Ancients vs. Federation (Morals off, bloodlusted)

[McAvoy]

FYI, the human brain is estimated to be at 100. I wonder how they came up with that. I barely can do one calculation per second.

Yeah that's pretty normal. Pen-and-paper multiplication is on the order of 0.1 per second.

A human brain pegged a 100 teraflops is most likely a Kurzweilian bullshit figure that ignores that the software component of the human brain is the tricky part.

Maybe they factor in what the brain does to the rest of the body. Like movement, controlling organs, stuff like that.

Just really hard to compare the human brain in equivalent terms to a machine we can actually calculate, I guess.

[Madner Kami]

You forget all the other shit your brain is managing simulateously. While you are "just typing" it's coordinating houndreds of muscles (your breath, your sitting, your fingers, your entire cardiovascular system and so on), it thinks of complex thought-concepts, translates them to words which you then type, it casually computes the input from your eyes, ears, fingers and every single one of your millions of nerve-cells and receptors, while coordinating a massively complex cocktail of glands and chemical components in your body on the fly.

Your brain alone consists of roundabout 90 million neuron cells, with another ~70 million in your spinal cord (which is really either a secondary brain or an extended part of the brain, depending on how you want to look at it). Each of these is usually connected to a 1,000 other neurons, some specialized variants, the purkinje cells, even have up around 200,000 synapses. True, it can't compute 1+1 as fast as a computer (which I remind you is a machine designed specifically to compute), but it can do a hell of a lot more and all at the same time for an infitely smaller amount of energy consumption.

[clearspira]

Or heck, they could bring in casual time travel if they really need it.

Also: Random aside when looking at the timeline:

3069 - A cataclysmic galaxy-wide event referred to as "The Burn" occurs.
3074 - The main plot of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Living Witness" takes place, and the final scene takes place "many years" after that.

Kind of puts the Doctor heading back to Earth on a bit of a down note (though definitely less than one if it happened the other way around.)

Wait a second here... there are clearly warp capable ships in this episode. So does that mean that The Burn didn't reach out that far? And that any ship the Doctor uses to get home would be carrying a priceless amount of working dilithium back with him? Or even better... do they have warp drives that work on different principles?

I will make a promise to the Star Trek writers: if they resolve The Burn with a Robert Picardo cameo I will concede that its a good show.

[clearspira]

The most powerful super computer in 1997 can do 1.3 teraflops. PS5 for comparison can do a bit more than 10 teraflops.

Filthy console-peasents... 3090TIs reach about 35 generic TeraFLOPS and, when it comes to ray-tracing, even nearly reach 70 TeraFLOPS.

Yeah I didn't want to look up actual computers. Felt that the consoles was good enough.

FYI, the human brain is estimated to be at 100. I wonder how they came up with that. I barely can do one calculation per second.

I wonder what would happen though if we forget the brainpower of the average and focus solely on geniuses. For example, around 240 BC Eratosthenes worked out that the Earth was round using pure maths. He didn't even have a calculator much less a computer. And that's even before we get into the feats performed by Archimedes.

You and I may not be hitting the limit, but these two guys would be considered the upper percentile TODAY let alone then.

[clearspira]

I mean, in any realistic universe where the Federation didn't have magic tech and help from the writers, the Ancients would be far superior since they built entire galactic gate networks out of what it took the Prophets to do, which was far superior to them, as seen in the TNG-DS9 era. A stable wormhole was something that was only theoretical until then, and it was artificial. But of course that's not the universe the Federation lives in, sadly.

The whole universe of StarGate is that 20th-21st century humans from Earth can understand, repair, manipulate, and replicate alien tech.

There is no magic Federation tech here that needs to be involved. If the Tauri can figure it all out, then the Federation will figure it out even quicker.

That is the big weakness in Stargate versus anyone. The fact the advanced technology of the so called advanced aliens can be figured out with late 90's computer tech. Xbox One for example can do 6 teraflops. The most powerful super computer in 1997 can do 1.3 teraflops. PS5 for comparison can do a bit more than 10 teraflops.

Now imagine 340 years of computer advancement to TNG or DS9.

We also know from the episode ''1969'' that you can run a stargate off a car battery. There is another episode when an Ascended Ancient made a single-use stargate out of common household appliances - which was one of the most ridiculous things the show ever did but imagine what one of those famed Starfleet engineers ''that can turn rocks into replicators'' could do if that is how simple it is to build one.

I'm picturing... one engineer, one replicator for the parts, one tricorder, one phaser power pack. And voila, one stargate.

[Frustration]

We also know from the episode ''1969'' that you can run a stargate off a car battery.

An Ancient-built stargate can be powered by practically anything, since it's designed to absorb any available energy.

There is another episode when an Ascended Ancient made a single-use stargate out of common household appliances

And several thousand dollar's worth of titanium, I believe. That matters a great deal.

A multiple-use stargate requires a superconducting metal that doesn't exist on Earth, cannot be synthesized in any existing particle collider, and was unknown to terrestrial science before the stargate was encountered. Good luck constructing one.

[Nealithi]

We also know from the episode ''1969'' that you can run a stargate off a car battery.

An Ancient-built stargate can be powered by practically anything, since it's designed to absorb any available energy.

There is another episode when an Ascended Ancient made a single-use stargate out of common household appliances

And several thousand dollar's worth of titanium, I believe. That matters a great deal.

A multiple-use stargate requires a superconducting metal that doesn't exist on Earth, cannot be synthesized in any existing particle collider, and was unknown to terrestrial science before the stargate was encountered. Good luck constructing one.

Replicator

[Frustration]

There are chemicals replicators can't replicate. There are elements it can't, either. And they're both energetically expensive, and difficult to construct.

[clearspira]

There are chemicals replicators can't replicate. There are elements it can't, either. And they're both energetically expensive, and difficult to construct.

You can count the amount of things the replicators cannot replicate on one hand. Gold-pressed latinum is POSSIBLY one, Neelix's lungs, certain pieces of Borg tech.
Basically, banking on the Federation not being able to replicate naquahdah or an equivalent is a fools bet. Especially as when you noted, titanium can be used as a substitute. And regardless of whether you can replicate titanium (I think it would be dumb if you can't but regardless) the Federation has hundreds of worlds to mine for it.

[clearspira]

We also know from the episode ''1969'' that you can run a stargate off a car battery.

An Ancient-built stargate can be powered by practically anything, since it's designed to absorb any available energy.

There is another episode when an Ascended Ancient made a single-use stargate out of common household appliances

And several thousand dollar's worth of titanium, I believe. That matters a great deal.

A multiple-use stargate requires a superconducting metal that doesn't exist on Earth, cannot be synthesized in any existing particle collider, and was unknown to terrestrial science before the stargate was encountered. Good luck constructing one.

Unknown to terrestrial science of 1994 and unknown to the science of the United Federation of Planets are two very different things.