SG1: 2010

[FlynnTaggart]

To me, as someone with no desire to have kids, defeating the Go'auld in exchange for mass sterilization ... that seems like a good trade.

Because you don't want kids it seems like a good trade off for a few years of comfort for the entirety of Earth humanity to be sterilized in a slow genocide? I don't want kids either but I certainly don't think anyone else should be forced into that decision. Plus the point of defeating the System Lords is to protect Earth and humanity, our people and culture. Its not a victory for it all to end within a century, its as much a genocide of humanity on Earth as the Goa'uld to bombard the planet from orbit just slower. Might as well invite Apophis back and say "blast away", much quicker and with less heartbreak.

Plus I don't see how making humanity into slaves again is worse then our complete annihilation? Slavery is bad, no doubt about it, but there is hope. The series itself and real life have shown even through slavery their is the possibility of freedom, of protecting your culture. No shot at freedom from your oppressors if everyone is dead and none of your culture survive if everything is paved over for farmland.

[Beelzquill]

To clarify, I would only choose the sterilization for myself, not the entirety of humanity. I would definitely be opposed to that.

[Nightbeat74]

ok, why does the future always have to be so monochrome!?

[Fianna]

I don't see the point in preserving human culture for its own sake. Our culture exists for our benefit, to make our lives better. Creating brand new human lives in order to prolong our culture's existence ... that's like constantly buying boxes of nails and pieces of wood to hammer them into, solely because you already own a hammer and don't want it to go to waste.

As long as the people alive today are happy and allowed to live out their lives, I don't see how it matters whether any new people come in to replace us when we're gone.

[Beelzquill]

It's not just about replacing though. There is also the potential new moments seeing a person you made grow up and experience life. I personally don't want to do that, but there is a little more than just "well I don't humanity to go extinct, better not take the pill today".

[FlynnTaggart]

I don't see the point in preserving human culture for its own sake. Our culture exists for our benefit, to make our lives better. Creating brand new human lives in order to prolong our culture's existence ... that's like constantly buying boxes of nails and pieces of wood to hammer them into, solely because you already own a hammer and don't want it to go to waste.

As long as the people alive today are happy and allowed to live out their lives, I don't see how it matters whether any new people come in to replace us when we're gone.

Our culture exists to preserve our history and unique way of life. Erasing it erases us as a people, our lives and struggles. Thats why the destruction of a culture's history is considered a form of genocide, why some got more angry about groups like the Taliban and ISIS blowing up ancient monuments over murdering and enslaving people (even if I think their priorities are inhuman). It creates a connection of those that came before and those that live now to those that come after, a shared history.

If you don't see the point of culture existing that what is the point of humans existing? Humans make culture, their culture is evidence of their lives, erase that and you erase them. What is the point of preserving anything in museums? Might as well just chuck everything in the fire, none of it matters if people today aren't happy so why worry about what some guy hundreds of years ago painted or some evidence of some ancient nobodies existing, no reason to preserve it anymore then there is a reason to preserve what is now right? Guess slaves in the US shouldn't complain about their cultures being destroyed in their slavery nor should Jews keep complaining about that Charlie Chaplin looking guy attempting both cultural and physical genocide (I know I am going full Godwin's Law but its relevant).

And some people are happy creating new life, some people are happy with their culture being preserved. A "it only matters now what happens" attitude is short sighted and leads to things like the destruction of the environment and predatory systems that give no regards to what comes after. Certainly it would be made worse with nobody coming after.

We are our culture, without it there is no us as its been for everyone else.

[McAvoy]

I don't see the point in preserving human culture for its own sake. Our culture exists for our benefit, to make our lives better. Creating brand new human lives in order to prolong our culture's existence ... that's like constantly buying boxes of nails and pieces of wood to hammer them into, solely because you already own a hammer and don't want it to go to waste.

As long as the people alive today are happy and allowed to live out their lives, I don't see how it matters whether any new people come in to replace us when we're gone.

This epitome of being selfish. This isn't about making kids in over populated world, or malign kids even if there are hundreds of thousands of kids not adopted.

What you just said is that 'I don't give a shit about the future as long as I happy'. To you, once you are gone, you made it evident that you don't care how the world goes.

[Wargriffin]

... Man Stargate and its alternate timeline obsession

[Fianna]

I care what happens in the future ... so long as there are people around to experience the future.

Destroying cultural heritage is abhorrent because it deprives not just the current generation, but also future generations, of something invaluable. But if there aren't any future generations, then that becomes a non-issue.

That's why 2001 revealing that the Aschen don't drive species to complete extinction, but instead reduce them to low-tech slavery, is far more heinous. In that scenario, there are actual living people suffering under the Aschen's rule, denied knowledge of their history and forced to live in primitive conditions. That's something that should absolutely be averted.

As I said before, the Aschen sterilizing humanity secretly, without consent, is still wrong. But if I lived on Stargate's Earth, and the Aschen had approached us openly with "accept mass sterilization, and we'll defeat the Go'auld for you, and also use our tech to raise your standard of living", I'd have eagerly voted for it.

[Captain Crimson]

That would have been an interesting moral dilemma for the show to explore.