How Far Away Are We From Replicators?

[@sean.chiarot]

Gene Roddenberry said that the invention of the replicator was what saved humanity from destroying itself. Since anyone could have anything, humanity stopped it's pursuit of material wealth and started working towards the betterment of mankind. Too bad it won't happen in our lifetime.

[@internet_introvert]

Hate to break it to you bro, but even in a post-scarcity world, ideologies and religions would fuel conflict. People are more willing to die for ideas than for money.

[@sean.chiarot]

@@internet_introvert I know, that's why it won't happen. The universe of Star Trek can't happen here.

[@willmfrank]

@@internet_introvert ...And even more willing to kill for them.

[@hackman669]

Some folks are dumb as donut 🍩🙄

[@scifirealism5943]

​@internet_introvert why go to war when both sides have infinite resources?

[@RedMorgan79]

I think the best demonstration of replication and/or matter printing is from the movie "The Fifth Element". From a few remaining cells after a body was obliterated in an explosive attack, the protagonist's body was reprinted tissue type by tissue type, organ by organ,system by system. It is really a great visual.

[@jonathanscherer7482]

They never did explain how her memories were restored though.

[@RedMorgan79]

@@jonathanscherer7482 Yeah I've always wondered about that also. Maybe that was what the doctor was talking about when he said humans had 40 memogroups and Lelu had over 200,000? Or maybe it was just a function of her genetic memory since she was a supreme being? In any case, it's an excellent movie...

[@nondescriptbystander]

Best Sci-Fi movie ever made. It is perfect.

[@snarkasticdouche3863]

@@jonathanscherer7482 She didn't have any memories restored, that's the point. Lilu was essentially a hybrid clone, and she just learns things extremely quickly.

[@hackman669]

She was a genetically engineered genius. Half human, half alien. Sent centuries in advance to save Earth from a meteor. 🦄

[@Xamufam]

When I think replicators I think stargates robot spiders they are terrifying

[@charlottehardy822]

Likewise. My first thought was hopefully never.

[@chuck420taylor9]

yea and those replicators used nano-tech if i recall. truely terrifying.

[@Shad0wBoxxer]

I think starteek first… it has to be a generational thing. I was born in the early 80’s

[@charlottehardy822]

@@Shad0wBoxxer and I’m that generation…

[@Shad0wBoxxer]

@@charlottehardy822 well rhen… thanks for just HUCKING my theory straight out the window with no consideration of the pedestrians that might get hit…. Fml LMAO

[@swj719]

As I recall from the tech manual for star trek TNG, the replicator was actually more a form of transporter that took a generic for of matter, and manipulated it so that it would become whatever was needed. So it wasn't QUITE turning energy into matter.

[@LeonardGreenpaw]

exactly what I was thinking, and considering at least some amount of the engines were matter antimatter type engine. it makes sense that the energy for the replicators was the same fuel source that powered the warp drive. IE matter and antimatter. Super energy dense and pretty freaking stable

[@NeoTechni]

Correct, the manual says it comes from "inert carbon", and when I asked my science teacher about it he said carbon is not inert

[@Taneth]

This is correct, the official blueprints for the ships include numerous storage containers marked "organic matter" and so on, some of them specifically say they're for replicators.

[@looksirdroids9134]

@@NeoTechni Diamonds and Graphite are inert carbon.

[@immasmashyourface]

Transporters literally turn matter into energy and then back into matter. So, yes it's exactly like turning energy into matter. *facepalm

[@thegamesforreal1673]

One of my favorite iterations of a replicator-like technology in Sci-Fi is the so-called Fabricator in the Subnautica games. It is essentially a molecular 3D-printer: able to take raw materials like various metal ores, crystals, minerals, etc, and turn them into fully-functioning devices. It can also cook food, seperate drinking salt from seawater, and so on. It's my favorite because it's not ridiculously unrealistic. It doesn't magically create stuff out of energy. It needs the raw materials you would need if making things by hand, but is able to rearrange them at a molecular level in a near instant. The sounds that it makes while fabricating stuff for you are just SO GOOD.

[@The-Singularity-X01]

Thermodynamics kills the 'in an instant' part ruthlessly, but otherwise the idea of taking raw materials and turning it into wildly different forms with a single self-contained machine is very much doable.

[@TimpossibleOne]

Speaking about how replicators limit story telling, they have no problem writing themselves into a corner without it. They created a perfect clone in the form of Thomas Riker and they de-aged Dr. Pulaski both with transporters. This means they can create perfect clones, reverse aging and replace missing limbs just from a transporter signal. Which is basically a giant long-range replicator.

[@robertnett9793]

Have you ever read 'The Queendom of Sol'-series by Wil McCarthy? This is exactly the premise. One guy invented the 'Fax-Gate' - which allows transport at light speed (and above with some other tricks) as data-signal with being re-assembled at the destination-gate. And yeah. Mankind is basically immortal, as even a deadly accident throws you just back to the last time, you went through a fax-gate. And it introduces a whole universe of new problems arising. Simple things like: 'Is murder still murder, when the victim just loses a few hours / days? And is it possible to still commit a real murder?' or 'how ethical is it to have several clones of you doing work, preparing on a test AND chilling at a party at the same time, just to get re-assembled later? Fun read. can recommend.

[@bestaround3323]

​@Robert Nett The fun problem with that is that you die every time. Those clones are bot you

[@scifirealism5943]

​@@robertnett9793that's ANOTHER epic post scarcity world

[@striker8961]

Honestly I think it’s better off they can’t lazily create plots around needing something for the ship. Forces them to deal with actual threats and character driven drama rather than “the car broke down in the middle of space Nevada.”

[@jacara1981]

On starships they have Bio-stores and Mass-stores for the replicators (you can find them in some technical manuals). The Bio-stores store Biological molecules, instead of the base elements, probably to reduce power costs and it doesn't need to start at the elemental level. The Mass-stores store Elements, but only the most common ones, and can easily be replenished from planets, asteroids, gas giants and so on. The more complex an element is (normally the higher its atomic number) the less is stored, this puts a limit on what can be replicated as to make a lot of the heavier elements takes a lot more power. Another thing that limits them are materials that can't be replicated because they contain components to their structure outside normal space-time like Di-lithium. Lithium, is stable. However in Star Trek they have Di-Lithium (which can't exist in real life) which is actually a Tri-Lithium with 1 Lithium atom in another layer of space, that stabilizes the Lithium. In star trek when Di-lithium is bombarded with antimatter some small amount will convert to Tri-lithium as a byproduct. But because of its extra-spacial properties, it can't be replicated.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

It's not due to having extra spatial properties. It's due to the structure being too complex for the "molecular resolution" of the replicator. Replicators use extensive compression and averaging techniques, because it is not possible to store a pattern at the quantum level necessary for that, because even in the 24th century the storage space for that doesn't exist. (Transporters use something called quantum resolution, but they store the pattern itself in a buffer that degrades.)

[@0011peace]

@@StormsparkPegasus this is why yu can't make living organisms with replicators too. Though that limit may change in the futer as when the TNG Enterprize was transforming into alien ship it did make living materials. Andm it did mak a child(procreated) in another episode.

[@SiXiam]

@@0011peace They have made living things in the replicator, like Worf's spinal cord.

[@finscreenname]

@@SiXiam was it "living" or just a bunch of bio matter? As for the power it takes for these to work, or the "Stores" needed for them to work..... I remember one Next Gen show having portable Replicators about the size of a kitchen trash can, they brought down to a planet.

[@0011peace]

@@SiXiam Thst isn,t itself alive and it used a solution no just replicstor

[@4Usuality]

When I'd heard that Japanese scientists had created a piece of WAGYU BEEF through a 3D printer, I told everyone I knew, that was when I felt like we actually made a jump in tech. I'm a trekkie so you know that stuff gets my heart beating.

[@harrietharlow9929]

That's very interesting. I know a lot can be 3D printed, but I didn't know food can be. I'm a Trekkie, too, so This got my heart racing a bit, too.

[@anthonyscarfe4853]

Yep. All you need is a stem cell factory for the type of living thing you want in order to have enough stockpile for the version you want to print out. This means that you can simply use something that grows beef stem cells to feed into your 3D printer in order for it to make either a stake or a burger patty. They’ve now used this technique to take a stem cell sample from a patient, grow more and then manipulate it to grow a living organ replacement for the patient. This still means that you need each individual ingredient factory or stockpile ready to make the full burger. The Enterprise level technology would be when they are able to re sequence the insides of the cells in order to not need multiple ingredients each time, so you’ll just be using up the stockpile. The punchcards in TOS are probably when instead of everyone using up the whole stockpile and having to have the whole recipe book on hand it instead came with the ingredients and the recipe, so it’s an all inclusive dish on a disk that just needs to be topped up when empty. After that it’s just completely rearranged matter and energy straight from the source with every single bit of unused or waste matter in the ship going back into the stockpile.

[@pamelamays4186]

On The Jetsons Jane would just press a few buttons on her Foodarackacycle to make meals for her family. I guess one could say that a type of food replicator was first seen on TV two decades before TNG. The Jetsons was set in the year 2062. Which isn't really not far from now.

[@malirabbit6228]

I remember that episode! She complained to George that her finger all missed up from pushing all those buttons. I’m pretty sure that’s how the jetsons got their robot maid Rosie!

[@looksirdroids9134]

And everyone knows that The Jetsons wasn't fiction, but rather a look into the now very near future.

[@BaronVonQuiply]

The one thing that always got me was how they had meal pills. Somehow I don't see a future where we take 2000 calories in a pill and just don't gorge on food ever. Calorie-free food? Yes, I can see that. (l-glucose is as sweet as sugar, it is sugar, it has no calories because you can't digest it like d-glucose)

[@RCAvhstape]

@@BaronVonQuiply Right? Besides, we'd put chefs out of business. Nobody would want to be a protein pill chef.

[@RCAvhstape]

It's interesting to compare the Jetsons future with, say the Blade Runner future. Both had flying cars, Jetsons has Rosie the robot maid, BR has Rachel Tyrell the Replicant. Jetsons is a mostly happy future, while BR is a cyberpunk dystopia.

[@glrasshopper]

Fun fact; in Star Trek: Picard, some of the replicator props they showed on screen were visibly identifiable as 3D printers

[@liamwinter4512]

The future of 3d metal prints will blow most people's minds.

[@snowstream1815]

3d metal printing already exists!

[@rubiconnn]

@@snowstream1815 It's very expensive and there are big limitations on what you can print due to technical issues though. I'm sure we'll get it sorted out soon though and I can't wait.

[@loka7783]

You're not wrong. A 3D metal printed gun will certainly blow someone's mind... all over the wall.

[@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391]

I've seem a pic of a 3d printed gas turbine nozzle, it looked organic, half man made, half natural.

[@levib0057]

@@loka7783 tbf, you don't need metal 3d printing to make a gun. There's a decent sized community behind 3d printing guns with PLA+

[@pamelamays4186]

I've been waiting for this one for months! Thank you Simon & Co.

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Welcome!

[@AndrewHalliwell]

We did see the weaponised replicator in DS9, when they accidentally trigger an insurgency protocol and the replicator in ops created something that fired disruptor beams out at random...

[@striker8961]

Hey on the bright side Dukat got trapped in there with everyone else.

[@pauljensen5699]

... and there was the episode in where a Vulcan printed out a rifle with a transporter on it. Star Trek was 15-ish years ahead of the time. (Minus the transporter part)

[@finscreenname]

That's one of the reasons that Star Trek - Voyager worked for me. They had to limit power use the whole trip and food was always a concern. Made the whole reason they had to contact others along their way home instead of just going in a stright line.

[@scifirealism5943]

That was a way to enforce artificial scarcity but yes.

[@valenrn8657]

Voyager has two small Bussard ramscoops since it's lower tier starship class.

[@NeilCWCampbell]

@@valenrn8657 you mean section 31 class;)

[@dominikdobrotic8298]

It always bothered ne that when making cofee they replicated the whole mug and water in it instead of just replicating instant cofee, reusing the mugs and just adding hot water to save energy.

[@Mirality]

When you recycle the mug you get most of the energy back. And you didn't have to worry about washing it.

[@hannibalstrausskahn4033]

The Orville (Seth McFarlane star trek) has an interesting take on replicators. Since everyone's basic needs were met everyone could focus on your career or artwork without the fear of being poor because there was no need for money.

[@RoraighPrice]

but their was a child lock on some of them. prof by kids hacking one to make alcohol

[@KeithElliott-zd8cx]

I thought that was sci fi, too - no curency so no 'need' for jobs, but the culture revolved around honor and rep which inspires people to ste

[@gelmir7322]

people will just do drugs.

[@iWhacko]

That''s the whole philosophy of Star Trek too. Gene roddenberry imagined awe would start exploring and helping civilisations, if no one was poor

[@SuperTonyony]

@@gelmir7322 No, YOU will just do drugs.

[@Zeithri]

I do want Replicators. It'd be such a marvelous thing. As for Star Trek, I'm honestly very fond of Enterprise with it's lack of any such technology but had to rely on actual on-board chef's. Unforgettable is the time Kirk orders food only to get a dish of tribbles while two oddly looking strangers that seem out of time softly giggle in the corner as Kirk laments to Mr. Spock.

[@cheapskatecoins5709]

Honestly I always thought the two best technologies from Startrek (other than the ships of course) were the ships sensors and both the medical and science tricorders. To have devices that can gather that level of information would be amazing.

[@SaraMorgan-ym6ue]

literally eat shit well you can do it now the real question is would you want to?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@J.B24]

We may be far away from replicators but Star Trek has inspired us to try to build them. This show is the epitome of what TV should be about. Inspiring us to push the human race forward.

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

If I had one wish for a Star Trek technology to come true today it would be replicators. No phasers, no warp drive, no transporters and no holodecks.

[@larrybremer4930]

based on the the majority of the content of the internet I shudder to think how messy a holodeck would be

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

@@larrybremer4930 Reverse engineering the replicator would give us transporters and holodecks in a few decades. Until then we finally had thw right reason for governments all over the world to fund nuclear fusion research to get the needed energy for the replicators. Afterwards we would have plenty of energy and solved the food problem.

[@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391]

@@larrybremer4930 Well, it would be a source of protein to make stuff from, fancy a steak ?

[@valenrn8657]

Trek's replicators and holodecks are related technologies.

[@TitularHeroine]

@@MetalheadAndNerd Reverse engineering, okay, but where does the *first* one come from?

[@OgdenM]

Fun fact: One of the stories of how replicators work is that they don't create anything, they replicate things.. as in copy them. There is a warehouse somewhere that stores one version of everything and the replicator is a copy machine. They are effectively actually transporters, but just don't destroy the original copy. --Which, yes, transporters actually destroy the original person and create a new one elsewhere.

[@knighthawk3749]

They create a copy of the original person. The original is murdered in effect.

[@DarkSnideoftheRainbow]

I like these videos. So many sci-fi videos are doom and gloom, to have a video imagine a happier future that could be coming soon is always a nice way to remind yourself that as bad as the world seems today it's better than it was yesterday and we have reason to hope tomorrow will be better still.

[@hackman669]

Doom and gloom is so passed. Most folks are hopeful accept doomsday cults and radical religious leaders.🦧🦍🐒

[@michaelloach9461]

Thankyou Simon, another great vid. I love designing things on Fusion 360 & printing them on my 3d printer, it's magical. I am now 50 & only dreamt of such technology when I was 10. To see something on the screen & then turn it into an object is a lot of progress. Thanks again for the vid & all the best......

[@harrkev]

If replicators are based on transporter technology, they wouldn't need that much energy. They just need a block of matter. If you want a cup of tea, you just transport the mass of the tea and cup. The key is that you change the pattern while it is flying around. I would assume that things like baryon number are conserved, so you can't replicate antimatter. But you can theoretically turn lead into gold, but not create gold out of thin air.

[@heatheradams4221]

Transporters dematerialize an object and create what they call a 'matter stream that is held in a pattern buffer'. It seems that a replicator just dematerials the object and substitutes a new pattern in the pattern buffer.

[@hattielankford4775]

0:22 I'm tired of rewinding to watch that over and over and over and over again.

[@teknophyle1]

this scifi tech always seems to be limited by what tech can do when each show was made. punch cards were state of the art when TOS was made

[@pierremainstone-mitchell8290]

I really did like the words "endlessly cool" juxtaposed with an image showing "Hot surface. Do not touch!". Nice one Simon! Great video btw!

[@bial12345]

It should be said again and again. We currently live in a post-scarcity society. We have enough resources and technology to make sure everyone's basic needs were met. But.. we choose not to, so a few thousand people can live in obscene luxury.

[@smackerlacker8708]

We have a lot of resources, but not an infinite amount. Post-scarcity means that there is no limit to the available resources.

[@HighmageDerin]

I always knew that the ST replicater was basically a transporter, but I always thought it just rearranged existing molecules from some storage room when it "beamed in" the food. Not doing full Energy to matter transformations.

[@MyLibertyTV]

You thought correctly, it's mind boggling that this went over his head.

[@TheZamaron]

I always saw it as liek a 3D printer but on a molecular level and able to use almost any element, obviously some like Latinum and Dilithium is impossible for some reason.

[@HighmageDerin]

@@TheZamaron Well I know if dylihium it's impossible to replicate it because it's molecular crystalline structure is too volatile. It be like beaming A-bomb into your replicator. As far as LatnumI'm guessing it's just too hard to arrange the molecules into the shape needed

[@TheZamaron]

@@HighmageDerin You didn’t exactly need to explain all that, but yes. I do find it interesting that they did make some materials impossible to replicate, dilithium so there’s not an easy fix for that, and Latinum for a currency valued by the Ferengi.

[@striker8961]

Well my understanding of a transporter is that it converts matter to energy and sends that through sub space to the destination on the other end. With a person it’s a perfect rebuilding of the person (basically killing them and making a clone every time they use the transporter, unless you believe in the soul.) with the replicators it’s the same deal just the matter on one end it some generic material and is rearranged into whatever you want on the other end.

[@clayongunzelle9555]

The problem with this technology is that it didn't factor in time, time which molecules take to complete their processes before you see the end result

[@brianstraight9308]

It's been said, but worth repeating, Trek replicators didn't convert energy to mass it used mass stores to produce the requested item. It effectively did the same thing as Kirk's food synthesizers but the implementation of transporter technology and more advanced computers gave them more "resolution" better quality and accuracy. Though, often stated, it's quality still wasn't equal to the actual food.

[@NATIK001]

If a ship has transporters, running a replicator isn't a big step from that point. Especially since the food and construction replicators in Star Trek are often not drawing all their power from the Warp core but hooked up to tanks of matter which they reconstruct into whatever matter they need, so rather than pulling the entire object out of the warp core's energy storage, it pulls most of the energy out of a matter tank which it turns from matter to energy to matter in the same single process.

[@KeithElliott-zd8cx]

Replicators are probably easier than teleporters. Teleporters need to copy the current pattern and stream the energy/info to a location without a specific tech in the location to aid reassembly.

[@Bren255Bren]

Idk who the editor is but they deserve a raise.

[@zdlax]

Among the myriad other process technologies I think we will need the chemistry equivalent of a software compiler to translate ball and stick type molecular designs into actual machine code instructions for "make covalent bond of this with this" etc.

[@TheStammzilla]

As a proud Star Trek fan since a boy, I can say that I'm so here for this!

[@QBCPerdition]

The thing about a post-scarcity world is that you remove the motivation for most crimes. Most crimes are committed for monetary gain, and that wouldn't be an issue any more. The remaining crimes: passion, religion, psychopathy, are still present and could be enhanced by a replicator, but as 9/11 shows, a zealot intent on doing damage will be able to, no matter what.

[@scifirealism5943]

The problem is really post scarcity removes the motive for any war. Since opposing sides will always have equally advanced and unlimited resources you could never gain any front in anything. There won't even be a need for a military since any individual planet could wage war on any other planet for any reason by building a fleet of starships in short order.

[@QBCPerdition]

@@scifirealism5943 doesn't seem like a problem, to be honest. I agree it would make war less likely, but sometimes wars are fought for ego, which I would file under psychopathy.

[@scifirealism5943]

@@QBCPerdition You could fight war *over* reasons like ego yes, but you fight war *with* resources. Star Trek is ultimately military science fiction. There is no need for a military if there is no scarcity. And replicators are just one aspect of scarcity that's limited. The factors of production are capital, energy, land, and labor. With antimatter you have an unlimited, inexhaustible energy source. with faster than light travel you can reach anywhere in the universe, terraform and colonize an unlimited number of worlds. and with artificial intelligence you don't need humans doing any dangerous jobs at all. But no one would watch Star Trek if it was a bunch of machines that could endlessly do everything. So replicators can't make everything, engines and deflectors are always low on power, warp drive travels at the speed of plot, and the isolinear chips that make up artificial intelligence are too hard to mass produce.

[@QBCPerdition]

@scifirealism5943 antimatter is not unlimited power, it is just the most energy per mass possible. And while you fight war with resources, if your resources are unlimited, and your opponent's are as well, that just means a war fought for non-logical reasons can continue indefinitely.

[@scifirealism5943]

@@QBCPerdition antimatter power isn't the same as a perpetual motion machine, you are correct. But matter-antimatter annihilation produces so much energy per kilogram of mass that it is practically unlimited. A single gram of antimatter annihilating with a single gram of matter yields 180 terrajoules, the energy consumption of all of humanity is 18 terajoules. The impulse engines alone produce as much power as a tiny star(not exaggerating). If you can produce that much energy there is absolutely no technology you can build that could ever run low on power. You could power things for centuries, millennia even. Why go to war if there's always going to be a stalemate? That doesn't make sense.

[@jamessuter6643]

they mention in a couple episodes that there were some items that were too complicated for the replicators, they also from my understanding did not turn energy into matter but rather there were large storage systems for basic molecules tht were formed into what was needed by a transport system. they also. his security features that would ban certain objects like weapons

[@SA12String]

Without scarcity, real or perceived, corporations wouldn't be able to rake in unlimited cash. Therefore, unless there are monumental changes, it's never going to happen.

[@scifirealism5943]

Yep. You should read two books One is called "business as usual, during alterations" and the other is called a Venus equilateral story called "Pandora's millions" by Georg o Smith.

[@johnwang9914]

That's more the nanite paper clip or grey goo disaster while Star Trek's replicators is more the home manufacturing machine. As to food replicators, the closest we currently have in the commercial market would be the Kreuger single serving coffee machine. The TOS replicators were more like an advance dumb waiter system as in Charlie-X, Kirk spoke with the chef asking for mock turkey which Charlie changed into real turkeys. Now in the time travel episode, they showed a transporter room with three food replicators but no counter, tables or chairs to consume food at so it may be that the transporter system was used to transport the food in this advance dumb waiter system and the food replicators in the one transporter room was for diagnosis purposes. The actual food replicators did not show up till TNG but Enterprise showed an alien food replicator and Discovery also showed full fledge food replicators.

[@joliver81]

On The Original Series Kirk didn’t have replicators, they weren’t around until Picard was Captain, Next Gen. ✌️

[@ThatWriterKevin]

It's almost like this was addressed in the video...

[@richarddeese1991]

Thanks. It occurs to me that there's an aspect of this that no one talks about. Imagine you order a turkey sandwich. Fine. I'm sure they made a *_really_* good one to use as an example. But after the second or third time you eat one, your brain's going to start noticing something. 'I've eaten this turkey sandwich before. Not just *_a_* turkey sandwich; *_this exact turkey sandwich - right down to the molecule.'_* It better be the best turkey sandwich anyone ever made or ate, because you (and everyone else in Starfleet) will be eating precisely that same turkey sandwich forever. This is one of things about great food that people don't seem to consider. You want consistently good ingredients, cooked well, and presented nicely. But you also want just that little tiny bit of variety. I imagine the ship's counsellor might have to deal with a few people swearing they'd gone back in time and eaten the same meal again, until everybody gets used to the idea. Of course, I suppose you could have 5 or 6 different random choices of the same thing, but Star Trek at least seems to have implicitly avoided that. It would probably take up a lot of computer space. tavi.

[@looksirdroids9134]

No

[@MrHowzaa]

this point was addressed in a star trek episode involving the counselor and icecream sundes.

[@bpdmf2798]

I always wonder what the world would be like with replicators. They also take back material ("how hard is it to put your plate back in the replicator, Jake?" -DS9) and I wonder if it takes only replicated materials or if you could build a replicator that's toilet shaped and you just pee into it. You could realistically live in a tiny box with a mattress and a replicate everything you need and use it as a toilet. You could replicate heated rocks or some futuristic handheld heater running on trek tech and heat your living box. You could seriously just live in the woods and have everyone you need limited by only your imagination (unless you want gold pressed latinum, it can't replicate that). You could even start with just a small replicator and replicate the building blocks for a home and piece it together. The possibilities are just crazy.

[@MistahBryan]

Could you use a Replicator to get rid of a body? Asking for a 'friend' Lol :)

[@scifirealism5943]

Read "Venus equilateral Pandora's millions" by George o. Smith.

[@scifirealism5943]

There's a book called Pandora's millions by George o. Smith that details what would happen if you had a replicator. If there was truly no unique object in existence the entire world economy collapses immediately.

[@Nostripe361]

I mean you still have entropy so you might still need resupply based on how much matter and energy is lost over time.

[@KeithElliott-zd8cx]

Depends on the energy needs - might be easier to only have communal replicators, not like 2-3 every bedroom. I mean, you could build a toliet replicator that just breaks down what's in it, but if every 'flush' was a big energy cost, it'd maybe less worth it.

[@jjbarajas5341]

Woah, another quality science channel to add to my subscriptions? Heck yes

[@jmd1743]

For big castings that require custom mold you hold on for potentially decades for replacement parts we currently might as well be using star trek technology. The fact that steam locomotives used castings is a big reason why they were replaced. Today with 3d [printing you could store a virtual mold for 50 years before you need to use again.

[@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391]

There's a nearby company that make power generation stuff, they had some large castings done, left them to weather and age for a few months (possibly longer) - and they were stolen. Fortunately they got them back.. I find the frame castings for the duplex locomotives amazing, all cylinders and steam/exhaust pipes cast in one piece of steel, itself difficult to cast because it's not very runny.

[@jmd1743]

@@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391 Lincoln Welding company is 3d printing metal with robot arms & a welder.

[@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391]

@@jmd1743 It would interesting to see the difference in emergency consumption of casting and 3d printing, I presume that it would be about the same, but it still could be wildly different. I presume that you could change the alloy in different places with different feeders, possibly even using bronze bearing surfaces on a steel print. If you added a milling head to a 3d printer, you could print and finish machine something in one operation.

[@jmd1743]

@@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391 I'm interested in seeing where 3d printed guns go because a 308 cartridge exerts 60,000 PSI on the gun when the gun goes off. Compare 60k PSI to say the stress seen with air compressor. Guns were among the first mass produced items on the planet in a factory mass production environment because it was a matter of life & death to standardize the tiny parts such as springs. A gun is likely able to withstand more pressure than a rocket engine. Imagine the day when SpaceX could 100 percent 3d print one of their raptor engines. I'm interested in 3d printed organs, my prediction is that we'll replace hearts like we do with timing belts on a diesel. If we could 3d print a gun we'll likely be able to produce organic material that would allow a 3d printed heart to last 50 years before it needs replacement again. My long term objective? We'll we're about to enter a transition for human civilization like we saw where we went from hunter gathers to farmers. Mexico has gone from 6 babies per woman to 2 babies per woman, their pension system has collapsed. Japan's and China's pensions are about to collapse along side America's. What I'm hoping to see is science greatly extend a person's life such as making frail bones, heart attacks & strokes a thing of the past so that if people were to die it would be peacefully in their sleep and not because of a cascade organ failure. So we'll need to do things such as 3d print new hearts, kidneys, be able to produce bone marrow in giant vats and to be able to produce gallons upon gallons of blood & plasma.

[@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391]

@@jmd1743 I don't know much about guns, but I think the first barrels were made by making a spiral of steel, perhaps a 3d printer could do something similar, and have something like a de-scaler following the nozzle to forge the steel and change it's Chrystal structure. Your comment seems to have interesting contradictions, you talk of guns, and also of prolonging life, and the problems with pensions. I think if we could do something about the unfairness of illness, it would be an incredible advance, instead of people suffering and dieing at a young age, before they've had a chance of life, they'd be able to live as long as the rest of us. The blind would be given sight, the crippled given movement - but then would we be in danger of having everybody the same? Don't our weaknesses define us as much as our strengths?

[@Sett86]

The problem with replicators is not that they require a lot of energy. So does warp drive. The problem is if we were capable of handling that kind of energy, there would be no space battles, because the slightest containment leak (let alone intentionally destructive release through a weapon) would evenly spread the ship across the entire solar system, one atom at a time.

[@scifirealism5943]

Correct.

[@michamarkowski2204]

In season 3 of The Orville was an episode with a great explanation, why civilizations should advance technologically at the same pace as ideologically (and there was a replicator involved). I'm afraid some kind of replicators would be invented before we mature enough to not use them for evil purposes.

[@MarkMichalowski]

We appear to be some sort of inverted twins, Michał- LOL! Maybe one of us was created by a replicator catastrophe :)

[@adamasalawan971]

In the first season of Star Trek Voyager, that was precisely why Captain Janeway refused to give the Kazon replicators. I thought it was messed up of Janeway to do that when I was younger, but that I think about it, giving them replicators would have been like giving a chimpanzee a bat'leth.

[@pev_]

The legendary computer game "Deus Ex" had a nice name for such a device: a UC, Universal Constructor, which built objects, even living organisms, by arranging molecules in a massively parallel operation.

[@scifirealism5943]

Epic. I loved that series.

[@logicalfundy]

I was able to get a 3D printer recently, and it's a pretty cool device, but it has its own limitations, and has made a few things clear to me. * For any current or near-future 3D printer, including MIT's device, you need a source of material. We are nowhere near being able to create any element we want on demand, so if you want something made of carbon, uranium, copper, etc, you need to have a source of that element. Some elements are common, but many elements are rare. It doesn't really matter if the material is headed to a standard factory or an advanced version of MIT's device - rare is rare. * In the case of widely available technologies - we can't make custom molecules on demand, either. That kind of stuff may exist in a lab, but that's a long ways from being commercially available. * Printing can take a long time, and the smaller the details need to be, the longer it takes. Making things literally at a molecular level will struggle to even make something visible with the naked eye in a reasonable amount of time, much less making a cup of tea in seconds. This will likely be the limiting factor for a long time, unless a major breakthrough happens. * A truly post-scarcity society likely can't exist without true Star Trek style replicators. There will always be things that are rare. Rearranging atoms won't make the various elements any less rare.

[@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391]

" made things clear to me" - you mean you printed stuff from clear plastic ? cool!

[@logicalfundy]

@@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391 LOL. And although I know you're just joking around a bit - actually, yes! PLA in its pure form is transparent, and I've printed with it. The layers do mean it's not like glass, but it's a pretty neat effect and I plan on more prints with it.

[@KeithElliott-zd8cx]

Interesting thing is, warp drive would require so much energy anyway, replicator would be a drop in the bucket - in fact, a replicator system might be the best way to refuel - deconstruct asteroids of any kind for energy, use that energy to create matter and power the engines. It would basically be a step up from fusion energy - the equivalent of harvesting a matter antimatter reaction, without the antimatter needed. Warp currently still needs way more power than 'a few asteroids', but the old E=MC2 would basically be the expected energy formula. Just that (Well, assuming the process has power requirements and it's not 100% effective) googling it, fusion in the sun versus energy from matter antimatter reaction, the result was at least 500x ish more energy - plus if you've got some beam doing it, you don't need to figure out how to get or contain the antimatte, how to optimally mix with matter, how to properly contain the reaction, or how to fit that to a water to steam to kinetic energy idea.

[@douggale5962]

Engineers will always be able to bypass security mechanisms. The trick is, you make the security mechanisms so good, that you need an engineer so good, that they aren't a criminal.

[@levib0057]

Unfortunately, this concept is why internet security is an issue. In the 90's and 00's, all hackers were vilified, even if they went directly to companies they just hacked to warn them about security flaws. They would be ignored or prosecuted, so they often turned to crime to rake in big bucks. Now a lot of internet companies have realized how dumb that was and started initiating bounties for security flaws, but the damage is already done

[@douggale5962]

@@levib0057 I experienced that exact thing! I port scanned back when people were dialling up to the internet with their entire root directory and printers shared. I was contemplating printing out a page telling people to install a firewall, on the shared printers. I decided against it, because I expected to be prosecuted for trying to help them.

[@michaelcoffman4185]

If memory serves me correctly, one show got it right, and that was the original V. The drive section took up most of the ships that arrived on Earth. That was a great shot for the 1980's.

[@jeremythornton433]

I want one! And I want one now!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

When we discuss energy requirements we have to remember that we're basing that on how we currently know how to create energy. It may be that in some few decades or perhaps 50 years we may discover some new way to harness energy on a scale undreamed of today, such as matter/antimatter reactions. One major discovery, such as the transistor, can completely change the direction of what we can even imagine is possible, so you never know!

[@Touhou20246]

Yeah having replicators would help feed everyone I am supportive of this!🥰👍🏻

[@michamohe]

honestly, I think the thing that will get us the closest to a functional replicator will be nano robotics, get a swarm of nanobots working on building something at the molecular level and you will in essence have something made from the dust in the air that has a speed limit based literally on the size of the swarm doing the construction

[@Hans-Yolo]

Most important part is the heisenberg compensator, without that no transporter/replicator

[@scifirealism5943]

Lol yep.

[@NeilCWCampbell]

How's it work? ;)

[@Hans-Yolo]

@@NeilCWCampbell If i knew how it works elon musk would be my janitor that rich i would be :D

[@NeilCWCampbell]

@@Hans-Yolo you didn't get the TNG reference then ;)

[@Hans-Yolo]

@@NeilCWCampbell Oh i do i think, if you mean the answer Okuda (?) gave to this question. I think it was "Fine" ;) If it was a reference from an episode it might slipped for me because english is not my first language and i didnt watch tng in english

[@mikehong2691]

Simon!-I'm Not Looking For--The Future!-But-Right Now!-The Foods&Silverwares From Antique Stores!-Instead!-Is A Work Of Art!-Raymond "Mike" Hong!&(Good Luck!-Simon&Everybody!-Mike!)😎👍!!!!!!!!!

[@gordonhowell9701]

Actually replicators already exist and you are living proof. How else can one explain how just one person could make so many great videos?

[@cozmothemagician7243]

Da buybull started it all... Just two hormone infused people made all of us (: Reminds me of an old computer nerd joke... How do we know that Eden was the start of the computer revolution? Eve had her Apple and Adam had his Wang O_o

[@STSWB5SG1FAN]

@@cozmothemagician7243 🤔😲🤦‍♂😬🤦‍♂🤭😂🤣

[@EAcapuccino]

Yay! Food and water scarcity is gonna be totally eradicated in the foreseeable future! 😁👍👍👏

[@TheMonkeyworks105]

Anyone else notice the difference between Simon talking about Trek tech and Star Wars (clearly superior) tech?

[@gregchapman2646]

But Star Trek is future tech and Star Wars tech is from the distant past.

[@masere]

No transporters, no replicators, no cloaking devices. Luke's treatment in a container of liquid would be a few simple hand-held tools on the Enterprise. Now tell me again which has the superior technology.

[@TheMonkeyworks105]

@@masere for one, I was simply trolling Simon as I am aware he hate SW. Two, I didn't specify in my comment (apologies) that the tech created in the legends books is rather amazing and easily on par with trek IMO. I grew up in an all trek household so I do also love trek, Simon and I share a love of Voyager, by far one of the best in the series.

[@randym4121]

A couple of misconceptions here. The following was in a Star Trek encyclopedia I read a few decades ago, so some small details may be wrong. Firstly, starships have special storage tanks (made perhaps of stainless steel?). Before a starship leaves port, these "slurry" tanks are pumped full of a special type of gel. This odorless, tasteless gel (I believe it was described as being translucent), is made up of specially formulated molecules that can easily be combined in myriad different ways to facilitate the replication of foods, drinks and a very limited number of other products (clothing, for example). The replicator (located in a central location), on demand, synthesizes consumables by withdrawing the proper amount of gel, rearranging the molecules (in some cases even rearranging individual atoms), assembling them into, say, cheesecake or a T-bone steak, and dematerializing it (transporter technology). It then sends the matter stream through waveguides (sometimes called replicator conduits) to the proper replicator station where the cheesecake (or T-bone steak) was originally ordered. There, the replicator station reintegrates the molecules into delicious cheesecake (or T-bone steak). Each replicator station has a small disintegrator/reintegrator module built-in. The replicated cheesecake (or T-bone steak) can then be removed and eaten. You can also specify preferences like steak "rare," Earl Grey "hot," or coffee "hot," "black," "double sweet." So you see, the replicator is NOT a "magical" device that can create ANYTHING from "THIN AIR." But wait...how does the replicator know how to arrange molecules into cheesecake or a whole meal? The replicator must access a library where the formula for making cheesecake resides. World famous chefs help develop the recipes for all foods in the library (every meal is five star, cordon bleu). The recipes are then programmed into the replicator's computer and stored in replicator memory (the aforementioned "library"). If you ask for "New York cheescake" and the recipe for "New York cheescake" isn't in replicator memory, the replicator may tell you, "Such item does not exist" or "Please select another item," or something to that effect. Or the replicator may tell you, "Conventional cheescake may be substituted for New York cheesecake." So you see, ordering a weapon is problematic because weapons are not likely to be programmed into replicator memory. There have been some Star Trek episodes where the replicator station in a "guest's" (prisoner's) quarters is disabled so the "guest" is unable to arm him or herself, but technically, this goes against Star Trek canon. Anyone wishing to replicate a weapon will have to find a way to break into the replicator room, sit down at a computer terminal and write a program that will tell the replicator how to create the weapon desired (no easy task, especially if you're not fluent in replicator language). Clothing can also be replicated (there are no laundromats on a starship). At the end of each day, dirty, smelly clothing can be placed into a drawer just below the replicator station where they are disintegrated and sent back to the replicator. There, the replicator reintegrates the matter stream into elemental molecules that happen to resemble the original gel in the slurry tanks and stored there. I assume that since cotton fibers are organic in nature, most uniforms are made of replicated cotton. We all know that EVERYTHING on a starship is recycled. This includes poop, urine and all manner of nasty things. So when we order food from a replicator station, are we REALLY eating recycled poop? Of course not...that's a silly notion. When you pump out a "log" into the toilet, that "log" (and anything else in the toilet) is immediately disintegrated and sent to the replicator. Once there, the replicator reintegrates the matter stream into elemental molecules that in no way resembles, disgusts or smells like the pre-disintegrated matter. In fact, as soon as the "log" is disintegrated, it no longer resembles anything that even remotely resembles a "log." So perhaps the biggest misconception in all of this is that a starship's galley and every room onboard has a replicator. In reality, the replicator itself is a rather large, centrally-located machine that uses a tremendous amount of energy. That's why the replicator may be taken offline in order to allow more power to the engines. So, although everyone thinks of a replicator as being in every room, that thought only serves to make a rather complicated technology seem simpler and friendlier. What is actually in every room is a replicator STATION.

[@pdxmusl1510]

Meh.. nearly every bit of water at this point has gone out some living organisms arse.....

[@mikecobalt7005]

Ronald Moore was emphatic on his statement about The Replicators. Later in DS9 (Moore's style was more prominent) Engineer O'Brien said he was bored on the Enterprise, he just wished for something to malfunction. Later still in BSG (Super R. Moore) food, parts, weapons, medical supplies, etc. (Items the replicators easily provided) were a constant issue and often prominent story theme.

[@scifirealism5943]

Lol.

[@scifirealism5943]

You can't have war unless scarcity existed. Thus. Military scifi requires scarcity.

[@karnivaltwitch]

the food from shit thing would explain why so many of the crew talk about it not being as good as non replicated food

[@battlesheep2552]

All food comes from shit, it's just a matter of degrees of separation.

[@karnivaltwitch]

@@cancermcaids7688 sorta, the food tastes better if someone cooks it for you isn't entirely accurate, in truth it just tastes worse if you make it because you begin salavating and metally tasting it while you prepare it. but i agree the the rest of this, hard to replicate the way cooking on an old cast iron grill vs a new nonstick pan can change food when every thing else is done the same.

[@willmfrank]

Mike Myers: "It tastes like shit." Michael York: "It IS shit, Austin."

[@shawnacook4868]

Found another Simon channel. It's like the best Easter egg hunt

[@WTDoorley]

"Evil wish-granting boxes." Sounds like the Krell machine from "Forbidden Planet."

[@timg2727]

I've been enjoying this channel, but to be honest I find the choice of background music to be very distracting. I don't know if it's the style of music itself or the sound mixing, but either way I personally feel like removing it would be an improvement.

[@ashuradragosani5960]

Nice to hear about molecular factories. I think the first I heard of such a thing was in the late '80s playing GURPS, or perhaps '90s?

[@An0therR0gue]

yes, I asked for this (probably along with a thousand others, lol). thanks Simon. I think you also missed the positives of recycling with the replicator as well. imagine converting your trash into base elements or compounds, then reusing them.

[@ScottLahteine]

As one of the developers at the forefront of Replicating Rapid Prototyper technology, maintaining Marlin Firmware, I am super optimistic that we will develop proper Star Trek replicators within the next 2000 years.

[@fakename1656]

Sweet another new Simon channel, legendary

[@middlingmodeler]

Dude! You have to do Artificial Gravity!

[@scifirealism5943]

Epic!

[@anthonybaransky137]

Hey Simon, replicator in the TV series Stargate were self replicating metal bugs that could destroy everything including human like beings that were very powerful so that they put their hand inside a person's head and discover their memories and thoughts including secrets

[@krisgonynor689]

There was a book that pointed out that post STTMP replicators used the transporters to beam dishes and glasses from storage instead of creating them ftom scratch. Food like coffee was beamed up and stored as energy as well. I'm thinking the book was "Spock`s World".

[@Carstuff111]

Hehehehe, as a HUGE Trek fan, this just made my night!

[@williamkirk1156]

From what I understand, Gene Roddenbury said the only reason mankind was able to progress to a Star Trek Civilization, was the replicator. The logic is anyone can have anything... Ok, I want the Titanic, a starship, and the Death Star... you see why it will not create such a civilization? I think I am pretty normal (even if I want the Death Star), imagine a twisted mind with the ability to make anything.

[@josephglover4546]

Concerning the energy requirements: If we are living in a simulation, and if you could find a way to simply write and execute a line of code from within the simulation, then it would be no more difficult to make a sun as it would be to make a toothbrush; as the story goes, "and god said, and it was so".

[@Mr_.G]

OMG, how many channels do you have!!!!! A lot of work keeping them all regularly uploading.

[@joshm3484]

My understanding of physics is very limited, but I think using energy to create matter also results in an equal amount of antimatter. For a civilization that has mastered faster than light travel, that's probably trivial. For us, it's less trivial.

[@briansammond7801]

No. The original source of mass to create the energy is from sources that were matter, and baryon number and lepton number are both conserved, which means that the output would also be matter. Matter and anti-matter have opposite baryon number and lepton number. So, if the original source of mass were anti-matter, the baryon and lepton numbers would also be conserved, resulting exclusively in anti-matter. Do a search on "conservation of baryon number and "conservation of lepton number". There are some processes that do result in particle/antiparticle pairs, such as a photon creating an electron/positron pair, or an electron/positron pair annihilating to create a photon. This is most commonly seen with what are called virtual particles, but the net result is baryon number or lepton number change of 0 (conserving the number), since the positive number of the matter exactly balances the negative number of the anti-matter. But this is a scenario where you are starting from 0 and ending with 0. When you start with source that are ordinary matter, you will also end with output that is ordinary matter due to the conservation law.

[@fhuber7507]

Closest we'll get to replicators will bee something on the order of the robatic pizza machines. Take supplies, combine them and after production time, put it on a plate.

[@JS-wp4gs]

So what you're saying is the meatloaf served on the enterprise is made from.....the captains log

[@Thrakus]

you can eat food 6 times over by removing the ... after we use the bathroom like we do for the water we drink. i think in the future this will be seen the same as we do with thinking reused clean water. just also have reused clean food giving us 6 times more food , great for space.

[@benpierce1774]

Big thumbs up for the nonchalant storytelling. I really enjoyed the looser feel and I stayed engaged. 😁

[@johnwang9914]

Although in TOS, some ingredients were indeed synthesized, they were then assembled into a meal by a cook in a kitchen as there is an episode where Kirk was arguing with the cook over the intercom. The show Enterprise also had some food synthesized but the meals themselves assembled through more traditional methods including a Dolce Gusto coffee maker for the soups and beverages. TNG also stated that the replicators involved transporter technogy though the implication suggests in the synthesis of the foods themselves. Hence the replicators may be more akin to delivery drones nd factory processed foods than an actual general purpose food 3d printer within your home. Note that in TOS, there is an episode where chicken soup from one of these automat like food dispensers in the transporter room although there are no tables or counters seen to eat at. Sure the reason for this is just plot but I like to suggest the food dispensers are low grade transporter pads and are in the transporter room for diagnostics and maintenance. Note being transporter pads would also explain how food materilizes in TNG speciaf effects.

[@pauloboyle477]

How I know I’m a child? When someone says.”piss” and it cracked me up

[@mackenzieonyx7586]

also, lmao at them putting u in that lil trekkie suit xD i absolutely adore the dynamic you've got with ur crew ^_^

[@jeremyandrews3292]

My thinking is that replicators for civilian use might be unrealistic. They might be restricted to government and corporate use, highly regulated. Sort of like how nuclear weapons are. I mean, it doesn't seem that crazy to imagine them being used for manufacturing, but then still having things made in centralized factories under strict supervision rather than being something ordinary people can have.

[@SneezingEagle]

Hope to see one in my lifetime, maybe at the end of it at least...

[@lukamustafic8412]

I am thinking about another problem, how do you even transfer that much energy from energy core to a replicator. If we transfer energy with electrocables then good luck with getting that tea this week. Also let's not forget that cables don't transfer energy perfectly and that cross section is important thing in increasing speed of transfer. At the end probably waste of limited resources and space to build it directly from energy.

[@scifirealism5943]

Antimatter is an unlimited power source in Star Trek

[@scottdoesntmatter4409]

STNG replicators are basically magic. Whoever came up with them wasn't thinking at all.

[@scifirealism5943]

Lol gene Roddenberry.

[@MistahBryan]

@2:26, "I'll have a name of dish with name of dish for my beverage. Then I'll have name of dish as my desert."

[@rickywinthrop]

Good video. Thanks.

[@johnbennett1465]

Assuming that molecular screens require specialized equipment to make, then restricting that equipment gives some control over what can be created. Without the correct screen, you couldn't produce C4. On the other hand a gun made out common materials would still be possible.

[@albertnobbs5049]

So theoretically they could keep the warp core humming along by stripping all that unnecessary carpet from the bridge in tough times/I'm totally seeing no problems canonically with replicator technology

[@Restributordevill]

When I think of replicators, I think we’re Fkd. Stargate replicators aren’t something you’d like to ever face…

[@sigvar6795]

There was an STNG episode ..or movie, I think it was "First Contact" A local from Earths past asked, "Why cant you just replicate all the ships you need?" Picard's answer was "It doesnt work like that". But definitely, bad actors are why we cant have nice things! Hey Can we take the bad actors and add them to the energy pool?! A bad thing for a good reason?! But Im ok with it and I'm really a nice guy so it's OK!

[@Raees-Divitiae]

I still adore the channel. Keep it up, mate!

[@Neuralatrophy]

Would be interesting to consider... if Mattershift like technologies come to fruition and they can literally assemble molecules, we technically COULD 3d print those molecules into shapes using any one of a number of existing technologies. Acoustic manipulation, laser manipulation, (yes lasers can move stuff), and any other technologies in the lab that I don't know about. So we could technically have a protein synthesizer that works more like a replicator sooner than we could predict. I imagine metals would be difficult to produce if at all possible but if you can manipulate down to the atomic scale, you could assemble items by depositing metal ions.

[@rox4884]

Someone needs to program each item into the replicator. Those people would have to be granted access and then you have to have clearance to access the specific item. I don't think that the average person is going to know the molecular structure of very many things beyond water and salt and the replicators would be programmed to not make explosives for random people, The energy cost is why they couldn't use the replicators very much on Voyager and other times it took a long time to make things, like engine parts.

[@qnxvr576]

8:15 Please tell your editor to check the sound levels for music, it was quite high at several points and made it difficult to hear to the point that I had to turn captions on. It should be background to your voice, not fighting in the foreground. Enjoyed the video other than that, though. Thanks for pulling this topic together.

[@alexinnewwest1860]

Background music was a bit loud and a bit annoying, it was kinda hard to hear Simon