Look, I'm trying to make sense of 'gateverse tech. Again.

[ultranos]

Okay, LJ hivemind, I've got a 'gateverse question maybe you could help me out on:

Consider ring transports from ship to planet and vice versa. Does this method of transportation from planet to ship require at minimum two people: one to beam up and one at the controls? I know we've seen on the show the reverse can be done with only one person (set it and then dive for the rings). But I can't seem to remember if we've seen one person be able to beam themselves up. (If so, probably via remote control.)

Of course, the absence of this capability would kind of explain the overall superiority of Asgard beaming tech, except I thought the rings were yet another piece of Ancient tech cannibalized by the Goa'uld. I could, of course, be wrong.

(Why, yes, I have nothing better to think about at 9:45AM on a Monday morning right before class.)

Comments

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of rings - the ones that have the controls to manipulate the matter stream, and the ones that respond to a matter stream either being directed toward it or away from it by a remote ring platform with the controls (or by a remote).

Wait, what?

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Eh, it's my own way of trying to understand how the rings work. Not canon-based, so don't panic. :)

Maybe I'm not clear (or maybe it doesn't make sense, heh). I'm suggesting that there are rings out there that can't work on their own without a marrying set of rings triggering the matter stream from somewhere else. Like an external hard drive, maybe? It can transfer data back and forth to the computer, but the computer needs to direct the transfer - the external hard drive can't do it by itself.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Well...you almost always need two sets of rings...oh I see what you're saying.

The rings go up and then they disappear after they do whatever fakey science thing they do to the people to make them disappear and it's transmitted to the receiver set...

BUT, there are exceptions.

If there's no receiving set of rings, the rings can physically reform themselves at a small distance--such as what Jacob did to Sam and Daniel in Tangent, or the bounty hunter did in er, Bounty. If there's no solid material for the rings to reform on, then they just break apart/disappear, like the supersoldier did in "Evolution 2"

I don't think it's "two types" or rings so much as "settings" in the transport. If there's a signal to whatever x spot, the rings work that way, whether as transmitter or receiver. There is actually a ring "beam". (And they can be intercepted too--like Vala in Beachhead, or Teal'c did for team in "Devil You Know" (and team tried to do for Teal'c in "Serpent's Venom").

Hmm, maybe the rings are transported as well? No, that wouldn't make sense because then you'd have some platforms with ring surpluses and some with no more "rings to transport".

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Hmm, maybe the rings are transported as well? No, that wouldn't make sense because then you'd have some platforms with ring surpluses and some with no more "rings to transport".

It'd be funny, though. Intercept a beam, grab the prisoners - and the Goa'uld's rings! Really irritate the Goa'uld. *g*

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

No, you're right - it's not two kinds of rings. I wasn't suggested they came in Mac or PC. :) What I was trying to say (rather badly) is that there are two kinds of rings in terms of what equipment they've got - if they're installed with the full package, or only the basic, no-frills teleportation. Because that is so out-of-date, yawn. As you say, a question of settings.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

See, what ultranos_fic said is the same thing what was confusing me. I figured all rings were the same, it was just what the individual programming for transport that could get all wacky. They all had the same controls, they were just set for longer/shorter/homing device by the individual user.

ETA: Never mind. She was responding to me, not you, re: redundancy.

Hee. Mac v PC Rings FTW!

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

So, this might sound like a stupid question, but does that mean that if there's no recieving set of rings, there are two forms of transport/teleportation going on? One for the rings themselves and one for whatever needs to be transported? And isn't this, um, redundant?

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Yes...it is redundant. I started to confuse myself.

There's the rings that encompass the people/things etc and then they all disappear. But the ring transportation actually are a visible energy beam that can be intercepted. (And you're the science people to know about matter/energy handwavy stuff).

Oh...but wait. Usually you connect to another set of rings, so it's a transfer. Like in the movie when the rings brought the bomb back up, Daniel hopped on them with Shau'ri to transfer back down. So there's an even exchange.

Maybe the rings and the people are always travelling together.

Not sure how that works for short range...I guess if there's no "receiving end", they automatically "retract" back to their starting point? That's why it needs to be short range?

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

No receiving end does force the short-range issue and does make your conjecture make sense.

Oh man, the science behind the matter/energy handwavy stuff? You really, really don't want to think about that too hard. (the energy cost! ARGH!)

I think we've seen the transfer in the series too. So, maybe the rings just take all matter within their volume and transfer it. Meaning they just swap between "empty" air and a person, so it just looks like a one-way transfer.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Works for me! :-D

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just a matter of what hardware the rings have attached? If you have a remote gauntlet, you effectively have the same thing as the wall controls... so maybe, if you have rings without a controller, they're not different so much as just lacking an optional bit. Um. So, the rings in the middle of the desert in Exodus - which presumably don't have a controller - could actually work as the more normal rings, if they just installed a little platform and some crystals and whatnot, and plugged it in. And in reverse, rings with controllers, if they get broken, would still work as a receiver for remotely-activated rings.

That's how I see it. Kind of what you said, I think.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I was just spectacularly unclear!