What good is Latinum when replicators can make anything.

[Mr. Scott]

That's the question........

What good is Latinum when replicators can make anything?

I answered the question that replicators can only make a certain amount of things, and not even the true article. Basically a real but cheap knockoff of the original.

Why was there a need for currency in this part of space, when again, replicators made absolutely everything?

Sorry, I drank some Teller beer and smoked some Risa herb. Risa herb sells for 4.16 Ferengi Credits per Jin. Illegal on DS9, due to Odo sampling some and desired to stay liquid.

Liquid.

Lastly, I promise. Why did Odo go back almost 400 years in time and at least strangle Denny Crane and tell Shore he was a Founder and he needs to take his ass back home.

 

[Deks]

There are obviously some things that a replicator may have trouble replicating.
The fact being it would require too much power to do so, and thus makes it a bit impractical on a wide scale.

I would argue that the replicators get the taste of food down right ... it's some idiot characters that were written to complain how 'home cooked meals are better', when in fact, it's all in their heads.
Think of a replicator as another chef ... it works with generic aspects, and if an actual chef adds something the original recipe that is not present in the replicator file, of course it will taste different ... adjust the formula in that case.

In replicators case ... it's a matter of efficiency.
It would be a huge drain on power to create complex materials for example.
And I don't buy for a second they need raw matter to work with ... they need energy (whatever it is in Trek) and convert it to matter.
Otherwise, if you are turning a raw material into another type of material, it's just a different process with a transporter effect on it (which is in my personal opinion stupidity ... how different are they from Kirk's food dispensers in that case that actually converted raw material such as waste into edible food, aside from the transporter effect?).

As far as Latinum goes ... it only has value for the Ferengi.
The Federation merely used it as means of trade with them.
We had it, the Ferengi wanted it, and there you go.
The Feds didn't ascribe monetary value to it ... the Ferengi did.

The Replicators likely didn't make absolutely everything, because they need to know the composition of the matter they are supposed to make.
It's likely that Quark usually had at his disposal things that often appealed to the SF crew.
But one of the reasons I didn't like DS9 was because they introduced numerous contemporary elements and made them the whole basis of the show that was supposed to be in the future.
Instead, we get contemporary humans on a space station, religion bristling on all ends, some SF officers conforming to Bajoran religion even with the scientific fact pounding them in the faces ... explaining things in religious terms ...

 

[GhostFaceSaint]

Good arguments so far, but, whose to say they don't actually replicate latinum, its just that it would probably cost too much to replicate such a dense material, converting energy into matter, or lots of matter into energy than reconverting it into latinum. It is one possibility though whose to say what the truth is.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Personally, I think that replicators make close copies (I wouldn't call them cheap knockoffs), but that 'originals' are still better, when available. That is why I believe it when characters say that Kanar or whatever is better non-replicated. Replicated is fine for 'everyday'...but for special occasions, the real stuff is better. I think it is certainly that way with food and beverage....and probably for other things too.

And certain things probably cannot be replicated at all.

Not sure if I understand what the OP is trying to say about Boston Legal. But if you are saying that Shatner should not have been on that show, but stuck with Star Trek for his entire career, I must beg to disagree.

Shatner was EXCELLENT on Boston Legal - indeed, he won an Emmy for his performance on that show. Going on as Kirk in his 70's would have not only been a dumb move financially (since there wasn't any TOS movies being made during Boston Legal's run), but it would have made him look ridiculous. I mean, the 'throwing guys around with the ripped shirt days' are long over for The Shat.

 

[Sykonee]

As I understood it, latinum is made of a highly complex molecule that couldn't be replicated, thus making it very rare and sought after for monetary reasons.

As for the replicator-food debate, here's a contemporary analogy: how often do you hear someone saying their food tastes better when they either grow it themselves or hunt for it? It may just be a psychological response, but we humans tend to feel a more intimate connection to the things we are more heavily invested in, so when we put more effort into making our own food instead of simply having it handed to us, we end up enjoying it more.

Yes, humans are illogical.

 

[RyuRoots]

Personally, I think that replicators make close copies (I wouldn't call them cheap knockoffs), but that 'originals' are still better, when available. That is why I believe it when characters say that Kanar or whatever is better non-replicated. Replicated is fine for 'everyday'...but for special occasions, the real stuff is better. I think it is certainly that way with food and beverage....and probably for other things too.

And certain things probably cannot be replicated at all.

This has always been what I've thought, about food/drink in particular. I mean, if you could make perfect replicas, there would be no Picard vineyard anymore. But I do think there IS a mental effect, knowing a meal was specially cooked or that a bottle of wine was made in a renowned vineyard and aged to perfection and prepared by someone's own hands enhances the experience, even if the taste would be the same replicated.

And I'm pretty sure I remember a line in the show that latinum couldn't be replicated.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

The idea that replicators make perfect copies of everything was very much a first season Roddenberry idea. Riker mentioned in Lonely Among Us that replicator meat was just as tasty as real meat; the hick in the Neutral Zone said his replicated Martini was the best he ever had.

As the show progressed I think they were trying to go for a less sterile vision of the future where technology had not replaced the human element. There were numerous scenes attesting to this: Riker's cooking of the eggs; Kurn's dislike of burned, replicated birds; Picard and his brother discussing wine, etc.

 

[Jono]

Apparently replicators can make anything but not everything. Latinum isn't the only thing we've heard that a replicator can't make.

For example we heard that an optolythic data rod was next to impossible to counterfeit which saw Garak having to trade for one instead of simply having a replicator on DS9 making one for him and Sisko.

 

[Timo]

But we never actually hear that latinum cannot be replicated. Indeed, we never hear that X cannot be replicated.

It's always only "nearly" impossible, or time-consuming. Which would be good enough for turning latinum into a rare commodity and thus useful as a currency.

However, it could just as well be that latinum is used for currency the same way paper is used today. It's moderately difficult to make latinum, just like it's moderately difficult to make bill-quality paper today. But the makers also insert all sorts of devilish tricks into the latinum, including complex chemical codes and whatnot, so that each bullion or slip becomes readily identifiable, and a mere copy of a latinum brick is as worthless as a perfect copy of a ten-thousand-dollar bill because anybody willing to receive a ten-thousand-dollar bill can also check whether it is unique or a copy of another such bill already in circulation.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JustKate]

Re. the OP, Memory Alpha just says latinum "cannot be replicated," and it doesn't explain why. I think I've read a little bit more complete explanation in one of the novels...but I can't remember anything about it. I'm thinking this might have been in Hollow Men, since I read that fairly recently...does anybody remember better than I do?

As for the general idea that replicators create perfect replicas of everything...you know, I just don't think so.

I'm a cook - not professional or anything, but it's one of my favorite things to do, and I do it a lot. From scratch, mostly, and mostly with fresh ingredients although there are exceptions to this since there are times when canned or frozen ingredients are greatly superior to, for example, those tomatoes imported from Alpha Centauri or wherever it is (some place where tomatoes are supposed to be orangish and waxy and dry and mealy and utterly flavorless) that we get around here in January.

A lot of people don't cook this way any more, and I can understand why - almost everybody is short on time, everybody has to allocate his or her time in the best possible way, and if you don't have the time to spend in the kitchen or you'd rather not spend your spare time that way, so be it.

But do you know - and you other dedicated cooks out there can attest to this - how often I'm told some piece of over-processed and/or mass-produced and/or artificially flavored dreck is "just as good" as homemade or "just as good" as fresh or "just as good" as the real thing? All the time, that's how often. Is it ever true? Sometimes. But most of the time? Definitely not.

Is artificial vanilla as good as real vanilla? No. Is frozen sweet corn as good as sweet corn that was picked just a few hours before? No. Is non-fat ranch dressing as good as real ranch dressing? No.

Just last week, an in-law was talking about how much she loves these pre-packaged apple slices. The processors take fresh apples, core them, slice them and treat them with citric acid or something so they don't turn brown, and this in-law just loves them and eats them all the time.

"So what's wrong with just eating an apple?" I wondered to myself. I mean, apples are in season right now. They are cheap. They are available. There are orchards and farmers markets all around the city where you can get fabulous apples practically or literally right off the tree. I have Ida Reds and Jonagolds from a local orchard sitting in my kitchen right now. And yet she's paying an enormous premium for apples that have been sliced and treated, and she's doing so right now, while apples are in season.

I guess if it keeps her from eating potato chips, that's something, and I could understand it if she explained it that way. But that's not the deal. No: she actually thinks those silly apple slices are as good as - are better than - an apple that was picked off a tree just few miles away just a few days before.

She can't taste the difference. Or really, I guess she can, but she prefers the taste of the processed product to that of the fresh, local product.

My point, which I realize I'm making in a circuitous way, is that although I'm sure the Trek replicators can do a perfect job on some things, a great job on other things, and good job at some things - they'd pretty much have to do a better job with tomatoes that whoever grows them on Alpha Centauri - based on my experience as a cook, I am also pretty sure that some things just won't taste right. And some of them won't taste right because they aren't right - they are close to the real thing, but not...quite...there.

 

[Lindley]

Goods aren't the only thing for which compensation is exchanged. Services are also required.

If you have a moneyless economy (which never made sense, face it) then the compensation exchanged for services must take some other form.

 

[Shazam!]

Eating and drinking together is a social activity, and purchasing those items is also part of the social experience. It's believable that people would just rather buy a couple of drinks and/or a meal at the place they're in rather than find the nearest replicator and smuggle their items into the bar.

 

[Mirror_Barclay]

Services.

Location - as Shazam mentioned, food and drink is more valuable in a well-located bar than in your home.

Any material goods that can't be replicated for technobabble reasons.

Any material goods that can't be freely replicated because they're under copyright. (If almost everything is replicated, almost everything becomes intellectual property, whether it's the latest novel or chicken curry #468.)

There are lots of uses for currency, latinum or whatever.