Stargate question : Goa'uld industry and ship building

[Sarevok]

The Goul'd Hatak is a massive and impressive warship. Yet most Goul'd planets are intentionally kept at a pre industrial level by the System lords. So where do they build such enormous space faring vessels ? Have we seen orbital shipyards and space based industrial complexes where the System Lords build their advanced weaponry ?

[Chris OFarrell]

Once.

In Orpheus.

The Ha'Tak's appear to be built using Anti-Grav drydocks on the surface.

[Sarevok]

Interesting.

But who are used as the engineers and workers ? Also are there factories and such producing things like staff weapons, Death Gliders etc ?

[Xon]

Goa'uld have physics raping nanotech, which shows up in the ep 1x08 Brief Candle. As in magically aging a human body a year in less than an hour overnight magical.

It could be the Jaffa ritually pouring barrels of the stuff into the right spot for all we know, especially if they are tought by something like the teaching nanites from Learning Curve.

[sirocco]

Goa'uld have physics raping nanotech, which shows up in the ep 1x08 Brief Candle. As in magically aging a human body a year in less than an hour overnight magical.

It could be the Jaffa ritually pouring barrels of the stuff into the right spot for all we know, especially if they are tought by something like the teaching nanites from Learning Curve.

You mean something like taking the smartest Jaffa and stuff them with enough nanomachines to make them able to handle Goa'uld tech?

Don't think so. The Goa'uld know that it's their superior tech levle that makes them appear as gods. If they need something fabricated, they'll do it themselves. I'm sure that they all have private facilities full with Goa'ulds scientists. It's just that the team never got there.

[Xon]

Do you realise it completely fits the Goa'uld MO to give thier followers a magical substances which then give divine knowledge on how to fullfill thier duties?

The Jaffa would never have to learn the knowledge, it would just appear in thier minds fully formed complete with feelings and emotions of the original donor. And that original donor would not be chosen to be the brightest and the smartest.

[dragon]

Well there was that time when the Goul'd was building them on the planet when the Asgard was protecting. At the end it showed the Asgard deconstructing them with their beam.

Then we saw the Ori building their ships on primitive planets with peasants.

[Jeremy]

I got the impression that their technology had advanced to a point which allowed autonomous fabrication and repair, maybe a Von Neumann Templator. Tokra Tunnels and Healing Sarcophagii are examples of autonomous technology. I think the Humans would just be used to shovel resources into the maws of whatever device extrudes a product.

Professional Goa'uld are known to be in the employ of System Lords for technical and research jobs. Anubis also utilized the Tollan as a labor pool.

[Jawawithagun]

Each jaffa carries an immature goa'uld in their pouch - which will mature eventually and aim to take a host itself. And there are quite a few jaffa around.

There should be more than enough young, low-ranking goa'uld around to provide the necessary skills and services. Not everybody can be a System Lord after all.

[spaceviking]

I think the lack of adult gould compared to the amount of jaffa's with immature gould was explained by the episode where gould hosts are seen eating immature gould.

Addressing the OP... I don't buy the explanation of complete automation, given how rustic their mining was shown to be. Instead I would guess they practiced extreme compartmentalization. The Jaffa/ humans do not know the science behind their technology, but they are involved in it's manufacture. .

[NecronLord]

I've taken the liberty of editing the title. Goa'uld is the one and only correct spelling.

[Sarevok]

Thanks for the correction.

[CountBelasarius]

I think the subject of the Goa'uld industrial base is a really fascinating topic that goes unaddressed in the series. Where do they get the gliders, staff weapons, advanced armor, ring transporters and all the assorted other pieces of really high technology without having the apparent infrastructure to do so? I think answer comes in several parts:

1. Use of mass labor by rote method trained human slaves instructed by a Goa'uld, probably a member of a small subculture of Goa'uld, who make an appearance several times i.e. Anubis's scientists in Fallen, Homecoming and Evolution and Nerus in Beachhead. I highly doubt the Jaffa are at ALL involved in almost any of the production methods, the Goa'uld want to keep the Jaffa dependent on them for technology. This is supplemented by human artisans who do stuff like the gold work, chairs, furniture, and other non technical but still major aspects of building a ship.

2. Use of those underdeveloped worlds we frequently see SG-1 visit as resource (human and raw material) mines (literally in some cases). Since there are most likely thousands or tens of thousands of worlds like these, their per planet productivity can be kept very low (i.e. the "rustic mining") in order to keep them from developing and becoming restless and yet they can still provide the Goa'uld with the resources they need.

3. Use of a handful of highly developed planets controlled by system lords as the industrial base. This fits in with the Goa'uld MO to monopolize power as it would prevent minor Goa'uld lords from going out on their own since they lack their own industrial base. See Delmak - Sokar's homeworld, and Yu's homeworld. This could be supplemented by such worlds Erebus (place with the floating mothership), where either "independent outfits" or minor Goa'uld build some of their own ships, as it was stated the planet was only recently seized by Baal, and since no mention was made of who owned it before it could easily be some no name minor Goa'uld. Also note that Sokar is able to build a fleet that could possibly take on the system lords, despite being banished and having so little territory as to have been forgotten. This feat may have easily have been because he took control of an industrialized world with infrastructure and production technologies to rival artisan and rote trained mass slave labor. They colonized their moon and the few shots we see of the planet give the indication of a higher level of development than most. This probably gave Sokar, who being banished was desperate enough to accept these non-traditional Goa'uld methods, the productivity to amass such a large fleet.

Also consider that the Goa'uld can afford to spend decades building a ship if need be, and that their productivity must be very low given the number of ships in a single quadrant of the galaxy (from Reckoning) relative to the fact the Goa'uld are a galaxy wide civilization at constant war from THOUSANDS of years.

In summary it is not technology like nanites or auto fabricators that power the Goa'uld war machine but a massive but primitive primarily human "economy" supplement by Goa'uld technicians and scientists.

In reference to the land platforms being built on Cimmeria (sp?), I always thought they were prefabricated land platforms hauled in peices through the gate and then set to open up in a manner similar to the Jaffa Serpent and Horus guard helmets.