Let’s be honest here. Only an incredibly stupid engineer (<cough>musk<cough>) would have access to “replicators”* and not design a star ship which could be entirely replicated, complete with systems fundamentally designed to do so automatically.
In fact, they would probably just power’ the ship with it, and when ever they needed fuel, or mass for repairs, or whatever… stop off at an asteroid or something….
*(don’t get me started on how stupid an engineer would have to be to name a device that fabricates stuff, but not itself a “replicators”- replicators make.l more of themselves. Replicators are Wish Fabricators.)
don’t get me started on how stupid an engineer would have to be to name a device that fabricates stuff, but not itself a “replicators”
The Chevron 7 people will love to hear that rant. But I imagine the name is because you put something in a dematerializer somewhere, and then the machine can make endless replicas of the original object.
They don’t have to replicate themselves to gain that name, it’s equally applicable to a machine that replicates anything.
But that’s not what they’re doing. Whenever Troi asks for a scoop of chocolate ice cream, there isn’t some ship gremlin pulling the Sundae out of storage and duplicating it every time.
Sure, they could easily get the design file (“pattern”,) by stuffing it in a replicator and reversing the process…. But there’s really no reason that’s necessary unless you really wanted a copy of the Mona Lisa or some bit of tech you didn’t really understand.
Once you have the pattern, and they could use any number of workflows to get it- “computer, design me a stuffy to look like that character in the holonovel that kid loves” or through a proper design flow in the holodeck.
(Actually… one has to wonder, why they didn’t design shuttles to be replicated. They blew up enough of them…)
Or that time that OBrien trained the Cardassian systems to make a “decent bowl of oatmeal”,
Every time someone adds a variation or something, it’s altering the pattern. As well, with food, the computer would likely be using some kind of generative design to create variations in the foods- otherwise it’d start getting boring very quickly.
Just because it’s tucked behind a handy gui doesn’t mean it’s not altering some file then printing that pattern rather than having 14 variations of the same file.
Or that episode in Voyager where Nelix is freaking out about protecting Naomi from scary things in that kid’s hollow novel; and he gets Kim to make her a stuffy- it’s dubious the computer of a purpose built warship would have design files (parametric or otherwise,) for a children’s stuffy that would likely infringe on somebody’s IP.
Similarly, most of the delta flyer would have been replicated (we see them designing it in the holodeck,) it’s dubious they could have produced the flyer in a few days without replicating most of its structure and materials.
Replicators can only make themselves. Like SG:1 replicators. They themselves might be able to rearrange themselves for differing functions but theu can’t make a mocha latte.
the thing is, that human form replicators were collections of nano-scale replicators formed into the shape of a human. Everything they built was also those same nanites.
(The milky way replicators used the blocks to build their ships, where the Asurans in Pegasus were way more advanced and used nanites to build stuff)
(that first human form replicator girl created the spider things because the ancient that built her didn’t let her have a puppy. He was a cat guy.)
Let’s be honest here. Only an incredibly stupid engineer (<cough>musk<cough>) would have access to “replicators”* and not design a star ship which could be entirely replicated, complete with systems fundamentally designed to do so automatically.
In fact, they would probably just power’ the ship with it, and when ever they needed fuel, or mass for repairs, or whatever… stop off at an asteroid or something….
*(don’t get me started on how stupid an engineer would have to be to name a device that fabricates stuff, but not itself a “replicators”- replicators make.l more of themselves. Replicators are Wish Fabricators.)
‘(See Romulan singularity cores)
The Chevron 7 people will love to hear that rant. But I imagine the name is because you put something in a dematerializer somewhere, and then the machine can make endless replicas of the original object.
They don’t have to replicate themselves to gain that name, it’s equally applicable to a machine that replicates anything.
But that’s not what they’re doing. Whenever Troi asks for a scoop of chocolate ice cream, there isn’t some ship gremlin pulling the Sundae out of storage and duplicating it every time.
Sure, they could easily get the design file (“pattern”,) by stuffing it in a replicator and reversing the process…. But there’s really no reason that’s necessary unless you really wanted a copy of the Mona Lisa or some bit of tech you didn’t really understand.
Once you have the pattern, and they could use any number of workflows to get it- “computer, design me a stuffy to look like that character in the holonovel that kid loves” or through a proper design flow in the holodeck.
(Actually… one has to wonder, why they didn’t design shuttles to be replicated. They blew up enough of them…)
Well, we don’t get to see the patterns being created. When we see replicators they were supposed to be standard appliances for decades.
But they were mainly aimed at food, and people don’t design food in a CAD.
Sure we do. All the time.
“Earl Gray, Hot.”
“Tomato soup… plain. Hot Plain Tomato Soup”
Or that time that OBrien trained the Cardassian systems to make a “decent bowl of oatmeal”,
Every time someone adds a variation or something, it’s altering the pattern. As well, with food, the computer would likely be using some kind of generative design to create variations in the foods- otherwise it’d start getting boring very quickly.
Just because it’s tucked behind a handy gui doesn’t mean it’s not altering some file then printing that pattern rather than having 14 variations of the same file.
Or that episode in Voyager where Nelix is freaking out about protecting Naomi from scary things in that kid’s hollow novel; and he gets Kim to make her a stuffy- it’s dubious the computer of a purpose built warship would have design files (parametric or otherwise,) for a children’s stuffy that would likely infringe on somebody’s IP.
Similarly, most of the delta flyer would have been replicated (we see them designing it in the holodeck,) it’s dubious they could have produced the flyer in a few days without replicating most of its structure and materials.
But replicators can replicate themselves, otherwise the whole DS9 minefield wouldn’t have worked.
Admittedly that’s not their primary function. But they are capable of the activity.
This is why replicators are wish fabricators.
Replicators can only make themselves. Like SG:1 replicators. They themselves might be able to rearrange themselves for differing functions but theu can’t make a mocha latte.
The replicators made ships, human facsimiles, and an entire replication of the ancients city. So they can clearly do more than just self-repeat.
the thing is, that human form replicators were collections of nano-scale replicators formed into the shape of a human. Everything they built was also those same nanites.
(The milky way replicators used the blocks to build their ships, where the Asurans in Pegasus were way more advanced and used nanites to build stuff)
(that first human form replicator girl created the spider things because the ancient that built her didn’t let her have a puppy. He was a cat guy.)