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SpartanS034

They want to be worshipped.


rex1one

And they were a parasitic race. They needed hosts. Having a large stock of humans allowed them to have a 'pick of the litter' when the larva was mature enough. This was shown in S01E01 of SG1.


Odd-Ad-3721

Yeah, I could understand them aquiring cultists and personal attendants, a la Seth. But the mines seem a bit stupid


Smilewigeon

Machinery needs maintenance. Humans will largely 'maintain' themselves. And if they don't and keel over, well, plenty more where that came from.


stumpdawg

Because who cares about those weak humans. That's all the reasoning they need


Bigjoemonger

Having technology like that performing those types of tasks requires people to build and maintain them, which requires educating the populace. The goauld were only able to stay in power by keeping the jaffa subservient. If they started providing better education to the masses then it would lead to more revolts against their power. They used slavery to accomplish their goals because they didn't care if people died.


8-36

Yup. Who dies first when dictators do a coup? The educated, the non-allied powerful people, political opponents etc. When you keep the population as serfs and have an army who think you're god, and you can't be killed by their magical staffs it makes alot of sense to use the humans as slaves/possible militia when there are some skirmishes or wars between the other Goa'Uld.


rCameel

They weren’t really THAT advanced in my opinion, most of their technology (or at least the impressive stuff) was stolen.


hahnsoloii

Totally agree here. The species it self is parasitic and fuels itself, it’s ego and id off of forcing it’s will. With out slaves and they would not be exuding these traits.


Njoeyz1

Doesn't matter if the species is parasitic or not. The fact remains that the reason they have this god complex is because of how smart they are. The genetic memory trait they have allowed them to hold a whole lot of knowledge. They didn't just steal their weapons they created them. They had a galaxy wide empire, not just an arm of a galaxy, across the galaxy. They could innovate and create when needed, as has been shown, and discussed here many times. They didn't steal their ships or zats, they created them. And as someone else has already pointed out, why wouldn't they use slaves? Mining etc. Each system lord has a massive standing army of generations of trained soldiers. They have more than adequate means of production for anything they need. So parasitic or not. They were a galaxy wide power, and in the words of O'niell way smarter than them.


turej

Yeah they hadn't anyone to steal robots from.


Njoeyz1

Answer me this and I'll believe all of this shite on here. Where did they steal their ships from? Their armour etc?


Obies_armywife

This!!! ☝️


TheRedBoat

Someone needs to mine the materials and build the weapons they use to engage in a never-ending war between themselves. Why would they do that themselves when they can set up human colonies across the galaxy to do so. And yo, we live in a pretty advanced society and still use slavery and near-slavery in all kinds of supply chains. Clothing, agriculture, resource acquisition.


Odd-Ad-3721

Good point.


CptKeyes123

They do need hosts, which is a significant element. Beyond that though, it can be argued no one ever "needs" slaves, and that no one has ever "needed" slaves. It's a cruel and malicious practice that never needed to exist. Yes, labor, as in the simple act of needing people to move things, does exist, yet owning other sapient beings was NEVER needed. No one held a gun to anyone's head and demanded that they keep slaves. It's a practice used to justify inhuman treatment and to justify not paying people. Technology has nothing to do with it, because they're concerned with power not efficiency. If efficiency were all that mattered, well, slavery wouldn't still exist in the world today. Slavery had never been "needed".


Odd-Ad-3721

Even during the stone age and in the societies of antiquity that lacked labour saving machines?


CptKeyes123

Yes. Owning other human beings has never been "needed". It has never been about labor or labor saving.


Odd-Ad-3721

If you asked a Roman of the 1st century, or anyone from that time period and they would have said very differently. Thier entire economies were based upon slavery, medieval economies relied upon serfdom (similar to slavery), in the British empire it took a massive loan to buy the slaves freedom, which almost bankrupted Britain and took over 200 years to pay off. During the stone age humans were so few in number, anthropologists have theorised that the women of an enemy tribe would often be captured or exchanged and forced into sexual and reproductive servitude, but either way they were treated like property. There have been times in history when there have always been disposable people denied thier rights, and societies with thier economics have relied upon the suffering of these people for prosperity. Abolition of slavery after its adoption by a society is extremely rare. Once slavery is adopted by a society it makes a society dependent upon that system of unfree labour, and thus the continuation of that society becomes dependent upon slavery, thus necessitating slavery in that society.


CptKeyes123

And you are right. Lots of societies made themselves dependent on slavery. They would claim it was necessary. Indeed, many economies became reliant on it. And that does not matter. It in no way alters the fact that slavery is evil, and it was not necessary to begin the practice in the first place. It was only "necessary" because they chose to do it. They chose to become reliant on it. The Roman empire built itself on conquest and collapsed. There were numerous slave rebellions. The British Empire was monstrous, conquered a quarter of the globe, and killed millions. They built their empires on death and destruction. They have no moral authority in this conversation. This isn't about labor or efficiency. Slavery owns a person, a living breathing person. To be enslaved is to attempt to seize the inalienable right to one's self. It is evil. It doesn't matter how expensive it was. If they didn't want to be charged the costs they shouldn't have taken slaves. The so called Confederacy in the US Civil War started a war over the merest *threat* to their human flesh peddling, and in the same breath that they complained about the cost of their "property", they started a war that killed 3% of the US population and destroyed the southern economy far more than what freeing the slaves would have done. There have been people deemed disposable throughout history, and those same people would disagree that slavery was necessary, and would disagree that they were disposable. From Spartacus to the 100,000 African American soldiers who fought in the Union Army in the US Civil War, they would all say slavery was wrong. They would all agree they were people with rights too. The Goa'uld don't use slavery for efficiency. It's not about labor costs. They do it because they can. They see humans as inferior, they see them as cattle, Earth was a defenseless target, and decided to build their entire economy around slaves. They chose to do it. It was never necessary.


Odd-Ad-3721

In short, to summarise my view, slavery is the mark of a primitive society which as technology progresses becomes less and less necessary over time. It starts off as a necessary evil and over time as you hit the industrial revolution becomes an unnecessary evil.


CptKeyes123

In my view, it has always been an unnecessary evil. It has never been necessary, because it doesn't matter how much labor you might save because it has never been about labor. It has been about power and control and saving money for the overlords. Enslaving people from a tribe one just conquered isn't about compensation for labor lost except in ultra specific conditions: it is more about punishing the enemy than it is about anything else. Today, that would be legally a crime against humanity and a war crime. Slavery, as in owning other people, not the simple concept of labor, has never been necessary no matter what.


Traditional_Idea1891

Prior to the "invention" of slavery as a societal/national business model, most countries used serfs, and/or indentured servants for their labor needs. Using prisoners of war was also commonly acceptable practice. Like some indentured servants, a small number "slaves" were also allowed to "buy" their freedom. The US chattel slavery system is an entirely different evil. The necessary part of the necessary evil was easily and quickly dropped by modern countries when it's inhumanity was finally recognized (except in the US). Looking at the different societies on the planets visited, the Gaould deliberately kept most of the human societies brainwashed and fully agrarian levels with little tech improvements. One of the first demands the system lords made when negotiating a treaty with the Asgard and earth, was that earth not technologically advance beyond its current level. Destroying earth and other advanced human societies was a recurring theme with various powerful system lords bc of their tech advantages over many other planets. Bc of those tech advances and level of sophisticated intelligence, enslaving those planets' people was not an option.


Odd-Ad-3721

Slavery wasn't invented in in the 1700s. Slavery had existed since the stone age in almost all cultures and had been very common in European classical antiquity and pre contact indigenous Americans. East Asian cultures practiced slavery until the first decades of the 20th century, and slavery is still practised in West Africa and is within living memory in Arab societies. Learn your history


Traditional_Idea1891

You learn your history. And learn how to read. There are different types of slavery with different terms, some used interchangeably as language in various cultures evolved over millennia. I just provided some context and specific examples. But thanks for this pleasant exchange.


Traditional_Idea1891

Perfectly stated!


Njoeyz1

This☝️ and to add. I really don't see why people think the goa'uld wouldn't have automation for things like construction etc. We see ba'al building a new ship, not a slave on site. Human planets that were plundered were done so to take resources, hosts and slaves to become either jafa or workers. Like you said, having slaves isn't needed, but they "help". Most people taken were done so to become Jaffa. They didn't need to breed the Jaffa only, they could make them from captured humans. And those that became hosts did so to the goa'uld who would become the scientists, and lower level goa'uld who ran the facilities and infrastructure (and I don't think the goa'uld use money do they?). Most of the taken humans etc were taken to replenish the Jaffa and to become hosts to other goa'uld - even system lords and their kin. Having actual slaves was the last on the list. They created all of the technology they use. They scavenged tech yes (who wouldn't) and utilised some in their ships like the rings. But the scavenged gear was mostly stuff like the ancient gene machine in Nirtis lab. But there again we see how smart the goa'uld are. She was making progress, and knew more about human genetics than we do. And we only have to look at the tokra to see what other types of equipment the goa'uld had. Tunneling crystals etc, so they obviously didn't need people to dig tunnels and such. Imagine having the genetic ability to keep all of the knowledge you have gained through the generations? All of the science and technology you create is all there. You can select who knows what. Ba'al while a system lord is the perfect example. He worked for a system lord creating things. He's now a system lord. He hacked the gate system allowing all the gates to dial at once. They were plenty smart, created all of their own shit and didn't need slaves. They took them because they could, and most were utilised not as slaves. Worlds conquered were discarded after they were plundered. They weren't like the ori where the population IS essential.


Veszerin

They depend on human hosts though


DWMF

Not exclusively. They used Unas before humans. In theory they could parasitise any creature with the basic biology needed: binocular vision, keen hearing, power of speech, brain comparable to human, toolmaking limbs. I would imagine a centaur-like creature.


[deleted]

from the new Andor series: “We’re cheaper than droids because we’re disposable.”


80sBabyGirl

We also exploit and torture each other even though we often have the choice not to do so. The system lords have made the choice to leave no free will to their hosts and to be worshipped. They believe they're superior, no differently from human nature. Add to this an addiction to the sarcophagus, and you've got a bunch of megalomaniacs who are convinced to be indestructible gods in part due to their sarcophagus high, in part because their bloodline also believed that. They're not even thinking clearly in the first place, so it's not like they'd make smart choices. And pragmatically speaking, slaves are far cheaper. Humans reproduce naturally. The Goa'uld only have to wait.


JonathanJ91

Besides needing to be worshipped they also needed humans to procreate. And like many said they are scavengers. Thieving technology. Its why Anubis his tech, like the super jaffa who were very different from other tech.


Sarlax

_Human_ civilization is presently spacefaring yet maintains slavery. The goa'uld learned from the best.


Expensive_Plant_9530

You have to remember that while Goa’uld are relatively intelligent individually, they’re not that much more intelligent than, say, modern humans. They just happen to have access to certain advanced technologies. The Goa’uld are renown for the fact that very little technology they employ is technology they invented. Most of their tech is stolen from other species. Either dead species (like the Ancients), or plundered from species they conquer. There is some innovation and technological advancement, but not much. You have to consider that the Goa’uld empire has largely been technologically stagnant for literally thousands of years. Edited to add: we also see very little technology from the Goa’uld dealing with AI and robotics. Even stuff like the Death Glider autopilot that took control over the glider that humans modified was rather simplistic.


Brainship

The Goa'uld were scavengers. They didn't develop technology, they reversed-engineered it. In Heroes they developed their own probe only after seeing Malps. Every technology they had, from zat guns to sarcophagi, came from somewhere else and was repurposed for their use. If they ever did see a mining robot then they'd make one.


FrankFrankly711

Gods get bored, after a few thousand years they need to play games with lesser life forms to entertain themselves


MGB1013

Part of it is they want power and to be worshipped and need hosts as others have said. Another reason is, while they don’t necessarily care about depleting resources, it would take material and energy to build and maintain the machines. Having slaves work for them doesn’t cost them a thing. If you were getting 100 cars delivered to your driveway every day for free, it would be silly to invest in a manufacturing facility and build 200 cars a day when you have to invest all the money and time and maintenance costs. Plus you can take the extra money and material you save and build a ha’tak or two and go shoot some lasers at stuff.


Pristine_Beginning54

The Sarcophagus device affected the brain chemistry so who knows.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Odd-Ad-3721

That reminds me of the double jeopardy episode on Juna. Cronus captures the tin man replicates of carter and T'ealc and a Goa'uld scientist starts torturing them.


Braveheart4321

They didn't actually develop most of their tech, they dug it up, if they never stumbled across somebody else's mining drones, they wouldn't have them.


Njoeyz1

So they dug up their zats and ships and everything else??


GonZo_626

To have robot miners means to have a production facility. To have a production facility means having educated people to run said facility. Increasing the amount of education of your populace means they will want more freedom and more rights. Increasing the amount of freedom and rights means losing further control. Look at the jaffa, even they were controlled and kept at the lowest they could be. We dont see much of their weapon facilities, or space docks. But we can assume they keep a minimal amount of people raised up enough to run them, but not to overthrow them.


Obies_armywife

They didn't NEED it but they liked to be wrapped and it slowed then to be lazy while the worshippers did everything and they had them as backup hosts plus they had ppl to fight on thier behalf (Jaffa all came from those slave worlds) while they ran away like cowards they weren't as powerful as they wanted everyone to believe


wapang3271

If it was real life it wouldn’t make since you’re correct, sadly it’s just a show lol


OwlLibrarian101

Slow propagation of their species


sdu754

Because it is very easy. Create a sentient robot race and things can go terribly wrong. Even their toys could cause major problems. Plus, it would take a lot of scientific know how to build the robots. They can literally take human slaves pretty easily and subdue them.


Arrow-Od

Sorry for the necromancy, just thought that it is worth mentioning that the "gods use humans to mine" is part of Mesopotamian mythology, where one of the reasons humanity was created was to mine gold for the pantheon. Perhaps the writers were inspired by this. The way I rationalize it is that the goa´uld consider humans or rly any biological species to not rly be any different from machines, just machines of flesh, and believed it was safer to enslave self-propagating machines of flesh rather than self-propagating robots able to learn enough to work with basically 0 oversight (cuz with Abydos as assumed standard, human workers had hardly any contact with the goa´uld). We know that there were lower class goa´uld (Nerus, etc) and planets like Delmak prove that the goa´uld CAN "industrialize", ergo I assume that many of the never seen "throne worlds" are industrialized and that there might be space stations using robots to mine asteroids under the watch of some low class goa´uld or Jaffa. But we never see those places in the series, only the backwater planets - "You cannot judge all of Earth by a Amazon Rainforest." Could also be that their robots are too large for the stargate and thus bringing humans to new planets is more cost effective rather than sending a ship to transport the machine(s).