Are the Ancients Stupid?

[djtech1982]

So, the Wraith go around feeding on the human populations of the Pegasus Galaxy. The Ancients can build stargates, hyperdrive capable ships, nanotechnology, but do have the capability of a known technology that could end the war: human cloning. The Asgard have cloned humans before. All they would have to do is to create of farm of cloned humans and give it to the Wraith. The Wraith feed and live.. the war ends. Now, I know the Wraith are aggressive and it's probably all about territory, but at least they don't have to do a lot of things out desperation. Starvation does make intelligent creatures do things that they normally wouldn't do.

I know it's a tv show too and I'm probably overthinking it...

[Ilana]

Yes, besides which your solution is immoral and I don't think the Ancients would do that. At any rate, we know they don't interfere.

[garhkal]

Plus who's to say creating clones would even 'feed' the wraith.

[Mnikolic]

Yeah, let's say someone clones Sheppard or Ronnon or Teyla or even McKay. A Wrath feeds on a clone of one of those four. Then the same Wraith meets the real ones and in the end, the entire expedition is sent trough the Stargate to a planet without a dialing device. In the end, everyone from Atlantis gets to live the remainder of their lives on a prison planet, the Pegasus Court tries to fight back but it's all in vain which leads to a permanent extinction of the human population of the Pegasus Galaxy and our own, since there'd be no big flying fireball and its pilots to save the Earth from a Wraith attack since the expedition got blamed for everything.

[Falcon Horus]

Wow, someone left their morality at the door...

[thekillman]

I know it's a tv show too and I'm probably overthinking it...

The asgard had problems with using humans as test subjects. the ancients wouldn't interfere as ascended even if it meant their annihilation. The Ancients simply wouldn't use a solution they don't like, even if that means defeat.

[Xaeden]

The Wraith were not acting out of desperation at the time. Their food supply was plentiful enough for them to grow to such extremes that they were able to completely overwhelm the Ancients with their massive numbers (which, btw, they bolstered with clones of their own). The desperation came after the war when, without the Ancients there to fight them, their numbers grew unfettered, which impacted their food supply. At that point the infighting over food must have been intense until some point when they devised the plan to sleep for long stretches to give humans enough time to replenish their numbers. When Earth woke them up early, the desperation began again, leading to another civil war (note that previous civil wars weren't specifically mentioned but they're the only explanation for the decline of the Wraith fleet).

So forget the moral issues. What you're suggesting is that the Ancients should have given the Wraith the ability to grow unfettered and become even more powerful since their power is related to their numbers and their numbers are limited only by the availability of their food source.

What about the Wraith suggest to you that they are woeful creatures who disdain war and are forced into it only because they have no choice but to fight those who try to stop them from obtaining their one food source? I ask because that's the only way your plan would work.

The Wraith are, in actuality, predators who (by and large) like what they do, think of humans as disposable, and have been shown to be plenty motivated by the idea of power. You give them an unlimited food supply and you've signed your death warrant.

[Technocore]

Why not just clone themselves into bodies that that were incompatible with Wraith feeding?

[Falcon Horus]

Why not just clone themselves into bodies that that were incompatible with Wraith feeding?

They would probably run into the same problems the Asgard ran into - clone themselves into oblivion. Clone so far that the base DNA is no longer able to withstand another round of cloning and thus bring about the end of their race.

[thekillman]

Why not just clone themselves into bodies that that were incompatible with Wraith feeding?

Because they seemed to busier with ascension than anything else. I imagine the ancients that ascended would simply give the rest a "so long, suckers!" and flip them off.

[Falcon Horus]

And thanks for all the fish.

[thekillman]

And thanks for all the fish.

As long as nobody turns into a bowl of petunia's, we're fine.

[Falcon Horus]

[garhkal]

They would probably run into the same problems the Asgard ran into - clone themselves into oblivion. Clone so far that the base DNA is no longer able to withstand another round of cloning and thus bring about the end of their race.

Additionally maybe cloning themselves, would have stopped any chance they had AT ascending..

[jazzy72]

I always thought the Wraith (especially ones like Todd) were ancients looking for immortality without ascending! IMHO of course so they felt guilty about having "created" the wraith and would NOT feed humans to it. They considered the humans their offspring.