I’m currently watching “Homecoming”, and I noticed just after the opening credits, when Sisko and Kira are in the Replimat, Sisko orders a raktajino from one replicator and some sort of tort from another. Why did Sisko need to go to another replicator for his dessert? Are the Replimat replicator’s programmed just for a single purpose? One for drinks? One for the main course? One for desserts?
How does the Replimat work?
- Thread starter tomswift2002
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Ikoberry tort.
I was thinking a similar thing... with countless planets and species, it makes sense to have each replicator programmed with specific kinds of items... one for drinks, one for food, one for sweets.
I was thinking a similar thing... with countless planets and species, it makes sense to have each replicator programmed with specific kinds of items... one for drinks, one for food, one for sweets.
I think they were just going for the 'feel' of their 20th century counterpart, the 'automat' - or even a self-serving restaurant (all the soups are here, all the desserts there, etc...) where you'd have to pick different items for yourself to get a complete meal, even though it wouldn't make sense given that any individual replicator should basically be able to reproduce almost anything.
Way to just read the thread title but not the first post.
The other thing we have to remember is that the replicators there were not of Federation origin. We know Federation ones can create just about anything from anywhere, which follows their way of life of sharing knowledge and culture. It's very possible the Replimat ones have a smaller memory capacity, so not quite as many choices, which would be why there are different ones for each type of meal, possibly because they are Cardassian in origin, and they are NOT the sharing type in any way.
I think of it as a subtle way to show the difference in societies.
I think of it as a subtle way to show the difference in societies.
You have exactly one device you do all your work on? Not a computer and a tablet, a tablet and a smart phone, a tablet and laptop and smartphone, etc. ?
Per the Tech Manuals, the Federation's replicators use a standard molecular matrix as raw material for everything. Cardassia, however, was resource-strapped, so perhaps they designed different raw matter matrices for different outputs - i.e. most drinks are water or ethanol so have a raw matrix that favours those outputs (in terms of energy consumption) for a "drinks machine".
Hm... what tech manuals?
Talking chemistry here, this doesn't make exactly sense... What gives a food or drink it's distinct flavor is not the major constituent, but their aromatic compounds... Anyway, to my memory, everything in the replicators appears "magically", which never made any sense in reality... So, maybe we are discussing how many angels can we put on a pinhead...
I do actually. I don't own a tablet or phone. Closest I have to a second device is an ebook reader.
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Back in the 90s Pocket Books published tech manuals for TNG and DS9 explaining all the technology of the Enterprise D in the TNG one and the station and Defiant in the DS9 one.
And if your laptop, tablet and smartphone all had exactly the same size, shape and functionality, you would still use more than one of them? Maybe even entire stacks of them, like Starfleet officers have routinely done?
Sisko is the Commander of DS9 and has been for a over a year, by which time he'll know what replicators on the replimat make the best coffee and the best torte, thanks to his time spent living on the station and maintenance logs from O'Brien. 
That remark would be true for any discussion about Trek-Era tech .... and these constitute a significant part of this board. We just do it because it's fun
I like it!Sisko is the Commander of DS9 and has been for a over a year, by which time he'll know what replicators on the replimat make the best coffee and the best torte, thanks to his time spent living on the station and maintenance logs from O'Brien.
'How does the Replimat work?'
Terribly.
Terribly.
Perhaps people wouldn't buy the same type of device, but clearly we have multiple devices in use that could be consolidated. Studies show that professionals on average have 2-3 work place devices, with 15% using as many as 6. Then they go home to their own computers, tablets and phones, not to mention those of their spouses and children. And there are plenty of people who keep several screens attached to the same device. It is not a question of whether or not a single device could accommodate all these uses, but how we read, keeping multiple texts in front of us simultaneously.
It is a question of functionality, though. A Laptop has more memory and options than a smartphone, but is less portable. An ipad is somewhere between the two. People use different devices for different circumstances. And they like to keep their work devices separate from their home devices. Meanwhile, every Padd we've ever seen on star trek was exactly the same, with no apparent reason to choose one over another, and everyone I can ever remember seeing was clearly a work device.
And most people we see using them do also clearly have access to full size computer terminals that can easily show multiple screens of information at one time, if that's something they might need to do. Yet, they still have stacks of a dozen padds sitting around with no clear reason why they could possibly need so many.
