this really cool t-shirt with Destiny's countdown clock on it:

http://interstait.com/?p=1661

Might have to get one for myself....

I think it says 12 hours, 15 mins, 39 seconds and 08 milliseconds (I think) .

[tshetz]

I think it says 12 hours, 15 mins, 39 seconds and 08 milliseconds (I think) .

That was going to be my SECOND guess after 5pm

[garhkal]

I want to know how the people on Destiny know how to read the clock. Was there a manual on the ship or something? Are the numbers in Ancient?
.

They read ancient...

[Shadow_7]

Many of the scientists had knowledge of the ancient language. At least it's written form. Eli derived some of that knowledge by playing the video game. So it can't be all that hard to learn.

As far as multiple directions. From a militaristic perspective, you want to hide your numbers and point of origin. As we've seen with SGU, many aliens as such with superior tech. And some with sufficient tech to be a threat in mass. Plus that whole million year old tech thing. If we're still around in a million years, do you think that we'll still be using our 386's as routers? And driving gas powered cars. I got the car that I currently have because I figured that by the time I'm in need of a new one, gas wont be the fuel that it runs on. At least not the petrolium based kind anyway. Arguably already the case, up to 10% ethanol.

[beafly]

Countdown clock is a plot device designed to create drama where it otherwise wouldn't exist?

I wouldn't read much more than that into it or you end up with multi-page threads that ultimately end in your mind doing this...

Spoiler:

[AwesomeProMasterDude]

Well, like Rush said near the end of season 2, the "answer" destiny is sent out to find isn't just randomly going to appear at the destination, but rather get put together of bits and peaces it finds along the way, so it wold make sense that destiny would stop for a certain amount of time to get sensor readings, information from the gates, etc. The timer is just there to let the Ancients that would be the crew of the destiny know for how long

[sldghamr]

I’ve been listening to the Gateworld Podcast for all of season 1 of SGU and two things occurred to me.

1) Rush said Destiny may be trying to find planets with things the crew needs but that is secondary to its primary mission thus the countdown (re: Air 2-3). In “Life” Rush finds the subspace signal from the seeder ships. So perhaps the reason Destiny has a countdown clock is so that it will never get out of range of the seeder ships. Destiny may give more time when it knows that the seeder ships are busy seeding vs. giving a little time when the seeder ships are on the move.
2) There’s this assumption that the gates are millions of years old and some should be buried. My question is, was there ever an indication for how long after the seeder ships destiny was sent out? I was thinking that it may only be 10 or even 100 years behind the seeders in which case the gates are still relatively new. If anybody has a quote to the effect of “thousands of years later destiny was sent to follow the seeder ships,” then please share, otherwise I don’t think it was stated.

I would appreciate any speculation that could confirm or refute this idea.

Thanks.

the time between Destiny & the Seed Ships is at least 2000 years. Who do I know? Think of Novus.......that colony had been there for that long. the seed ships went by that long ago.

[garhkal]

At least one of them did..

[Aesop]

Well, like Rush said near the end of season 2, the "answer" destiny is sent out to find isn't just randomly going to appear at the destination, but rather get put together of bits and peaces it finds along the way, so it wold make sense that destiny would stop for a certain amount of time to get sensor readings, information from the gates, etc. The timer is just there to let the Ancients that would be the crew of the destiny know for how long

FWIW, the OP was posted a week before Season 2 began airing, so the OP wouldn't have known about Novus.

But what the hell, I'll pitch in. I think there's no reason to assume Rush's understanding of the clock was wrong, in that the clock is Destiny's estimation of how long they need to retrieve whatever resources they're after.

They make an inquiry into Destiny's database >> Destiny eventually drops out of FTL >> Countdown clock begins >> Crew evaluates available addresses >> Sends teams to search for resources within allotted time.

Makes sense to me based on Destiny's own prioritizing of such needs.