this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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The Prime Directive wouldn't even apply. The Tau'ri have been properly FTL capable ever since they started producing the F-302 in what, the year 2000? As much as Starfleet would hate it, SG1 represents a humanity that is wearing the big boy pants just like they are.
If we aren't being strict about warp technology specifically as the measuring stick, I think the gate network itself would qualify, even if they weren't the ones that built it.
That said, the principle of noninterference likely should apply to some extent at least. After all the trash talking they've done over the years about people in the 20th/21st century, it would be crazy to let a military unit from that era get access to anything that might help them advance technologically. Especially when they've already got a history of capturing and reverse engineering alien technology. And all the more so when it becomes clear that any technology they do get their hands on will be used almost exclusively for the purpose of fighting alien civilizations (and perhaps even others on their own planet).
In the long run, if a stargate found it's way onto DS9 or Bajor and permanent relations were established, I could see the federation providing aid to the Tau'ri to help them fend off the Goa'uld and/or the Ori, which they could justify because they would be preventing an advanced civilization from exploiting a technologically inferior one. But I have to think it would take them a while to get to that point.
Then again the SGC has a policy of sharing supplies and rendering humanitarian aid when they can afford to but not sharing military equipment unless they really think it's for the better. Starfleet should give them at least some credit for that; it's remarkably close to common Starfleet practice.
In the end, though, it really demonstrates how the Prime Directive is a flawed measuring stick and always has been. People like the Klingons (hyper-aggressive), the Ferengi (hyper-capitalists who bought their way into space), and the Cardassians (space Nazis) are cool but the Tau'ri are sketchy because they bring guns when they explore space.
I'm pretty sure O'Neill would be happy to comment on how Starfleet and their equipment sure look military from the outside even if they bring civilians on their combat-ready vessels equipped with weapons of mass destruction. And how his humanity didn't nuke itself. Well, except those Genii guys but they don't count. Different humanity.
By the time the Ori have been dealt with, the Tau'ri have been outright declared the worthy successors of two of the most advanced civilizations their galaxy had ever seen. And each of those civilizations had lasted for millions of years so it's not like it's power-hungry psychos giving each other pats on the back. That still doesn't change Starfleet's point about their cultural advancement but makes it that much harder to cleanly argue.
It's like they were made to turn the usual Federation talking points into complicated messes.
(On the other hand they can only hope the Federation never hears about how many solar systems they managed to destroy, usually by accident. Now that's a good reason not to trust them with advanced technology.)
They'd presumably talk us into favoring zats (and those red stun rounds that only showed up in a few episodes) over lethal force that's only equally effective.
We'd make exceptions for replicators. They'd understand. They fight the Borg on the regular.