Were the Goa'uld genetically altered?

[gr8scott]

Here's an idea discussed on another thread that I though was fun - I want to see if you all come to the same conclusion as we did. Were the Goa'uld genetically altered? The reason for this question... The Goa'uld have naquada in their bood. IMO, it was placed in their blood either through self genetic manipulation, or by another race (which implies that the Goa'uld were created). I don't think that the naquada in the blood could be natural.

What are your thoughts?

 

[shu_hunter]

You never know, it could be natural. We know that their ancestors didn't have naquada in their blood "Season 4's 'The First Ones'", but we don't know that it wasn't gradually introduced into their physiology. How long have the goa'uld been out there? Let's see, that's 10 000 years ago that Ra fell - he could've been ruling for who knows how long - and then there's all the time before they even discovered Earth. That's plenty of time, I think, to have naquada introduced into your system.
That's just me.

~Shu Hunter
:upto: Stargate fan{atic}

 

[PTeppic]

I agree - how willing would you be to introduce naqahdah into your blood stream (even genetically from the symbiote, which seems to be the case!), if it allows you to use those rather nice toys the Goa'uld get to play with!

At some point they must have developed technology, or found a rather with the property already, and copied it, that needed the living transmission of will/energy to use the devices.

There is of course a major technical blooper - if naqahdah is such a rare heavy element, how come ALL larval Goa'uld symbiotes can genetically carry/create/filter enough of it to be useful to their host?

 

[gr8scott]

Good question???

Another point... Do you think that the Goa'uld snakes found on the Unas world (without Naquada in them), were just unevolved snakes??? I don't think so. I think that this is what the Goa'uld whould have been without tinkering with their genetic makeup.

Also, let's assume that those snakes on the Unas world are what the naquada Goa'uld used to be. I believe they had the ability to jump out of that pond and take a host... right? The only hosts available are Unas. So, the only way for those snakes to advance in knowledge is to take a host with greater knowledge than they already possess (unless the Goa'uld get the knowledge on their own through R&D). Taking an Unas host isn't going to get them anywhere... so a snake on the Unas world, a long time ago in the past, must have encountered a visitor to the planet... someone much more advanced than they were, and taken it as host.

Wouldn't it be cool if that alien visitor was an ancient Ancient? Thought this up this morning on my way to work. I know it's complete speculation and can't be proven in any way. But it would be cool.

 

[shu_hunter]

It is a very good theory.

~Shu Hunter
:upto: Stargate fan{atic}

 

[PTeppic]

We can accept from known Earth biology the successful concept of evolved symbiotic relationships... and we know from "The First Ones" that the Unas were already aware that the Goa'uld would try to blend if they could (Chaka seemed to anticipate the snake's intent when it flew from the water at Daniel), and took measures to stop it (he was wearing the necklace thing). And indeed the "raw" snakes did blend with members of the search party! So, we can surmise that on this "primitive" planet we have two species which "enjoy" an ongoing, and presumably long-term, if slightly one-sided symbiotic relationship.

That could go on for hundreds of years - snakes swim, "jump" at the nearest passing host (either uneducated, foolish, or careless) and formed a symbiotic pairing. And we try not to think about the icky matter of procreation.

As you say, the big difference would then come if and when an outsider arrived, perhaps via the Stargate, or as an Ancient (or other species sub-contracted to install the Stargates ) during Stargate installation or commissioning. And happened to be too close to the water, all unawares.

The question then comes at what point the newly blended alien host "helped" some of his own species to also get new hosts.

"Thor's Hammer" implies that either the blended Goa'uld/Unas lived for a VERY long time without a sarcophagus, and/or the first blending occured only a (relatively) short time before some other species arrived on the planet and allowed the new hosts to escape off-world.

 

[PTeppic]

Of course, the conspiracy nuts amongst us should be suggesting that the Goa'uld are genetically engineered and planted on the planet with these powerful, resilient, long-lived creatures, to make the perfect soldiers.

 

[Svarog]

I don't think the Goa'uld captured a non-Unas host on the Unas planet. To get to the level of technology they're at now they must have built cities, yet we know that there are no cities on the Unas planet. So maybe, after generations of random tapping (yes I know there are 36 million combos) one Goa'ulded Unas tapped a code and voila they went to another world. And well you can guess the rest.

Also I don't think its the Ancients either, even an ancient Ancient would be on par with the Asgard at least. Besides if they had Ancient level technology they'd have wiped us all out by now, not to mention left the galaxy.

On the topic of Naquadah in blood is it possible that they absorbed this into their blood from the air? Besides there is the possibilitie that their evolution was enhanced by the fact that they are always around Naquadah using machines or on naquadah rich planets, especially when all machines generate a low amount of radiation?

 

[gr8scott]

That's assuming that the Goa'uld are solely responsible for their own technological advancement. I have problems with this premise...

Look at it step by step:
Primal goa'uld snake swims in pool of water not knowing anything about technology or anything.
Primal goa'uld takes first host (Unas) and assumes all that Unas's knowledge (not much - maybe no more than the primal Goa'uld)
Primal goa'uld now has ability to walk around on land in the hosts body...

OK, at what point can this primal goa'uld start advancing. The primal goa'uld has even less knowledge/experience with this new reality than the Unas. I don't believe that ancient Goa'uld were able to advance themselves this way. I could even argue that it would not be possible for a primal Goa'uld snake swimming in some pond to be able to a) know it could take a host, or b) evolve the capabilities of taking a host without many millions more in-between evolutionary steps.

So, IMO the Goa'uld needed external help to:
1. Be able to take and control a host.
2. Be able to get naquada in their blood to the point of being able to make and control technology with it.
3. Be able to have genetic memory (in other words - how can a naturally evolved snake share it's memories of one of it's hosts with all the other separate host takers?) This requires too many leaps of "evolution". There's no way that "evolution" could account for this type of progress.

 

[PTeppic]

Look how many symbiotic relationships we have in our own world - both plant and animal - how did they start for the first time??

There's also probably evidence from our own world that some creatures have a genetic memory, and can do things without having been taught.

As for civilisation - we don't KNOW there isn't any, though we can assume it (probably) since it wasn't mentioned.

I suspect this is one of those issues that whilst we can theorise to our hearts content, unless we get some more specific canon evidence, we won't actually know.

We do know that by "now" the snakes apparently will actively try to blend - so this is either genetic knowledge or instinct. They also seem to know enough not to reveal themselves straight away as blended.

Maybe one of the earlier host species was from a naqaudah rich planet?

 

[skoon]

I hope it doesn't turn out that the Ancients ..invented, don't know if that's the right word, created the symbiots. An experiment by one baddy ancient that went wrong or exactly to plan? His/her way of living forever by have his/ger genetic memory passed on & on & on? Maybe the pool of non-naquida snakes are decendents of these experiments, & because they never blended & swim in nice clean water all day they lost their naquida...just a though...probably a bad one...

 

[gr8scott]

Here's a link to another forum where we discussed the same thing. It is interesting to ponder.

 

[shu_hunter]

Ther must have been more than your standard 4 Great Races running around at that time. What if the first host was of another species that had knowledge of the gate, and then the goa'uld just forgot about them for one reason or another or they died off. The Unas are the first ones, yes, but that doesn't mean they were the first to allow gate travel.
I don't remember the exact quote, but I remember in the episode of Klorel's trial on Tollana (Klorel got to go to a goa'uld world of his choice - couldn't he be reintroduced?) that Daniel brought up the point on Zipacna that the Goa'uld are completely parasitic - they take all their experiences and new knowledge from their hosts.
Or something like that.

~Shu Hunter
:upto: Stargate fan{atic}