Would you use a food replicator?

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2004-01-10 07:01pm

Some people, Like Miles O Brian's mother, prefferred "real" food, I think it would be useful if you don't have time, or can't/don't know how to cook (and how do they clean the dishes? Can the replicator disintegrate the dish and any food particles?)

And how are new items added to the menu's of food? Can it record the molecular structure of something in it, like say you went to McDonalds and got a big mac, could you put it in the replicator and record it, so it could make a big mac for you whenever you wanted?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-01-10 07:04pm

supposedly there isn't much of a difference between real food and replicated food, though some people think there is. personally though i'd love to have one, as it means i wouldn't have to worry about grocery shopping and could just have whatever i wanted whenever.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-01-10 07:06pm

Well, I like to cook meals, but if I'm on the go and am more hungry than interested in whether my food tastes a little funny, then yeah, a food replicator would be nice.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-01-10 07:06pm

I'd love to have one... especially if it wasn't limited to food items.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 2004-01-10 07:07pm

I wonder how much it would jump the power bill

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2004-01-10 07:13pm

Jeremy wrote:I wonder how much it would jump the power bill

Not sure, according the the TM, it doesn't create items from pure energy and can't make one element into another, it just reorganizes existing matter into what you want.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2004-01-10 08:13pm

Shrykull wrote:
Jeremy wrote:I wonder how much it would jump the power bill
Not sure, according the the TM, it doesn't create items from pure energy and can't make one element into another, it just reorganizes existing matter into what you want.

The TM isn't canon though and I am pretty sure the replicators can make elements although I'm not sure whether they require some form of matter , transporters don't seem to need mater to create something and the Replicator operates on a similar principle.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-01-11 05:40am

I'd use one.

The food from them has to be better than frozen diners or fast food.

You should be able to program it so you get all you daily recommended vitamins & minerals in something that you actually like to eat.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-01-11 05:59am

Yes I would since it can make me whatever food item I want to it no matter how expensive it may be in the market for low cost.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2004-01-11 10:52am

How standardized is the food it produces? Can you modify a choice for your own tastes, or are you stuck with Lowest Common Denominator (LCD) choices?

If I recall, a lot of the "real food" meals prepared during the food replicator era are in the category of old family recipies or specialty dishes. It may be that if you order "beef stew" you get two or three variations, but if you want your mother's beef stew in particular you may have to make it yourself.

I would expect the replicator food quality to vary over time - as time progresses the technology probably becomes more sophisticated, accomodating a wider range of variations.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2004-01-11 10:56am

I'll cook my dinner over the fire. Who knows in the future, if we have to set camp on a uninhabited planet with the replicator broken and I would be the only guy who knows how to cook. That would be real dandy, just...what kind of animals are on this planet is the problem...~Jason

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2004-01-11 11:26am

I'd use it to replicate McDonald's or Dairy Queen food.

It's not like the replicated version can taste any funnier than the original.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-01-11 03:35pm

I'd pay thousands of dollars to have a food-replicator at home, even if some people could tell the difference. It would be great to use it for quick meals and such.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2004-01-11 05:01pm

A food replicator would be great, since it can produce lettuce and alcohol I'm betting it could also produce Marijuana, that is assuming that it has the pattern for joint in it's databanks. Now that would be cool.

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2004-01-11 05:03pm

Replicated food has the same nutrients and calories no matter the food it takes right?

ICE CREAM DIET!

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2004-01-11 05:08pm

I would love to have a replicator. The great thing is you can use it for more then just food. We know it has enough information and capability to make the likes of complex metal thermal cups for Coffe and the likes as well. You can use it for food, or to make items. If it can't make certain complex items then you can use it to make the parts for the items and then you go about assembling the full item.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2004-01-11 06:37pm

The replicator in the ops center on DS9 was able to replicate a phaser in some DS9 episode (the one where the Cardassian security system threatens to kill everyone on board), this would suggest that even ordinary replicators can produce phasers if they have the pattern for one.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2004-01-11 06:46pm

I'd take one. Loads more useful then a microwave

consequences · Post by **consequences** » 2004-01-11 06:53pm

If you don't use one due to philosophical constraints, you'd beter make sure that your food has never been through a transporter either.

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2004-01-11 06:55pm

I'd use it if I was in a rush, but I do enjoy cooking, maybe to replicate ingredients, I don't know, I'd probably end up using it...

Sothis · Post by **Sothis** » 2004-01-11 07:34pm

Can you imagine Homer Simpson with a replicator?

'Give me 500 Krusty burgers and 10 crates of beer!'

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2004-01-12 01:22am

I would use it, since I can't cook very well and like others have said it probably equals or beats frozen.

There is no way it could make a bannana milkshake as good as my best friend makes. And I would not give the machine her recipie. I like "earning" a shake my doing something in exhange. ie: wash the car, babysit.

It would be cool to have a replicator for stuff like soda, pot pies, oatmeal, pancakes, etc.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-01-12 05:14am

Another reason for using a food replicator could be for those people who would rather not kill living beings for food but just can't stand to go on that all veggie diet.

Actually, with food replicators we could have a whole new class of food wackos that don't want anyone eating or interfering with anything that is, was or could eventually lead to life. So no eating plants, animals, vegetables or fruits (they could eventually become new plants) because it's not necessary since you have a food replicator.

Considering how society was turning out in TNG+ era I'm surprised they didn't really look down on anyone who ate "reaL" food. They didn turn their noses down at some of the live things the Klingons ate but I think that with the presents of replicators they could actually take the food snobbery even further.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-01-12 08:52am

If they do simply reorganize matter. Then you could potentially grab a grey's papaya hotdog or something, and it SHOULD (Theoretically) be able to reorganize matter into not just another Grey's papaya Hotdog, but the exact same one. So their should be any difference in tast/texture/etc. At ALL, unless there is some problem with they system or it is "low" on some certain "Matter-amajig" so it skimps on something. at any rate, if that's the case, how does it decide what to skimp on? if it is low on some form of replicator stock or whatever it's called, and it skimps on something, what if that ONE atom it doesn't place makes your pepperoni into Sarin-oni? How do you know your powdered donut isnt an Anthrax-nut?! What a great way to do assassinations! Just sneak in, hack the replicator thingy, reprogram it so that all the water it replicates is laced with alkaline, or cholera! And the borg! WHAT MORONS! They have very nearly assimlated every ship in any series! They could have had one drone slip some nanites into the system, and program the nanites to programs the replicators to replicate nanites! Janeway gets her coffee, *WHAM* JANE-BOT Tuvok has his Vulcan Shiraz, *WHACK* LOGIC-BOT! AAAahahahahaahaha!!!

And phasers will fire BAKING SODA!!! Quantum torps will be fille with payloads of ammonia!!!

*Runs away screaming*

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-01-12 09:47am

I'm a lazy bastard, I'll take the replicator so I can make complete multi-course meals in seconds instead of 30 minutes to an hour. Hopefully I can cook up all my fave dishes and scan them into the replicator for future reproduction.