www.ditl.org

I don't believe we actually saw it, alas.

Well, there goes that idea. I don't suppose they would be very big if they can be carried in a cargo bay though.
*shrug*

Wow, there's a crazy thought... can a small replicator replicate the parts needed to make a bigger replicator? And could you then use that to make an even bigger one? And then.... well you see where this is going.

Man, the possibilities of that are just mindblowing...

Or... could you build a big replicator and then build millions of smaller ones? The possibilities are endless!

Just a random thought, could a rebel group (say the maquis) get their hands on a replicator and use it to make lots of guns and explosives?

I am pretty sure it is canon that replicators have limits to the complexity of the stuff they can make. A tiny imperfection in weapons is not a good thing.

Don't want it goin bang in your hands.

Good point, have we ever seen them making anything electrical or with moving parts. Like a tricorder or something?

We know that they use replicators to produce things for the ship so I'm guessing there are different types of replicators.

The ones in the mess and quarters can only produce food stuffs and small simple items.

An industrial replicator may not refer to the size of it at all. It may refer to the fact it is able to produce complex machines and items. Scalling up a basic replicator should be easy, more power and more space. But one that can produce complex items would need a lot of computing power behind it.

Something that a devistated Cardassia wouldn't be able to make easily.

Good point.

There are probably limits, but then again for circuitry that requires atomic-level precision, I can think of no better way to produce it than a replicator!

I agree though that building complete devices is probably not likely (or we would have seen it done). We did see it done in a DS9 novel, but that obviously doesn't count. But if you had the proper materials and the proper access codes, I don't see why you couldn't replicate small devices.

"Computer, replicate one viola..." It might sound silly, but there is actually a lot of precision that goes into something like that! (I'd like to be able to replicate any violin strings myself... )

Have we ever seen something with electronics or moving parts replicated?

Not that I know of, but we have seen all sorts of electronics transported, which is a very similar technology. Besides, it just makes sense.

Perhaps one of the admins could split this thread into one about replicators? We seem to have gone way off course.

DBS,
Yeah, good point. IIRC aren't replicators just transportes that rearange the matter? In that case could you use a transporter as a replicator?

Yeah I think the idea that standard replicators can amke food items and basic item IE not moving.

Industrial replicators produce parts and complex designs. I imagin a ship like Voyager having many standard replicators in quarters and the mess but only two or three indutrial replicators in the shuttle bay or engineering.

Rochey wrote:In that case could you use a transporter as a replicator?

In a way they did in "Unnatural Selection", where they used an "old" transporter/DNA pattern to re-construct Dr. Pulaski and the research team to a pre-infection state.

By the way, that opens the entire can of worms about whether or not you are the same person stepping off the transporter pad as you were before... In my opinion, I think that it actually helps settle the matter. You do not "die", as it were. If that were true, Pulaski would have had no memory of anything she did before combing her hair before she left the ship. Since she remembered how it felt to become ill/old, somehow "She" made it through the transporter... *scratches head in confusion/wonder*

But then again, doesn't that mean that we have basically a universal cure now? Couldn't one just store a "backup" copy of, say Harry Kim in the computer, and when he is poked by 8472, just re-assemble him using that template? What about effectively preventing ageing by constantly re-using that pattern (you would always have to use the raw data to avoid 'replicative fading', though.).

But then again, doesn't that mean that we have basically a universal cure now? Couldn't one just store a "backup" copy of, say Harry Kim in the computer, and when he is poked by 8472, just re-assemble him using that template? What about effectively preventing ageing by constantly re-using that pattern (you would always have to use the raw data to avoid 'replicative fading', though.).

I think that falls under the unethical area. Like how the Federation doesn't clone ever though it has the technology to do.

There is a lot of stuff they don't do that they have the ability to.