Are the Wraith bad farmers?

[thenimf]

Rewatching season 1 and I noticed some very odd things about the Wraith strategy (even before chopping Colonel Sumner),

1. Human development is limited to hunter gatherer, permanent settlements on the surface like towns and cities are too dangerous
2. Whenever a bunch of Wraith wake up, they terrorise the human flock so much they prevent the humans from breeding much and completely rule out their creating cities
3. The Wraith seem to outmatch any level of technology that's thrown at them, why not just let some human societies develop some more? There's literally no threat even if they get to Traveller level and build space ships.

Earth's population didn't reach 1 billion until the 1800s and has grown exponentially since then, arguably due to economic demands on workforce resources. The Wraith could surely understand such basic behaviours being a superior species who clearly understand humans quitre well.

So I think the Wraith might be really bad at farming humans. If I was a Wraith, I'd be encouraging industrialisation, commercialisation and dense population. Maybe even create a false religion that tells people to go forth and multiply.

Anyway, I know this is an old show now and what I'm picking at was probably overlooked.

[Gatefan1976]

Keeping the population down prevents advancement, so no I think the wraith did exactly the right thing.

[StargateMillennium]

It's a misconception but wraith do do that.

They come out, cull, feed, then hibernate for hundreds of years before doing it again. And the societies get to build and advance during that time. Now, hundreds of years is very nondescript but we get indications that these civilizations get to become advanced. The Athosians for example have a few left over pieces of tech from when they were advanced. Most particularly is what seems to be a long-range lighter.

The Hoffans and Satedans reached early 1900's level of technology.

And the travelers became advanced enough to build hyperspace-capable ships.

So the wraith do let these civilizations grow and reach a certain level of advanced technology. It's just when they wake up to cull the crop, they also proceed to bomb all the civilizations back to the stone age as to prevent them from ever getting too advanced and reset the clock. They are in many ways Mass Effect reapers.

The only reason they're currently picking on these 15th century level civilizations is because Atlantis rang the dinner bell early.

[The Flyattractor]

I recall someone once asking why the Wraith don't just dominate the Humans like the Goau'ald do, and I had it was because A. They don't need too? And B. Would the Wraith be better off if Humans barley knew they existed?

[Grayvorn]

So I think the Wraith might be really bad at farming humans. If I was a Wraith, I'd be encouraging industrialisation, commercialisation and dense population. Maybe even create a false religion that tells people to go forth and multiply.

I cannot help but imagine a Wraith version of 'They Live'