5 ms·

But Star Trek replicators don't work through matter synthesis, they work through matter transformation. It's a variant of transporter technology; a source fuel

• TeMPOraL 5y ago
  I know. Or at least that's how I interpreted various remarks during the show. Direct matter synthesis doesn't make sense in this context, but I've seen a lot of people on the Internet assume this is what happens. The way they talk about it on the show could lead you to either theory, for both replicators and transporters. But to the extent we're discussing it as technology we could potentially have, and/or may want to make happen, I feel it's worth pointing out that transforming feedstock is a better design, doesn't require mastery of bulk antimatter processing, and is perhaps closer to possibility than one would otherwise assume. Hell, I'd go as far as saying that there are problems with reasonable "attacks"[0] on the road to a replicator - engineering, chemical and biotech problems we could be working on right now. -- [0] - In the Hamming sense, see https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html.
• ape4 5y ago
  Like 3D printing.