Spoilers Senior Officer Replicators

[Guy Gardener]

That's it for me. Why would they make different food? If Starfleet isn't a true military (not a prelude for "that" argument), much less a 19th or early 20th century one where officers always had better rations, or early days of replicators (TOS had everybody using the same ones) then I'd guess they did the same things.

I said to a flatmate, can you print off some documents for me at your work, here's my pen-drive. Can you send me the docs via email she countered, because we don't use pendrives any more after one crashed the system last year.

It's about administerial privileges.

They can't have idiots adding programs from who knows where to the ships computer.

Next thing you know, the Romulans have transported half the crew into space.

 

[The Librarian]

Part of it might be senior officers just having better curated lists of preferred patterns. The replicator may have tens of thousands of dishes available, just in the human-compatible section, but it's like trying to sort through Steam to find good games. There's a lot of stuff that's just 'meh' in there. Just look at what Tom Paris went through trying to get tomato soup. Senior officers have had time to find or import patterns that work better.

 

[Xerxes82]

Part of it might be senior officers just having better curated lists of preferred patterns. The replicator may have tens of thousands of dishes available, just in the human-compatible section, but it's like trying to sort through Steam to find good games. There's a lot of stuff that's just 'meh' in there. Just look at what Tom Paris went through trying to get tomato soup. Senior officers have had time to find or import patterns that work better.

From the episode itself ,something akin to this seems to be what they were going for. Or just better variety in general. The joke seemed to be more that the senior officers simply get a better and more varied menu to pick from. Boimler gets all excited at the end for the macaroni and cheese with the baked top, as though that's an item he can't get from the standard replicator.

My take while watching is that the Lower Decks have a much smaller library of choices to pick from for their replicator use. The difference between having a diner in town that does all the family dishes, and having an entire district of five star restaurants at your fingertips.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I'm now envisioning that Chris Pratt/Jennifer Lawrence movie where he cannot order his favorite breakfasts because he's a Coach-class passenger and only gets to taste the wonders of the actual good stuff when Jennifer Lawrence lets him use his card.

 

[Tim Thomason]

The replicators might replicate better food for the senior officers than the junior officers, but that food can still be crap. It's just higher quality crap.

Well, yes, of course. We all know where the replicator recycles its organic material from.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Well, yes, of course. We all know where the replicator recycles its organic material from.

Tribbles.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The punishment replicators on the Defiant.

Someone decided to only use the most basic programs/recipes because an overused replicator impeded the ship's ability to make war.

 

[Timo]

That's not really how food works and there's a thousand of little things that can go into it to make it less than appetizing or more. Just look at the variety and taste quality of a hamburger.

But that's not how food works, either. A tasty hamburger, or a superb sixteen-course meal, isn't more "detailed" or "accurate" than a lump of meatloaf. The preparation that goes into the product is of no concern to the replicator, which prepares/copies the former two with the exact same care as the latter, reproducing each of the "thousand little things" for zero extra effort. A five-Michelin-stars-and-two-moons cook is more likely to screw it up than a replicator there.

Now it becomes an issue of, "Surely replicated food won't be as bad as fast food hamburgers" but maybe it really is just programmed with less complex and less well done versions.

This is of course possible. But why would one do it? Said sixteen-course meal would not be a more "complex" program than the equivalent weight of meatloaf, or the plate that holds the meatloaf. It's the same number of molecules in the exactly controlled pattern.

Malevolence is our chief motivation and explanation here for the alleged inferiority of certain replicated products. And malevolence goes well with marketing, which the society claims to be free of, sort of, but we aren't all that convinced...

Malevolence goes well with art, too, though. And with pleasure. Perhaps replicators are programmed to keep the customer wanting, for the benefit of all?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Charles Phipps]

This is of course possible. But why would one do it? Said sixteen-course meal would not be a more "complex" program than the equivalent weight of meatloaf, or the plate that holds the meatloaf. It's the same number of molecules in the exactly controlled pattern.

Weirdly, the most obvious solution that reconciles replication with the question of taste is that the replicators replicate the material but actually prepare the meal via traditional heat. Which might well explain why the taste is always off.

You can have it instant or you can have it great.

Mind you, Replicators seem to be related to transporters and it may actually also explain that the material manifestation of energy to matter isn't exactly an exact science. As we've seen repeatedly, pattern degredation is a constant worry with transporters and the assumption replicated matter is "perfect" would not actually be necessary.

It could just be "good enough."

 

[Jayson1]

I idea of their being better or lesser on replicators on the same ship doesn't make sense but it's a cartoon so I feel we should just go with it. What I could see though is some replicators are better than others from other ships due to who programs them and who makes the food selections. I assume Captain's or whoever is giving a list of food replicator pattern options and you got to choose which one you like best. So French Fries on the Enterprise might taste different than on Voyager depending on which french fry pattern you selected when the replicators were installed. Perhaps you even have cooks who make the selections. Also the list of options available is so long people often just go with the standard basic pattern instead of trying to go with some pattern that is different. If people cook it's likely someone simply replicating stuff and doing a taste test until the replicator gets it right.

Jason

 

[Charles Phipps]

I idea of their being better or lesser on replicators on the same ship doesn't make sense but it's a cartoon so I feel we should just go with it.

I admit, I don't see why there shouldn't be a Deluxe and Bargain Basement version. I mean, surely they come in distinct models.

Mind you, I suppose it depends on how 100% accurate to the molecule you think they replicate food.

 

[Timo]

I guess the big problem there is that 99% good is likely to be fatal.

Poisons that work in small doses are not all that common in nature, and don't find their way to the average kitchen. But the 1% error could be just about anything, producing unnatural and nasty poisons in every meal.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Charles Phipps]

I guess the big problem there is that 99% good is likely to be fatal.

Poisons that work in small doses are not all that common in nature, and don't find their way to the average kitchen. But the 1% error could be just about anything, producing unnatural and nasty poisons in every meal.

Timo Saloniemi

Depends if the 99% is "crumbling" and "overcooked" versus "molecularly unstable."

 

[Timo]

But the thing is, it doesn't, if the 1% kills you at the end of either a delicious or a crappy meal...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Charles Phipps]

But the thing is, it doesn't, if the 1% kills you at the end of either a delicious or a crappy meal...

Timo Saloniemi

Yeah, I think my point didn't go over well. There's a million ways to screw up a meal without changing it to poison.

 

[Guy Gardener]

A conservative machine would recognize anything high in fat, alcohol or sugar as poison.

 

[Charles Phipps]

A conservative machine would recognize anything high in fat, alcohol or sugar as poison.

They removed alcohol from....alcohol. I keep thinking that Picard and Scotty needed a moment there discussing synthehol in "Relics."

"Who invented that was clearly Vulcan."

 

[Tim Thomason]

A conservative machine would recognize anything high in fat, alcohol or sugar as poison.

In Discovery, the food slots (which, of course, aren't replicators. No, sir.) do a whole thing about nutritional facts and have to be muted or ignored constantly. So, I assume that this Big Brother mentality over the health of the food extends to the adoption of actual replicators in the 24th century. The replicators in TNG just aren't as obnoxious about it (which might be more of an evolution of the AI).

So, perhaps this Senior Officer program is an override, allowing the replicator to replicate foodstuffs with high fat, high cholesterol, all the good stuff we 21st centuriers take for granted. Starfleet and perhaps the Federation as a whole, wants its citizens healthy, and they restrict unhealthy food from being replicated (as well as weaponry and TNT and living beings), but Captain's are allowed an override, which they dole out to their senior staff as necessary, in order to more successfully fulfill a mission objective or for diplomatic reasons.

This being the Cerritos, the override has become popular amongst the senior staff in order to create Big Macs or pixie sticks and the like, and this is what Boimler is salivating over. A class system has evolved from what was once a reasonable exception.

 

[Noname Given]

Picard: "We all work to better ourselves because there's no money; replicator food programs are controlled and the best only given to those who deserve it... But there's no money."

 

[BillJ]

Someone decided to only use the most basic programs/recipes because an overused replicator impeded the ship's ability to make war.

Don't want your people getting fat on the way to the war.