Ah, okay, that makes a lot more sense! Yes, you've definitely watched more Star Trek than I have, and probably more recently as well.
I recall that energy was a problem, but what about the manufacture of replicators themselves? Do we know if replicators could make more replicators?
They had these things called industrial sized replicators that were necessary for constructing super large objects (or even moderately sized ones, like other replicators, which were sort of appliance-sized). They had these at Earth, on shipyards, etc. They were powered off of reactors that may have been too large to fit on a ship, I'm not sure.
In some cases, ships had to replicate huge stores of items for emergencies, like medical supplies. This would lead to power drains that required them to refuel with "dilithium crystals" at a port. Under normal operation, a ship wouldn't need to refuel more often than...I dunno, maybe a year or two, but serious replicator load could cut that time substantially.
Given that replicators produced items almost instantaneously, the only advantage to making more replicators was to slightly speed that process up. They still need to be attached to something like a reactor. I never saw a portable replicator in any of the series, they are always attached to a ship or a reactor at an installation.
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That's super interesting--so what we have, then, is an economy in which there are just a few potential bottlenecks: dilithium crystals for energy (for both production and transportation), the large size, limited number, and limited locations of industrial replicators, and then the fairly minor limitations of small replicators for meeting everyday human needs. And, as long as those limitations are overcome by securing a supply of dilithium crystals and managing industrial replicators, the rest of human needs are met: space communism, indeed.
Presumably there are also some things that replicators couldn't do. I recall Whoopi Goldberg having to mix cocktails with a particularly delicate touch, because (apparently) replicators couldn't produce something so volatile. So it did still make sense to have "service" jobs. I don't recall things like haircuts or childcare coming up much, but I suppose those would also be things that relied on humans, and thus would have to be organized in some way.
This has been a great conversation, by the way. Thanks.
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Yeah, you can't really replicate a "Flaming Moe" too well. It's all about the process, not the result.
Dilithium crystals also seem to be so hyper-efficient that acquiring them only seems to be a problem if a ship is stranded far from a port for literally years.
By the way, there's another good comment thread going below.
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