Replicators are perhaps the most significant of all of Star Trek’s inventions. The warp engine, transporters, and tricorders cannot hold a candle to the replicator. It is the technological foundation of trekonomics, the keystone of the Federation’s prosperity, the device that really sets it apart and makes it so intriguing and pregnant with possibilities. After the absence of money and the abolition of human labor, we now turn to the replicator…”
“What is the big deal ? The big deal is this: because of the replicator, nobody in the Federation has to work ever again. Nobody. Ever. The compulsion to work in order to survive has vanished. And furthermore, because of the replicators’ ubiquity, the necessity for markets has vaporized as well. Imbalances in supply and demand have largely become moot. The entire edifice of society as we know it has been upended. The old world, our world, is gone, and all it took was a cup of Earl Grey tea.”
Manu Saadia – Trekonomics
