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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But is that really a problem. People get ridiculously specific when trying to have the barista make their latte just perfectly.
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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…
I kinda did that story and submitted it to be available on a Star Trek fan fiction site.
The site runner was not pleased. -
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…
I imagine Spock, over time, would eventually taste very bitter and sharp (cut your mouth, like a Dorito sharp.)
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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
Where's the essay, OP? /jk /0press -
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 Food for think.
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If I were Star Trek people I would be more concerned about where the replicators get the matter the food is made of, and why aren't there any bathrooms on the Enterprise?
@anon20394702398750
There was an ep that addressed that, where a character pointed out that the apple is biowaste, broken down to molecules & reassembled as an apple. It was meant to shock but i (grew up on a farm) thought, So like a normal apple only faster
@MostlyHarmless -
@jleedev @argv_minus_one @Wearwolf @MostlyHarmless You could scan multiple plates of scrambled eggs, but data storage seems to still be limited in the 24th century.
@howtophil @jleedev @argv_minus_one @MostlyHarmless cut to a federation kitchen in 23 something, just making plate after plate of scrambled eggs until they find a few that they feel comfortable putting in the replicator
Cook, scan, eat, rate, repeat
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If I were Star Trek people I would be more concerned about where the replicators get the matter the food is made of, and why aren't there any bathrooms on the Enterprise?
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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…
Starfleet probably just contracted out to Aramark or Sodexho or someplace like that for the patterns and they got what they got. That was back when Hegseth's head-in-a-jar was in charge and he didn't prioritize food service.
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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 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.
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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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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!!!

