Sfdebris.net

Ghilz wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 12:06 am I get that, but counterpoint, this is a series where "Pure Energy" "Energy being" and "Higher Planes of Existence" exist. It's a setting where if you're zen enough you can literally get super powers and eventually become a magical being that low-key warps reality.

So ya know, I don't exactly put "Lifeforce" beyond the series. Like Dr. Beckett says "We don't quite fully understand how Wraith Feeding works". What's Lifeforce? Something the Wraiths take that the Atlantis Expedition can't measure. Like Ascension Magic and the like.

Like I said, it's fine that the protagonists don't know how something works. What's not fine is definitively saying that it's just magic. And it bugs me that it's treated like it is actually just magic. Or at least like if pseudo-science were real. I mean, it would be like if it turned out that Asgardian ships were powered by the aether. The use of the term lifeforce is acceptable in that the human characters don't know what it is so they have nothing else to call it, it's the way the show treats it exactly the same way the same concept is used in fantasy that makes me hate it.

Also, the examples you gave were very clearly stated to be advanced forms of technology. Yes, those things don't exist in our world, but neither do stargates, mind control rays or resurrection. The difference is in how these concepts are treated by the story itself.

What if the Wraith compensated you for your year of life? Some people today would give up a year of life for material gain now; people often do that without realizing when they take on unsociable working arrangements or hazardous working environments. I argue that if they were to take a little from many and compensate for taking it there would be a lot of takers.

Robovski wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 8:39 pm What if the Wraith compensated you for your year of life? Some people today would give up a year of life for material gain now; people often do that without realizing when they take on unsociable working arrangements or hazardous working environments. I argue that if they were to take a little from many and compensate for taking it there would be a lot of takers.

Yeah like how you can sell a kidney to a rich guy which doesn't have any moral/ethical issues.

As long as the year sells for more than I currently have to sell eight hours a day for, I see no problem. We are already selling our lives away, and far too cheaply too if you ask me.

So what the Wraith really need is a way to control what they take, monetize it, and increase the available supply of suitable humans. Sounds like they should foster growth, not hamper it.

So that is why Earth really hates the Wraith, they refuse to adopt capitalism.

If only the Atlantians hadn't been some form of post-materialist super-utopia they might have figured this out.