most important piece of tech in utopian 23-24th century star trek?

Another argument to the original question is that the Federation had warp drive in TOS, but no one claimed it to be a Utopia. It wasn't until TNG that Roddenberry claimed that there was no more greed (an assertion that later turned out to be false).

 

For it to work I believe the matter-energy conversion must be less efficient than a warp core, for instance, perhaps it is only a little better than braking even or running a fission reactor.

I really wish dry docks were just giant replicators.

 

guys, a significant portion of earth is starving and livign in poverty. warp drive to explore the universe would be incredible, but it can't compare to replicators pumping out food and medicine and god knows what else. you guys are nuts if you think warp drive would improve our standard of living more than say, people not starving to death

 

The way I see it, creating a an item by fusing the atoms together one-by-one (and atoms which are transmuted from pure energy at that) would indeed be horribly inefficient, and thus is a process saved for only those materials that must be mathematically perfect in their construction.

The vast majority of items and foodstuffs that come out of a "replicator" are composed from raw materials simply reorganised into the desired form, IMO.

This approach also explains why drydocks are NOT giant replicators, since even with a large energy source like the sun it is still faster and more efficient to work with raw materials.

 

There is more than enough food in the world today to feed everyone on Earth, but why people still starve is a matter of economics, logistics, and politics.

 

And pride and greed. Like showing off how great of a agrarian export nation one is while their people starve.

The most important tech that created the utopian society is not really a technology but a theory: subspace. It ushered a revolution in science and technology that changed the world. Subspace made possible to scan down to atomic levels, making warp, transporter, replicators, MA/AM reactor possible etc. End of discussion.

 

true enough. but replicators in use as casually as they are in star trek would make it all but impossible for people to still die of starvation. on a personal level, i'd hope it would ease our daily holocaust of animals. i'm a hypocrite cause i'm literally eating mcdonalds as we speak, but it'd be nice if that industry got cleaned up a bit.

warp drive would be incredible, but really, as far as we know, what's out there for us? metals in asteroids? i desperately want to learn the secrets of the universe, and if there are other habitable planets. but man, a replicator on every street would quadruple our standard of living.

casual replicators just seem like it would bring us straight to utopia

 

Warp drive without solving our supply issues just means we're gonna rape the galaxy like we have our own biosphere, and those peaceful alien contacts might unite us, but in search of whatever resources we can nab.

 

America (for one) exports about a third of the food grown, and yes that's something to be very proud of. And there's nothing greedy about earning money by growing food and distributing food.

The US death by malnutrition is 0.58 per 100,000, that places us between Japan and Luxembourg.

Replicator are said (in the show) to require immense amounts of power.

Distributed to where there are large numbers of starving today, many replicators would likely just sit there unpowered, or be stolen and taken away by the gangs in the neighborhoods.

 

...And we, in the 21st Century, are developing clean, unlimited power in Fusion Reactors.

 

Fusion Reactors still have the problem on needing a large amount of power to start. If they can be made to deliver more power than is put into them, than they will become useful.
For now, various Fission Reactors would be useful, but fear has stopped a lot of that being implemented.

 

Future fusion reactors, with their high cost and extensive infrastructure requirements, are unlikely to be built in poverty stricken regions of the world where there are large starving populations.

Fusion reactors will be creatures of affluent western countries.

 

So not the Gender-Swap-atronic 3000?

 

^ Only in combination with the Shatner-Turbo-2000.