Fer Cryin' Out Loud
For the record, I know I have a tendency to nitpick. And overanalyze. And obsess. Whatever. I don't care, I've accepted it as my reality and moved on.
That said, I was watching "Fragile Balance" again. Not a bad episode, even if I'm pissed that they just dropped Mini Jack at the end. It's not like it was unprecedented; they exiled their robot selves from Tin Man without a second thought. Like most humans, rather than delve into the philosophical and moral intricacies of the nature of identity and individuality, they decided denial looked like a nice place to set up camp and banished anyone who dared upset their comforatble little "everyone's a unique pretty snowflake" world view. This is fine with me, if only because I accept that the writers generally only have the space of a single episode to delve into whatever philosophical questions might arise from the events of said episode.
No, my big contention with "Fragile Balance" is all that "next step on the evolutionary path" bullshit. O'Neill's DNA may very well be different from the average human's in a significant way, possibly even a way that could be interpreted as "advanced" (I use quotation marks because it would be a matter of opinion, even if it's one that all the Asgard seem to share). I can see why the Asgard might be interested in him, especially mad scientists with decent filler episode plot potential. But here's the thing- he's not ANY step on the evolutionary chain. The most important part of evolution is not specific variations between individuals, but variations that are passed on to future generations. Jack O'Neill (sadly) has no surviving children. He has never expressed any interest in having any more children, not to mention he's growing a little long in the tooth. He will never have any grandchildren. He has contributed absolutely nothing to the gene pool of humanity; whatever "advancements" his genetic code may bear will die with him. He's an evolutionary footnote.
Ironically, however, there is the potential that his clone could procreate, thus adding his genetic material the gene pool and potentially (emphasis on the remoteness of this possibility, but it is sci-fi, so you never know) influencing the evolution of humanity as a species.
That said, I was watching "Fragile Balance" again. Not a bad episode, even if I'm pissed that they just dropped Mini Jack at the end. It's not like it was unprecedented; they exiled their robot selves from Tin Man without a second thought. Like most humans, rather than delve into the philosophical and moral intricacies of the nature of identity and individuality, they decided denial looked like a nice place to set up camp and banished anyone who dared upset their comforatble little "everyone's a unique pretty snowflake" world view. This is fine with me, if only because I accept that the writers generally only have the space of a single episode to delve into whatever philosophical questions might arise from the events of said episode.
No, my big contention with "Fragile Balance" is all that "next step on the evolutionary path" bullshit. O'Neill's DNA may very well be different from the average human's in a significant way, possibly even a way that could be interpreted as "advanced" (I use quotation marks because it would be a matter of opinion, even if it's one that all the Asgard seem to share). I can see why the Asgard might be interested in him, especially mad scientists with decent filler episode plot potential. But here's the thing- he's not ANY step on the evolutionary chain. The most important part of evolution is not specific variations between individuals, but variations that are passed on to future generations. Jack O'Neill (sadly) has no surviving children. He has never expressed any interest in having any more children, not to mention he's growing a little long in the tooth. He will never have any grandchildren. He has contributed absolutely nothing to the gene pool of humanity; whatever "advancements" his genetic code may bear will die with him. He's an evolutionary footnote.
Ironically, however, there is the potential that his clone could procreate, thus adding his genetic material the gene pool and potentially (emphasis on the remoteness of this possibility, but it is sci-fi, so you never know) influencing the evolution of humanity as a species.