replicators
no more grocery shopping!
Yeah, but think of the electricity bill converting energy to matter!
The most important question is: Do we really need atom level manipulation to replicate day to day things?
I think what would come before replicators, will be 3d fabrication devices, rather like modern day inkjet printers. Rather than assemble things from the atom up, they can spray layers of resin to build up a 3d object. There are devices already like this in industry to create prototype models and casings for new products. It is only a matter of time before some entrepreneur finds a commercially viable excuse to bring them to the consumer market. Just like inkjet printers, in time the print resolution will increase, and dyes will be available to dope the resin sprays to give colour to the fabricated solids.
For food replicators, the task is more complex, but it may grow out of the above. As print resolution becomes high enough to reproduce semi-solid textures, that may initially resemble sponge, eventually resembling fruit and vegetable textures, we could then recreate 3d food synthetics. Instead of spraying resins, it may be strands of fibre and protein. Or a two part mixture of peptides and a hardener, analogous to epoxy, that polymerises into true proteins when combined.
That reproduces texture... Then there's water/oil content (as a solvent), and the flavours colours and nutritional minerals (to carry in that solvent). What we need here are the component chemicals of the food, which the computer mixes together in correct proportions, and dopes the spraying mixture with them.
Even if the chemical composition was 99% accurate (which is easy to determine with modern mass spectrometry), I imagine the flavours would be close enough to be enjoyable.
I imagine that is how it would develop. First stage are the solid replicators.
