In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time.
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless didn't lower decks have a whole subplot about the "good replicators" for officers?
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@MostlyHarmless didn't lower decks have a whole subplot about the "good replicators" for officers?
@faraiwe @MostlyHarmless yeah that was weird. Didn't they claim that the officers' replicators had a better menu?
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless "But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time?"
No, pretty much all Starfleet cadets get wrung through a bunch of transporter cycles to prewash all the flavour out of them, if they hadn't already accumulated enough transporter cycles already.
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True, but from my time as the designated coffeeboy, the former group appears much more common than the later.
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@chrpistorius @aoanla @MostlyHarmless It could also be a plausible story beat that the Federation regulates the replicators for nutritional content, so in addition to the scan being low-res, the recipies are also "healthy" in ways that make them less flavorful. I'd also lean into the idea that if you get a steak, it's always the _same_ steak, everywhere, and how that could get very boring compared to any fresh cooking.
@chrpistorius @aoanla @MostlyHarmless I think another thing the writers have touched on is that only people on ships and in very built up areas eat primarily from replicators, plenty eat farmed crops, many places dont have the resources to build replicators and the energy required into every house, plenty of examples where people live very traditional lives that only occasionally intersect with all the high tech. TOS had its Tribbles and triticale, DS9 talked about Bajoran crops an famine from time to time.
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
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@MostlyHarmless I always assumed it's because replicated food is based off of a lower-resolution template, whilst the transporter does a unique high-res (destructive) copy of an object. So, every replicated steak is 'the same steak', and the compression artifacts make it a bit less good than the real thing.
(This makes sense if you consider several episodes of Star Trek imply it takes huge amounts of storage to hold a transporter pattern, yet replicators have extensive menus available to them - clearly replicator patterns are compressed or just low-res by comparison, with an apparently noticeable quality trade-off)
@aoanla
The resolution situation is the only one that makes sense to me.There's mention of trying to program replicators for particular recipes, and it being difficult to get a good result. I wonder if there's a whole culinary skill around simplifying a recipe so it's less complex to replicate?
And I bet drinks are easier, because it's all water with a suspension of some chemical. Fewer complex structures of solids.
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@MostlyHarmless I always assumed it's because replicated food is based off of a lower-resolution template, whilst the transporter does a unique high-res (destructive) copy of an object. So, every replicated steak is 'the same steak', and the compression artifacts make it a bit less good than the real thing.
(This makes sense if you consider several episodes of Star Trek imply it takes huge amounts of storage to hold a transporter pattern, yet replicators have extensive menus available to them - clearly replicator patterns are compressed or just low-res by comparison, with an apparently noticeable quality trade-off)
Every time you transport someone you kill them, and create a new entity that only coincidentally shares their memories elsewhere.
It stands to reason, then, that every time you replicate a steak it is ethically as if you directly participated in the killing of the cow. Every meal, the same cow, dead, over and over, millions, no, billions of times, never actually to rest and to finally pay its final sacrifice.
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@MostlyHarmless Does imply that each time you transport you may smell and taste SLIGHTLY different but there's a social convention that it;s NEVER MENTIONED.
@scottgal @MostlyHarmless but, but, but--
then how will your cat recognize you!!!
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless Isn't the point that real food is never twice exactly the same, whereas replicated food is just monotonous?
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@aoanla @MostlyHarmless I *seem* to recall a mention that replicated food will turn into mush if you let it sit for too long? That would also speak for a "lower resolution," I suppose.
@chrpistorius @aoanla @MostlyHarmless to be fair, regular food will also turn into mush if you let it sit for too long
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless honestly it's really pretty simple. Humans are irrational creatures and so the story of the food affects our perception of how it tastes. It's why home-grown produce tastes better even when it's basically identical to the storebought kind.
This does not apply to tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes are actually better for actual material reasons (you can let them fully ripen, unlike commercial farmers who need to pick them early so they stay firm enough to ship)
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@MostlyHarmless I recall reading in some "Star Trek Tech Manual" back in the 90s that the replicators have way less fidelity in order to make them use less power and because, frankly, they don't need it since they're not expected to produce living things.
@OrionKidder @MostlyHarmless that actually makes a lot of sense. a food replicator is probably called upon to crank through a lot more stuff too. people are always eating, and aren't they using replicators for manufacturing?
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@OrionKidder @MostlyHarmless that actually makes a lot of sense. a food replicator is probably called upon to crank through a lot more stuff too. people are always eating, and aren't they using replicators for manufacturing?
@mxchara @MostlyHarmless Exactly. It's about tolerances. The tolerance for a durilium I-beam are totally different than the tolerances for, like, Nancy from hydroponics.
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless maybe the replicated food is too precise? That is, it tastes good, but every replicated meal tastes EXACTLY the same. There's no novelty, no slightly different blend of spices or mix of textures, no surprise. After enough time, even "good" food becomes samey even if you do have a list of options to alternate between.
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless if replicators were the same tech as transporters, you could make ten Spocks the same way you can make ten burgers.
Insert some technobabbly about pattern buffers degrading yada yada.
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless My head cannon is that is lke airline food mixed with AI slop. The programmed recipees are so bland without character, always tasting the same. It's functional, quick, but it's lacking the personal ingredient, the randomness, the (lucky) surprise, the imperfections, that change food from pure nurishment to enjoyment.
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@scottgal @MostlyHarmless First rule of transporter club is you don't mention transporter club member's smell and you don't lick any other member of transport club
Second rule of transporter club is you don't mention transporter club member's smell and you don't lick any other member of transport club
Third rule of transporter club is Dr Pulaski is not on the club, so you may sniff and lick her consensually@shaedrich @scottgal @MostlyHarmless fourth rule is to not talk to the Barclay truthers even if they claim he hugged them.
I shall now ponder what the club of the people who had sex on a transport pad is called.
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@mxchara @MostlyHarmless Exactly. It's about tolerances. The tolerance for a durilium I-beam are totally different than the tolerances for, like, Nancy from hydroponics.
@OrionKidder @mxchara @MostlyHarmless *exasperated engineering sigh* yes, the I-beam has way lower tolerances.
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In Star Trek people often complain that replicated food is not as good as naturally produced food, which is weird when replicators are presumably using the same technology as transporters, which can perfectly replicate Spock every time. But is Spock getting less flavoursome over time? In this essay I shall…
@MostlyHarmless to be fair, the Technical Manual of the Enterprise D states that the replicators only use molecular resolution while the transporters use atomar resolution (and use devices like Heisenberg compensators to account for the Uncertainty Principle which the replicators also don't need to account for). Not to mention that replicators convert raw matter resources into food while the transporter need to recreate the previously existing matter as exactly as possible.
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