World Building: Star Trek Economic Model

[a_r_williams]

It seems the new Star Trek movie is a good one from what I hear. I wasn't planning on seeing it, but after all the comments about it I'm going to see it today.

I'm not a Star Trek fanatic in any sense of the word, but a few things about Star Trek's economy makes me wonder how the process came about: how a nation's economic principles can influence

Comments

[scriva]

Someone builds a replicator. What happens next?

That's a really amusing mind game. I did create a similary device for my (unfinished) SF story, but my replicators can not create things out of nothing. They have to be programmed to "know" the different kinds of foods and their contents, but not all devices have the same capacities and there are different brands.

The food is not entirely for free, but, while nobody has to pay for the replication, the price is usually included in the rent of a flat/hotel room or the price of a space ship ticket.

In addition, my race of mutants can not eat food from the replicator, because they need to consume substances based on certain organic structures. Therefore they had to invent other devices for space travels.

[a_r_williams]

Sounds like an interesting story. You should try and get it finished. I like how you took an idea of a replicator and had differing results on how the technology was used.

It's good to see you still posting.