46

Why are there cargo ships in the Star Trek stories?

With replicator technology and FTL communication, there is no need for cargo ships. You can just transmit the computer files on how to replicate just about any device.

Want your own Triumph motorcycle in your new colony at Procyon-B? Just have somebody back on Earth scan the device, send the files to you by subspace email, and then use your replicator to create an exact copy of the motorcycle.

Want a copy of the Mona Lisa? No problem! Just scan that too. Now you can mount a copy on your bedroom wall. It's picture perfect down to the molecules of paint.

Sending computer files by email sounds so much cheaper and safer than shipping items by freight. The market will go for the cheaper option.

user931
  • 115,946
  • 150
  • 581
  • 1,075

3 Answers3

65

According to this earlier answer, which quotes the TNG Technical Manual, replicators need raw materials.

For instance,

raw stock for food replicators is stored in the form of a sterilized organic particulate suspension that has been formulated to statistically require the least quantum manipulation to replicate most finished foodstuffs.

Hence, there is a need to transport raw materials as well as materials that the replicator can't replicate. Also, it may make sense to transport and store some common, much-used materials like water, fuel and metals rather than using energy to replicate them.

user931
  • 115,946
  • 150
  • 581
  • 1,075
Klaus Æ. Mogensen
  • 20,453
  • 3
  • 60
  • 82
  • 4
    That would explain why you would need them aboard a ship, which has limited resources; however, the destination is usually a planet which has enormous amounts of matter and energy available. – DrSheldon Feb 11 '19 at 13:49
  • I imagine raw materials are shipped from outer planets to more central ones, where they are processed. I don't imagine you just grow " sterilized organic particulate suspension" on farms. – Klaus Æ. Mogensen Feb 11 '19 at 14:08
  • 19
    But sterilized organic particulate suspension is so tasty. ;) – T.J.L. Feb 11 '19 at 14:56
  • 13
    It's also often noted that many things simply cannot be replicated - really, the things that can be replicated are the exceptions, and they tend to be extremely simple. Food stuffs are relatively complex, but they also don't require a lot of precision. Things like warp coils are apparently way beyond the Federation's replication capacity during the shows. When we see Federation transports, a lot of them are ferrying things that aren't "replicable" - people, ores, raw materials, machinery, plasma, antimatter... The replicators really seem more a luxury item than anything else. – Luaan Feb 11 '19 at 15:12
  • 2
    @Luaan Replicator technlogy = (short range) transporter technology. As shown in the shows over the decades, they can transport sapient species and, complex computers, active antimatter containment jars on antigravity sleds, and armed photon torpedo warheads. – Lexible Feb 11 '19 at 17:06
  • 11
    @Luaan I believe at several points they also state that not everyone likes replicated things. Tom Paris in Voyager, as I recall, gripes that the replicators never really get tomato soup quite to his tastes. I think Worf and/or other Klingons say much the same about Bloodwine. So there's probably a sizable market for non-replicated foods and other items to meet people's preferences or technical requirements. And in DS9, Ben Sisko's dad runs a restaurant, which evidently cooks non-replicated food into non-replicated meals, and this is quite popular. Picard's from a farm, etc. – zibadawa timmy Feb 11 '19 at 17:26
  • Let's not forget the holodecks from TNG onward. I believe Wesley explains early in the series that many of the "simulated" items (plants?) are essentially produced by the replicators on-demand. As long as there are enough raw resources to be rearranged, enough energy to run the replicators, and infrastructure to maintain those two we're deep into magical, Heisenberg compensator-level technology. More mundane transport is clearly necessary because it is consistently used, not because of some underlying "real" reason, and capability suits the plot rather than the other way around. – Upper_Case Feb 11 '19 at 19:14
  • Also, don't forget about Federation planets whose cultures might be against replicator tech, not against the charter itself, but against letting tech take over their lives. Don't have any specifics off-hand, but hence why this is a comment and not an answer. Also the Federation trades with other non-Federation systems that may still trade in physical materials, hence the need for cargo vessels. – MissouriSpartan Feb 11 '19 at 21:09
  • @KlausÆ.Mogensen I think it may come from factories fed by sewage processing plants etc. Note that if you only transport organics one way, from outer planets to inner, they are eventually exhausted at the source and build up at the destination. – Technophile Feb 11 '19 at 23:25
  • 1
    The fact that planets have far more resources should be more evidence in favor of colonies on them using replicators where people have emailed the computer files on how to replicate an item. If your answer is based on amount of raw materials, then your answer is contrary to what the OP is asking. – RichS Feb 12 '19 at 05:57
  • @Lexible And yet, they can never replicate them, despite how useful it would be. Apparently, it's a lot easier to transport people than to replicate them. It's interesting that in TOS, the only cases where transporter malfunctions changed the person being transported, the matter was being conserved (e.g. Kirk switching place with Mirror Kirk or TMP's malfunction); it's only from TNG onward that transporters can create copies (Riker) and "lose" people (Tuvix...). The writers didn't much care for writing sci-fi. – Luaan Feb 12 '19 at 06:31
  • @Luaan "Can never replicate them", except for all the episodes where that is just what they did. But I think we agree on the writing. :) – Lexible Feb 12 '19 at 06:40
  • 2
    In "Trouble with Tribbles", they were bulk transporting grain. It was a special kind of grain, and could well have been meant for seeding (I'm not sure replicators can do living organisms), but it was still bulk grain. – T.E.D. Feb 12 '19 at 14:53
  • There's coffee in that nebula! – mm201 Feb 12 '19 at 20:28
36

Replicators have certain limitations. They can't create:

  • Antimatter

  • Dilithium

  • Latinum

  • Living organism

As for the living organisms, Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual states that:

Though the replicators use a form of transporter technology, it's at such a low resolution that creating living tissue is a physical impossibility.

As for the organic food replicator creates, organic raw materials are needed to be fed into replicator.

user931
  • 115,946
  • 150
  • 581
  • 1,075
  • 2
    Also, some things are either a) cheaper to produce than replicate (wheat for example) b) more valuable when produced by hand (luxury items such as Romulan ale and Klingon blood wine ) – jo1storm Feb 11 '19 at 08:00
  • 14
    @jo1storm Or have lower energy requirements to produce the "normal" way - on a Starship, space is at a premium so Replicated is the way to go. But, on a Planet with lots of room for storage, Replicating things may be a waste of resources. – Chronocidal Feb 11 '19 at 08:41
  • 2
    Yeah. There is episode of DS9 where Federation provides replicators to Cardassian rebels and multiple episodes where the replicators are provided to colonists. The first example, time was a premium. In second, the replicators were there for emergencies and until the first harvest. – jo1storm Feb 11 '19 at 09:09
  • 3
    Can't food replicators create living gagh? I'm pretty sure I remember seeing gagh served live to visiting Klingons on a federation ship. These look like they might be alive although I can't see them moving. – terdon Feb 11 '19 at 11:55
  • 3
    Replicators can only create items appropriate to their size as well, as industrial replicators are a thing. Industrial replicators seem to be much smaller in numbers, and possibly limited access. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Industrial_replicator There also seem to be many non Federation civilizations that are space faring, but possibly do not have replicator technology. – Kai Feb 11 '19 at 12:43
  • 1
    @terdon I can't recall the exact quote, but there is mention of adding a special enzyme to the replicated gagh to make it writhe and appear alive in one episode. (Also, it occurs to me that the whole "efficiency" thing I raised in my earlier comment is actually canon, and the whole reason that Nelix becomes a chef on Voyager) – Chronocidal Feb 11 '19 at 16:35
  • Very strange to assert that replicators cannot replicate dilithium or antimatter, when both have been transported, and replicator technology is just transporter technology at short range, and with a library attached to the pattern buffer. – Lexible Feb 11 '19 at 17:08
  • @Lexible Do you remember an episode where they are moved via transporters? I seem to recall it being said that these items were too delicate/dangerous/unstable/whatever to be transported safely, so while it may be technically possible it's too dangerous or damaging to risk in all but extreme circumstances. But maybe I've got some head canon going on. – zibadawa timmy Feb 11 '19 at 17:33
  • 1
    @zibadawatimmy Dilithium was definitely transported in TOS episode 'Elaan of Troyius'. – LAK Feb 11 '19 at 18:32
  • 2
    @Lexible "replicator technology is just transporter technology at short range" At a lower resolution. Transporters can handle stuff on the subatomic level (Heisenberg compensators and all), replicators work on the molecular level, iirc. – JAB Feb 11 '19 at 18:38
  • @zibadawatimmy The TOS episode with the psychotic computer probe NOMAD involved transporting anti-matter, as I recall. The second episode of season 1 ST:D entailed the transport of a photon torpedo warhead. Almost every episode of ST (possibly expecting Enterprise) in any series featured transport of sentient beings. – Lexible Feb 11 '19 at 19:55
  • @JAB That's by design, not by a limitation of the technology. – Lexible Feb 11 '19 at 19:57
  • 4
    @Chronocidal - "on a Starship, space is at a premium" - There is a joke there somewhere but I can't think of it. – RyanfaeScotland Feb 11 '19 at 20:50
  • @Lexible The fact alone that replicators of non-living material are designed to produce it with greater tolerances than a dedicated transporter would indicate that there is some advantage in doing so. – JAB Feb 11 '19 at 22:20
  • 2
    "...it's at such a low resolution that creating living tissue is a physical impossibility." I guess this is why replicator food doesn't taste quite like real food. – jpmc26 Feb 11 '19 at 23:01
  • 1
    Wesley Crusher used transporters to beam a small amount of anti-matter in the episode, Peak Performance. If transporters can handle anti-matter, then why not replicators? – RichS Feb 12 '19 at 05:53
  • 3
    Basically, the issue is that replicators are just lower-quality transporters, likely to save on maintenance costs due to wear-and-tear (because if a replicator is as accurate as a transporter, there's no reason for it to be a distinct device, so it's going to be used as often as a transporter, and then much, much more). So, lower-quality components are "good enough", which in turn leads to a resolution issue, that makes replicators the 720i to transporters' 4k HD. – Justin Time - Reinstate Monica Feb 12 '19 at 08:06
  • 2
    You probably could replicate anti-matter, but keeping it from touching any regular matter and going BOOM would be a major problem, so they disable it for safety reasons. – Darrel Hoffman Feb 12 '19 at 15:30
  • 2
    You can demonstrably replicate anti-matter. The DS9 wormhole barrier was made of self-replicating mines with antimatter charges. – Damon Feb 13 '19 at 09:38
  • 1
    @Damon Good example! – Ruadhan2300 Feb 13 '19 at 10:24
9

Replicators are common on federation ships, but don't seem as available to other cultures, or independent / underground communities. This is government/military grade, top of the line technology you're talking about. There may be agreements to share some technology with allies, but it's not 'open source', so to speak.

Macpeters
  • 99
  • 4
  • 4
    Or replicators may require (for example) a high-power energy source such as a matter / antimatter reactor, which you would have available on a ship but may be incredibly expensive for a typical independent community. – Technophile Feb 11 '19 at 23:29
  • 5
    I think there's a DS9 episode where Sisko talks about giving the Bajorans industrial grade replicators. He was concerned about the replicators being used to manufacture weapons. Clearly the use of replicators was something that had military applications so the Federation didn't want just anybody to have them. Maybe that is why many Federation colonies did not have industrial grade replicators. – RichS Feb 12 '19 at 05:50
  • 1
    My headcanon is that starships are wrapped around their power systems -- matter/antimatter reactors on Starfleet ships, controlled singularities on Romulan ships -- that produce enormous amounts of power required for warp drive. Such power plants are inherently dangerous, and so not used on inhabited planets, where a failure (however unlikely) would cause colossal devastation. So on a ship, power is plentiful but space is limited. Replicators take a lot of power, but not much space; you can feed a crew of a thousand with replicators more easily than you could feed a city of millions. – bgvaughan Feb 12 '19 at 21:51
  • 1
    @bgvaughan And even on space ships, they're more a luxury item than anything else - instead of military rations, the crew eats "fresh". Star Trek isn't entirely clear on where the antimatter for Starfleet ship comes from either - some stories suggest it is mined, others that it's produced on the ship itself due to the magic of dilithium (and dilithium itself is considered very valuable); but it's entirely possible it's produced at a net energy loss, and only used in spaceships because of its energy density (and possibly warp drive magic). Real rocket fuels are often the same way. – Luaan Feb 13 '19 at 10:58
  • 1
    @bgvaughan we see in ds9 that transporters and replicators are freely available on earth, so at least mega population centers have them. But we also see that people snob replicator food and will go to restaurants where they get something cooked. – Andrey Feb 14 '19 at 21:44