Why obvious? Surely a machine that can create the intricate molecules needed for a good-tasting steak could also create the intricate molecules needed for a worm that has enough life in it to wriggle as desired. There's no known theoretical limitation on the replication of living things, which aren't fundamentally all that different from dead things anyway. It's mostly a matter of computing resources, probably. And dedicating enough resources for creating a live worm (a very generic and simplified one, no doubt) might well be worth it for somebody like Quark. Timo Saloniemi
Why sit around in the boring Replimat when you could got to Quark's, anyway? At any rate, a replicator pattern is only as good as the person who programmed it. For example, O'Brien progams the Replimat to make shrimp gumbo, while Sisko cooks some up according to his family's ages old recipe. Both offer you a bowl. Which would you take? And good luck getting any master chefs to program their cherished recipes into some soulless machine.
^ I agree that the atmosphere of Quark's would be a big reason why people go there. It could also be that Quark's offers a different menu then what is available at the Replimat.
Why couldn't you just put a bowl of Sisko's shrimp gumbo into the replicator terminal and tell the computer to scan/record/store the pattern for future replication?
lol you are right we are all fatties But going back to Quark serving food, i always thought it was real food because then why would people pay for it if it's replicated???? so i assumed they are paying for it because it's real food. Quark always ordered Kanar and other weird drinks/foods to sell, isn't that real food???
I don't think anybody paid for the food at Quarks. They paid for drinks, service and so on. Although Quark did refer to having crates of Yamok sauce sitting around unused. The drinks served at Quarks were mostly real, although how he managed this given that his customers were from all over the galaxy. Can you imagine a bar offering to serve every different beer on Earth ?
Sure, if there's a replicator there that can produce the pint, any pint, at the push of a button! Timo Saloniemi
Undertones? The Prophets exist, and are capable of communicating with arbitrary individuals at will (although they don't do so often). It's entirely reasonable---scientifically speaking---for the Bajorans to have structured a belief system around them. The question on DS9 wasn't whether religion is "real"....it clearly was. The question was whether that's a good thing or a bad thing for a society, and even perhaps a bit of both.
Highly advanced aliens that reside outside of standard space-time decide to interact with a far less advanced (primitive) society which in turn creates a religion out of it all. In this instance it's 'correct' because the writers did it in such a capacity ... nothing more, nothing less. An over-glorification and different (limited) interpretation of existing circumstances. SF for the most part behaved in a capacity that they are dealing with advanced alien race and didn't give it a second thought. The Bajorans were insulted for the most part that SF didn't share their viewpoint on the wormhole aliens (who even went out of their way to make a so called 'Emmissary' out of Benjamin Sisko who was human, and not anyone from Bajor). But going into this aspect of the show is not exactly part of the thread so we should stick to the subject.
When Worf had his Bachelor party he made everyone Fast and go through trials lol anyways when the wedding was supposedly off O'brien and Bashir then took the oppourtunity to order food from Quarks and just as they sat down to eat it Sisko takes it away and says that the wedding is on, if i remember correctly Quark says to Obrien and Bashir that they are still paying for it.
Excellent point. I tend to believe that people pay for food at Quark's because it's his recipes, even though they're replicated. It does seem like he's got a sweet scam going there. His landlords don't ask for anything from him for the energy requirements of his replicator, so his production cost is near zero. And since we know he pays his employees next to nothing, most of his earnings turn into profit. I remember Sisko once blackmailed Quark into something by threatening to charge him back-rent for his bar space and power consumption. As the Grand Nagus once said, "You've done very well for yourself, Quark. Who knows, maybe one day I'll come back to your bar and buy it from you."
If the system is based on the transporter technology, why not just 'sample' the arrangement of molecules in a correctly prepared dish, and replicate it? You wouldn't program a person before transport. Beam up, it goes into a pattern buffer, recorded, and is reassembled at the end point. Seems easier. Speaking of the original dish of course. Once sampled, a created dishes would be imported or exported like any computer file.
The difference between replicated food and non? I'd say that there isn't one - but people BELIEVE there is a difference. It's like the same meal being made by two different people. The food can be made exactly the same way with the same ingredients, but people will percieve a difference. In the case of 'home-cooked' versus 'replicated,' there's the human desire for that 'human touch.' It's why hand-crafted items still have a heavy market, even though you can buy a mass-produced item that does the exact same thing. But I don't understand one thing - where does this idea that there's replicator 'hate'? The characters all ate at the Replimat (Which, by the first three letters, I would assume relied heavily on the replicators). The characters ate at Quark's, and, let's face it, there's no way in hell that Quark would spring for the expenses of getting the actual food shipped out OR having to pay employees for food prep. In those cases, clearly, the characters are going to those places less for the food and more for the atmosphere. Is it because Sisko was always making his own meals? Well, remember, the man's father owns a restaurant, so he grew up making these meals.
Maybe it has something to do with the general experience of eating. When you replicate something, it's just there, whereas when you cook something, you can smell it more, it's a tactile experience, and the anticipation can't hurt either.
I think you're right DGCat. And, although the replicated food may be an exact representation of the dish you expect, in real life there are always variations between the first time you eat it and the next. The quality of the ingredients may differ, and there will be slight differences in preparation by the same person, it's a different day. Subtle, but I'm sure it would make a difference. We like variation.
My pet theory is that there is no difference in taste between replicated and natural food; it's all psychological and snobbery. Since taste is subjective, it's impossible to really prove this one way or the other.