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A primitive Vorta saved a Changling in the distant past. Their reward was being uplifted. Before they were merely weak ape like monkey creatures who were hunted for food and sport by vicious predators on their planet. I like to think these vicious predators were the ancestors of the Jem’Hadar. Hence the ongoing animosity between the two species. The Vorta treat the Jem’Hadar like trash as revenge for how they were treated as prey to Jem’Hadar predators.

It's possible the Founders maintain a colony of Vorta that breed naturally as a control group or source new templates for cloning.

The Vorta a.k.a the middle managers of the Dominion

The founders were so afraid of being attacked that they attacked and conqured all, making everyone want to attack them. Woops.

I never believed that the Vorta were primitive tree dwellers. I always considered that to be a speciesist myth. My belief is that the Vorta were an industrial species and a changling may have lived on their planet and was found out. Perhaps a sort of E.T. Situation. A family may have helped it and when the Changling was rescued by its people it took the family with. The reason that they Vorta are all clones is maybe they wiped out the rest of them and then experimented on the family as a sort of reward for them helping them. More than likely torturing them.

I have no problem believing that Vorta were ordinary ape like creatures and that Changelings through genetic engineering transformed them in what we see them in DS9. But I find it hard to believe that Changelings were persecuted for no reason given of what we know of them. I think they were always the same. That they always had superiority complex, that they always tried to rule other species, but were not as strong as they are today.

"Have you met the average human!?" Priceless!

Don't forget 2001 A Space Odyssey as an example of uplift.

*doorbell sound* Good evening sir, I've a flower delivery for one Mr. um ahhhh, Al... ger...non?

TOS kinda touches on ancient astronaut theory with Apollo and the other greek gods too, wasn't just TNG onwards.

I hope you do an episode on the Jem’Hadar soon.

Is the Vorta Keevan defective? He demonstrated a desire to live and a willingness to betray the Dominion.

I know it was from dialogue in the episode itself, but how does one _beat_ a liquid?

That uplifting and ancient alien argument is why I don't really like "Who Mourns for Adonais" in TOS. I like the episode a lot, but as Star Trek, looking at the episode a certain way betrays the human struggle and our achievements. It's one of those episodes that I almost want to not consider canon, alongside Gary 7. If I have to consider it canon, I would greatly diminish the greek god aliens impact on the Grecians, make kirk's speech at the end about how they impacted civilization not mean much, even make apollo be a bit of a liar. He implies that the greek aliens were on olympus until humans stopped believing in them, but I'd take that down to they were there for a much shorter amount of time and only interacted with humans a few times, becoming more of a legend and having any cultural impact be attributed to the greek people. Maybe even have the greek people have their mythos created long before, and the aliens came and filled the role the Grecians made. In my headcanon, only female Vorta have telekinesis, and the founders purposefully underproduce them because of this ability. Perhaps to maintain better control over them. I'm very interested in whether the vorta can breed on their own, if they can't, will the founders give them that ability back, will the federation help to re-engineer the species, will they do that for the jem'hedar? The fall of the dominion after the war would be such an interesting piece of star trek media.

Great video series! Look forward to this every Friday. I feel uplifted by this video.

Perhaps Eris was engineered as a prototype that proved to be unworkable. Reluctant to waste resources, The Founders repurposed her as bait for the trap seen in 'Field Trip'. After performing this task, the clone line would be abandoned.

I always saw the Dominions system of government similar to the Ottoman Empires Government. The Sultan was the top, the administration were recruited from captured territories or slaves placed in schools from from 11 or 12 to be bureaucrats for the empire. The Elite guard Janissaries were also recruited in the same manner. Like the Dominion the Ottomans took all the nurture away and made an artificial nature for their slaves just the Dominion did for the Vorta and Jem'Hadar

I appreciate this content very much. You cover lore in a way I just cant get from other channels.

Ever notice how the Founders seem to hold the Vorta in greater contempt than the Jem'Hadar? Think about how the Female Founder talks to Weyoun, like she just barely tolerates him while he's completely devoted to her and her race. The ONLY time we EVER see her act otherwise is when she's about to die on Cardassia Prime from the virus and she called him "the only Solid I ever trusted". So here's something to consider: were the Vorta just a test-run for the Dominion's gene-engineering program? They're the only ones that have a preexisting ancestral race while the Jem'Hadar do not, or at least none that we're told about. So were the Jem'Hadar created from scratch, or nearly so? Given their OP status as soldiers that would seem to be the case; complete genetic and biological overhaul, which would require a LOT of in-depth understanding of genetics and biology when compared to modifying a preexisting species. But how did the Founders obtain that understanding? Our understanding is highly constrained in part because there are some things we cannot do for ethical reasons, like cloning a baby, messing with its genome, and seeing what happens. But do the Founders share those constraints? I don't think so. Thus when they decided to create the Dominion they used the ancestral Vorta as disposable test subjects for their gene-engineering program. Purely speculative of course but it was fun to think about.

Glad you did this. The Vorta don't get enough attention. 👍👍

Thanks for another great video Tyler. Speaking of DS9, do you think its possible that the "prophets" in the wormhole were actually Bajorans from the future who transcend time and physical bodies to create/occupy the wormhole? It's a wild idea but I think there's a lot of evidence for this idea particularly in the later seasons of DS9.

I love these video's so much i recently watch everything on your channel i just love how there is elements of star trek and then real world science :)

2001: A space odyssey. The 'aliens' use the obelisk to enhance the primates, to evenutaly become us.

Human evolution spent thousands of years not only increasing intelligence but improving socialization. Simply increasing intelligence to human levels of an animal would be a bad idea since they will not have developed the self control and empathy with it.

Good shit as usual mate. Keep up the good work.

12:25 Then there were also cases where time travel shenanigans allowed present day members of the time to get future tech early (e.g. the EMH's mobile emitter from _Star Trek: Voyager_ ). AFAIK, this still counts as "developing on our own"? Great for you to cover the feasibility of uplifting, some ethical implications behind it, and other related sci-fi material that went there! I'm fine with it in the same vein that "it's a galaxy that can literally travel at warp 8), but nice to hear such questions being delved into none of the less. Also great to hear you have plans for a video on Jem'Hadar! 8)

Something tells me that the Dominion never saw bioethics as a high priority.

Great video as always!

As far as Vorta cloning, I'd always thought it was reserved for the diplomatic models only, not the general population. The Dominion cares nothing about people, only what they can control, and for that they have the Vorta diplomats.

I like the idea that Sisko wasn't giving Gul Dukat the actual poisoned bottle of kanar. Weyoun knew this when drinking and was calling it toxic as a friendly dig against the Cardassians.

Another great video!

My favorite moment. Odo demands Bajoran officers handle promenade security, Weyoun instantly approves and doesn't care that the Cardassians refused.

I appreciate the balanced assessment of the viability of “uplifting”. I also like the subtle differences in the Weyouns - the first one we see for instance is clearly bored of his role, and has grey hairs, while the others are all black haired and take much more glee in bossing others around. I think that’s another reason they keep cloning them - to keep them young and domineering. If you’re looking for feedback on improving your videos, I would look into manually kerning. Some fonts have better basic kerning than others, but the TMP/DS9/VOY font has some really odd default kerning. For instance, the larger gap between the L and the O in your “cloning” title card, or indeed between the V and the O in this video’s thumbnail. It’s manageable to read through it for simple title text, but I’ve seen some videos that exclusively used that typeface for body text as well (like a video with all known rules of acquisition) and it’s really hard to read in that instance. So it’s subtle but would definitely take your content to the next level, to manually adjust the spacing to make it look slicker. :)

Tyler, you made my weekend. Again. Thanks!

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a much loved novel (which is also a short story) about augmented intelligence.

Best segue ever! Keep up the great work! I always learn some real world facts from your Star Trek videos! Best of both worlds, eh?

Really enjoyed this love these Biology deep dives

I don't think it's out of the question that an advanced race with FTL travel and technology that rivaled the Federation, would have the ability to genetically engineer intelligence. Even the Federation is shown to have this ability (Bashir is a great example). Sure, with OUR technology today, creating the Vorta and Jem'Hadar with genetic engineering is imposible, but not with the sci-fi technology in the future of Star Trek. Also, with those two species...their bodies and minds WERE extremely altered by the process.

Great look into real world genetic science

Thank you for this.

The founders rewarded the Vorta because they helped an injured Changeling who was being hunted, But in the end the founders treated the Vorta as high level servants period.

Perhaps the best way to present the Vorta is how they are similar in the relationship to the Founders as dogs are to humans. They are loyal to the Founders similar to dogs to humans. Domesticated so to speak. Well, think about it.

Love the Volta but I always wondered about the decision to give them a boxtop wig

Man I really thought you were going to suggest that Skill Share has a course that will teach me how to genetically engineer my own slave race for a second. That would have been a bold choice.

I always thought Eris was only pretending to be telekinetic - the whole thing with her was a ruse, after all, and could've incorporated all manner of deception.

Keepin' it nerdy

The biggest problem with uplift, IMO, is that it would force them to become like those uplifting. A hypothetical species that has no concept of humor would likely remove it from a genome as a waste or possibly even counter-intelligence in their opinion.

Awesome video.

Loved this! Have you read the Star Trek Adventures Gamma Quadrant source book? It has some really interesting stuff about the Vorta even if it's non-cannon.

Would like to see you go into cloning both the vorta the history of anyhow and cloning in real life that would be a very interesting video.

A look at the biology of every alien in ST: lots of latex

as always, great video!! also, the drawing of your wife looks great ;)

I love how you use the perfect musics from mass effect 😍 also the first one it seems, the most uneasy ost from ME

I'm also a huge fan of David Brin's Uplift series.

They say that even with the cloning process that they have a certain amount of “random” mutation for genetic viability. I would easily say that this is where the TK ability comes from and that it is only on the female side of the spices as the female Vorta play a whole different game than the males.

*Thank you for these videos!!* ⚡⚡⚡⚡

15:41 bring up another question, could the Changelings if they wanted to create more Data like beings?

I like how you cite real science and not that pseudo nonsense when explaining various aspects of Star Trek.

Thanks Tyler

what was the original series episode where they went back & met the greek gods? or the other races that had watched? put the quantum entangled transport clone back on

Love the purple and green.

One little nugget I see differently. I don't believe their whole race are clones. I believe that those who are in positions of important use have their memories constantly backed up with a cloning vat on standby if that important Vorta dies. Having that mutant form of immortality is probably a perk for climbing Vorta society in the Dominion. You are more or less undying as long as The Founders find you important. I also believe this is a soft-core version of making Dominion AI droids... easily replaced copies with the former's memories, immune to poisons, higher intelligence, altered senses, lack of aesthetic sense (a pleasure thing among biological beings), some have special abilities not common to others, lack of empathy of those in its charge, pre-programmed loyalty to their masters, etc.

If we didn't have the ancient astronaut thing in real-life, we likely would have never gotten the Star Gate series.

Awesome channel 👍

I will LITERALLY sign up for skillzshare if I can learn how to genetically engineer my own servant race.

Ironically enough I literally watched Carbon Creek today lol

Odd world is full of uplifting

You're forgetting TOS episode "Who will mourne for Adonais."

"Have you met the average person?" 😅

The vorta are pekenese dog while the jem hadar are a pit bull. Both love their owners, but are genetically programmed for different jobs. It's easy to uplift and genetically program if you have enough time.

Dude... what that frame behind your left shoulder?

Woo Hoo!!!!!!

The most disturbing thing about the Vorta is the way the Federation (mis)treats them. They even agree to trade Kevan to the Dominion (to get executed). Almost as if they consider uplifted species as subhumanoid.

Don't forget the voyage home, transparent aluminum

The Vorta Kilana is hot

Have you met the average person? 😅😐💀 Great video!

We were all conceived and born without our consent. Others chose to bring us into existence. Is that any different than uplifting?

Jemadar, like havildar and risaldar, is an urdu and pashto military rank.

They have bad eye sight and great hearing and a few with telekinesis because that's what the founders desire. They are diplomats after all, listening and talking are their prime functions in life.

The telekinesis of the vorta is only witnessed in their VR-like simulation, never outside of it - so no one needs to explain anything. Odd the very writers did not realize this.

How did you manage to say "apes" and show a monkey, then shortly afterwards say "monkey" and show an ape? 😂

Honestly, if we could make monkeys just smart enough to be able to handle most of our manual labor and crap like that, we could eliminate child labor in most of the world. Like in that hypothetical scenario we could actually work towards Starfleet. Would it be ethical? No not really. But in the grand scheme of things it would probably save a lot of people's lives. We just have to accept that monkeys are less than. Same with gorillas orangutans and all that. Make a class system within the class system.

For me, if I want to learn new things or gain new skills I download it directly into my brain? That's how it normally works. What did you expected?

I was thinking that it was severely unethical as well

I realize this was a Trek focused video, but I'm sad that the Stargate franchise didn't get a shout-out during the Ancient Aliens section.

Just bought a coffee mug in the same colors as my high school... Go Wild Cats!

"Dominion" destruido ¿quien alimenta y cuida Jem’Hadar?

Interestingly enough, it's theorised that the Annunaki mined gold on earth as a way of replenishing their Ozone layer by using it as a thin dust layer to reflect Infrared rays. Scientifically speaking gold Does reflect IR a lot better than most other metals. And there's a specific type of it I forget what it's called that after synthesis is even better than regular gold and that this was the reason they came to earth at all. Also, It was an already Genetically engineered species called the Igigi that was supposed to have been combined with humans as these new hybrids were easier to create. The Igigi were supposed to be immortal but were harder to create. This again is where the idea of ''angels'' mixing with humans to create Nephalim was the reason Enlil convinced the other Anunnaki the Enki had broken these fundamental laws and that's why they were wiped out. Not so stupid when you put it into that context. But obviously, it all comes down to your belief one way or another. I think it's a great story. And it's as good a plot as any star trek episode. And literally, thousands of years old, so if nothing else that has to make you wonder, what exactly was primitive man doing writing star trek fan fiction some 7000 odd years ago?

Aww man, i really hate ancient aliens lmao, but if AAH were to be portrayed in sci-fi it could actually make a mean storyline if developed right and great video as always Tyler! 🖖

Brilliantly researched and well written as always. I love the your poked fun at self-righteous idiots like Eric Von Daniken. He's just in it it to sell his book, while denying well known facts about Egyptian culture and technology.

"Cough" Greek gods star trek"

The changlings made a sexy Vorta to tempt Sisko. I could get behind that kind of religion.

Creating another intelligent species would equavelent to bioengineering a rival for humanity.

Apropos uplifting, I saved a fish from drowning today 🤭🇸🇪

Sadly, we never saw any Vorta having sex. That would have spawned a good episode, or three :)

Wouldn't "Who Mourns Adonis" fall in the Ancient Alien theory?

Me: huh. bored. what do you have for me, algorithm? The Algorithm: [this video] Nice.

Molly Hagan was a hot little Vorta.

CRAB RAVE!