/strek/ - Star Trek ★

I think 3D printers will get very sophisticated, but probably not to the level of getting food on a plate.

>>6857

WEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

https://archive.is/ofhli

>>6860

>I know it is theoretically possible to convert energy into matter. Plants for instance do it via photosynthesis

Plants don't actually create matter from energy; they store the energy and release it to operate on existing matter and do things with it.

I kinda doubt it. The amount of energy required is simply fucking mind-blowing.

I trust you are familiar with Einstein's famous equation, mathematically equating mass and energy. The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated (which was roughly two-thousand times the power of the one dropped on Hiroshima) had a yield of fifty megatons, and in the fusion reaction annihilated roughly two-and-a-third kilograms of matter.

So if a replicator produces a twenty-pound turkey from thin air, it's utilizing the equivalent energy of a 200 megaton fusion bomb. You should be able to set the thing to overload and blow the ship and everything within 100 miles to fucking shrapnel.

>>6907

>So if a replicator produces a twenty-pound turkey from thin air, it's utilizing the equivalent energy of a 200 megaton fusion bomb. You should be able to set the thing to overload and blow the ship and everything within 100 miles to fucking shrapnel.

They've explained that the ship's computer doesn't replicate anything dangerous. I'd imagine similarly it has a lot of safeties incase of something like that.

In terms of "setting the thing to overload" it seems like it's much easier in the show's logic to just cause a warp core breach and do that

>>6913

>cause a warp core breach and do that

Given how many freaking replicators are on a starship and the fact that the thing's purpose is to literally BEND SPACETIME, a warp core breach should make Chernobyl look like a wet fart from a flea. We're talking levels of energy incomparable to anything but solar outputs. One breach should toast the ten nearest planets.

>>6916

On this note, it should be about as difficult to get into Engineering as it is to get into a real-life nuclear power plant, for exactly the same reasons. But in most cases you can just stroll right the fuck around the ship whenever you want to, even if you're a civilian, and maybe you'll get one dude "Oh, you shouldn't be in here…"

I've not been in the military, so I don't know what they actually do with random civilians on, say, an aircraft carrier, but I'd have to imagine "confined to quarters" would be the sensible option, and nobody would think them barbarians for it.

>>6856 (OP)

The short answer is no, but I think there is potential that we can get closer. For example, we can synthesize many chemicals using base chemicals and energy. We can create synthetic kerosene with salt water and CO2 for example.

3D printers can make things out of plastic, but I think in the near future we will have robots that can create various chemicals (think home made pharmaceuticals) using simple base chemicals.

Furthermore, the same components used for 3D printers may possibly be used for ECM (electro-chemical machining) a process that can cut any metal (albeit slowly). So we may see metal parts soon if people get to work experimenting on it and such.

>>6922

Yeah, but it someone grabs the nearest blunt object and starts smashing consoles it's still probably going to result in massive problems. Might even cause a warp-core breach because the Hollywood standard is "if you smash the controls, shit stops working". The Federation is just far too trusting.

>>6913

>They've explained that the ship's computer doesn't replicate anything dangerous

It's not that there could be a problem with someone getting C4 or nukes out of the replicator - it's that the amount of energy required to create a single cup of water is more than enough to turn that section of the ship into a very wide, very hot, cloud of wreckage.

Assuming a 30g glass of water you'll need 2696265536MJ of energy to replicate it (E=MC^2). 2696265536MJ is equivalent to 644.423 Kilotons of energy. To put that in context the Little Boy bomb that destroyed Hiroshima was a 15 Kiloton explosion. Replicating the last glass of water you drank could wipe cities off the face of the earth.

You don't need to replicate something dangerous, replicating anything is stupidly dangerous all by itself.

>>6856 (OP)

You already have robots that can build hamburgers and pizzas and that can mix drinks. So an automated chef with a delivery drone is achievable today.

We also have 3D printing/sinstering and CNC machining, combine that with robotic assembly and generic programable electronics and you could make a lot of useful items from stock.

As for teleport bullshit or molecular assembly, don't hold your breath unless you're a pearl diver.

>>6939

>>6978

I'm pretty sure the replicator doesn't create matter it just transports it from feedstock. Also multiple episodes where replicator food tastes different from organic because the replicator can't match all of the flavor compounds.

Replicator food like frozen microwave dinners.

As for antimater/dilithium that shit is mined/fabricated and resupplied from off screen industry. Ships must refuel periodicly.

>>6985

>I'm pretty sure the replicator doesn't create matter it just transports it from feedstock

After some reading that sounds like a fair point - it uses the same systems as the transporter to de-materialise some kind of matter reserve and re-materialise it in the programmed form. So less of a Universal Constructor than a 'very wide ranging re-constructor'. The amount of energy needed to de-materialise a solid block of matter should still be ridiculously high though. I know they have basically handwavium powered generators on every ship, but it just seems like a very inefficient process, and all because the little Star Fleet Snowflakes with the arguable exception of Chief O'Brien couldn't deal with a life supported by standardised ration packs.

>>6995

in TOS they had a dumbwaiter ration dispensing system. TNG wanted to go for that "What an amazing future" feel that the later series had to include.

Most crewman would probably have to go to the mess hall or the common room near their quarters to eat. You usually only saw department head's quarters and staterooms for diplomatic guests.

A glorified vending machine just doesn't cut it when the transporter special effects used are as old as film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBSpuZDKaKI

>>6907

>So if a replicator produces a twenty-pound turkey from thin air, it's utilizing the equivalent energy of a 200 megaton fusion bomb.

In my example of the turkey dinner, it wasn't producing it from thin air, it was transmuting the equivalent mass from the carbon. Now, I've got a slight learning disability so I've always had trouble with math and science, so you could be exactly right, but wouldn't instantaneous transmutation of matter via teleportation take a little less energy than creating it from nothing?