Was Picard right or wrong about the Iconians?

[Admiral Bear]

It's seems unlikely the Iconians wouldn't have used the power of the gateways to conquer other worlds. What would be the prime motivation for creating the technology in the first place? And then to have that technology and not to use it seems fairly absurd to me. The gateways were the ultimate game changer during the time the Iconians existed.

 

[JWPlatt]

What would be the prime motivation for creating the technology in the first place?

Exploration and knowledge to fulfill their desire to understand themselves within the context of all that is knowable.

And then to have that technology and not to use it seems fairly absurd to me.

But they do use it. To explore and fulfill their desire to understand themselves within the context of all that is knowable. So what's the absurd part? Beware that any answer you give probably will expose the biased and projected *human* propensity for war, corruption, and the unbridled consumption of our resources.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Exploration and knowledge to fulfill their desire to understand themselves within the context of all that is knowable.

That sounds a discarded line for Spock from TMP when he's talking about V'Ger.

But they do use it. To explore and fulfill their desire to understand themselves within the context of all that is knowable. So what's the absurd part? Beware that any answer you give probably will expose the biased and projected *human* propensity for war, corruption, and the unbridled consumption of our resources.

Very true.

The Iconians had the ability to build the gateways. It's not unreasonable to assume that they probably already had the ability to travel the universe by more usual methods, even if they chose not to use it. They might have used the gateways as a method of harmless exploration, but I doubt the species of other worlds would've seen it that way.

What ever happened, it's fairly clear the gateways bought about the annihilation of the Iconians.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Iconian