I’m watching S7E20 right now and the entire scene before the Defiant undocked from DS9 had that cinematic vibe you only get from a bonafide Hollywood movie.
I’m watching S7E20 right now and the entire scene before the Defiant undocked from DS9 had that cinematic vibe you only get from a bonafide Hollywood movie.
And what can I buy with latnium? Couldn’t I just hop into the holo deck and swim in my personal lake of it? As far as assembling a ship it’s almost like I could replicate one small bot to build consecutively bigger assembly bots. It was just lazy writing for a bad premise of a star Trek, where is the trekking? More like Star Trek deep snooze nine.
Self-sealing stem bolts. A bunch of them.
Only in something that looked like latnium. Holodecks are a derivative of replicator technology, so it wouldn’t actually be latnium. (And it’s not a store of wealth since it would only exist on the holodeck.)
There was an entire space station that could replicate itself as well as replace parts on other ships. (At the cost of biomaterial…) Also, they build entire space stations, so yeah, automation is a thing but it still takes an energy source.
It wasn’t my favorite series and the ferangi weren’t my favorite species either. Regardless, trade was still active across the galaxy and many cultures didn’t have replicators. The reasoning behind what and how the ferangi traded was still extremely viable.
Got it, it’s self sealing stem bolts all the way down.
Basically. The root of your question was about what gives any item value.
If I have 10M stem bolts and you need them and don’t have access to a replicator, those bolts now have value to you. If I can trade those bolts for latnium with the expectation of trading that latnium for something else, that latnium has value to me.
We now have the makings for a society based on trade.
If you’re on Deep Space 9, you have to pay to use Quark’s holodecks in the first place. They don’t show it much, but they do mention in the first or second episode that Starfleet get a few slips of latinum as a per diem when stationed somewhere not part of the Federation. There has also been at least one occasion where Bashir mentions eating at the replimat instead of Quark’s because he was saving up to buy something, implying that they all pay to eat at the bar.
Gambling is also big activity at Quark’s, something that costs money, but can’t be replicated. Also, real liquor, not Synthehol.
I get the feeling that replicated food is the equivalent of frozen dinners. Its edible, and for many people its good enough, but those with more discriminating palates occasionally want something real.
I also got the impression that replicator quality can vary. I think it was Birthright, from TNG, where they go to DS9, and Worf learns his father might be alive. One of the Enterprise crew, I don’t remember who, makes a comment about the food at the Replimat tasting like polymer.