Edit_XYZ wrote:
There's nothing simple about the cellular structure of an egg, of meat, etc.
The replicator might be able to mix together the components making up such food - but its fine tunning is lacking. As is redundantly mentioned throughout star trek (how replicated food lacks flavor, etc).
Transporting something!=creating something. Not even close.
And that's the least of the problems the replicator has as a tool for 'unlimited' wealth:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?...&postcount=130 |
I admit the resolution/fine tuning idea is a good counterargument, but it seems like the show varies on what is too complex to replicate and what isn't.
Eggs are easier to replicate, Dillithium Crystals can't be.
I think the writers had to create that difficulty, because too many problems would be solved.
IIRC, I think I've even seen an episode where someone refers to replicating blood--if that is true, then it blows the idea that the replicator is limited out of the sky, although I'm not sure about the reference.
Blood being composed of living cells would mean the replicator can operate at a quantum level.
In the first half of TNG, they had replicators being able to make/create almost anything and they kept tying it in with the transporter technology.
One of the most complex things I've seen replicated on the show was the self replicating minefields. A device with computers, sensors and a replicator--basically a replicator that can replicate another functioning replicator.
It seems far-fetched that it cannot replicate a bar of gold-pressed latinum, but can do all of the above.