If they had replicated the mobile emitter

What would they have done with it? Would they have created a whole new crew?
I wrote a story idea for an episode about this issue which I'd love for you to critique (http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=4393518#post4393518) but this thread is about your opinions. So what do we think?

 

The mobile emitter replicated becomes too powerful. Just say to the computer "create a hologram capable of defeating data" a few times and...

hang on, i'm going off topic here but...

if they can do that, why not say to the computer "create a hologram capable of researching improved ftl? get a group of them together, stick them in holodeck 2 and pop by every month to see how it's going!

 

I too always felt that holograms made no sense for that reason.
Holograms are basically computer programs capable of researching better than a normal person. If Starfleet knew what was good for them then they would have thousands of holograms just researching.

 

They can't do that! If they could replicate the mobile emitter, there'd be no reason for security people to die anymore!!!

 

Temporal prime directive.

Janeway is legally supposed to put that thing into a lock box or fire it into a sun.

Using it should have wound her up in jail.

Many things are unreplicatable (Though that episode of DS9 with Humpidink from the princess Bride showed that Replicators didn't need to understand what they were doing to make copies of ineffable technology.) and if they were sending archaeologists soldiers back into time, well the least tptb should wrangle to preserve the time line is to make sure it's almost impossible for history to steal, use and mass produce their technology.

Unless they're idiots.

And as for Holigrams, don't forget they can work at super speed like in wink of an eye processing data hundreds of thousands of times faster than humans... Not that humans can't do the same thing as we found out in DS9 hard Times when O'Brien went to jail for two decades one afternoon.

 

I thought you had to know how all the components worked before you could replicate it?

They still didn't Be'Lanna say she still didn't completely understand how it worked?

 

Even if they replicated the components, imagine how complex the machine code would be...

i would say that would be the real stumbling block, you could conceivably replicate all the components, but not have a clue how to programme them...

 

Starling handled it just fine.

The ship could have had holoemitters put everywhere, and they were almost after the Killing Game, but they could have had as much more crew as they felt like... Though all they really needed to enhance security was to install ankle height Forcefields running along the horizontal plane of the ships corridors. Bad guys don't twirl their moustaches so well when they don't have any feet.

 

Staling just slapped it on the Doc's shoulder.
It doesn't show any indication he knew how to recreate one.

 

Sure. But we're just talking about 29th century machine code.

Starling handled THAT fine.

I mean it's not like he blew up the solar system or anything.

 

Janeway could have given it to Michael Sullivan and had her self a full time boyfriend.

 

...

Just no!

 

..which he used to crate technology in the 21st century.

A bar code scanner isn't close to the tech of a mobile holoemitter. It's only one small component of a much more complex machine. He only created what he could understand from it.

 

Again, not saying he did create a mobile emitter or that he could.

I made a comment about: Maassshhhhheeeeennnn Code.

He turned his office into a holosuite.

Sure he probably just replicated emitters and hung them all in place with picture hooks, but he did pretty good for a hippy who wandered across a downed starship.

 

Presumably the emitter contained non-replicable matériel. I got the impression the replicator could only make pretty basic items.

 

Voyager proved that wrong!

 

Actually, DS9 proved that wrong when it created something as complex as a targeting weapon that would shoot anything that didn't have Cardassian DNA.

 

Replicators can indeed create materials beyond what some people seem to consider 'basic' (we've seen it happen numerous times and was confirmed by dialogue even in TNG).
As for the mobile emitter ... well, it's possible the thing was non-replicable due to the poly-dutonic alloy and various other materials it had (elements that Voyagers computer couldn't make heads or tails of because they haven't been discovered yet).

The device in DS9 was probably not that complex to understand by the station's computers.
Just because our heroes never thought of a way to create such a device (and why would they in the first place?) doesn't mean they couldn't if the didn't set their minds to it.
Furthermore, the technology and materials behind the device in question were not of futuristic origin like the mobile-emitter which was after all 29th century technology.

Keep in mind that Starling most likely created the mobile emitter using the Timeship's own mini-replicator (which it probably had and was already centuries ahead of what Voyager's replicators could do).

Furthermore ... Starling may have used 29th century technology as a way to jump start tech development in the late 20th century, however, several possibilities could have occurred:
1. He couldn't understand most of the tech and therefore couldn't create anything new.
2. He already developed and had in mind to put forth products that would bring him in money for the next 20 years, but decided to make more profit by putting them out in smaller numbers.

His statement on the other hand that he used the timeship as much as he could for innovation speaks for itself.
He didn't understand most of it and barely scratched the surface with his developments (going into the future to get more technology would only get him so far because most of it is already integrated inside the ship).

 

Of course, that's just common sense.
Someone would of had to design the device to lowload the spects and assembly into the replicator for the machine to create it. I would think the same holds true for the emitter not being replicable due to them not yet understanding all the components and how they work together yet, too program the replicator to recreate one.

 

I'm going with certain materiels are not able to be replicated. Wouldn't it cause the Ferengi a ton of problems if it were possible to replicate Latinum? There'd be no point of playing Dabo! Its 29th century tech, maybe there's some element in there unknown to 24th century people that the replicator can't duplicate.