If star trek has the transporter and the replicator, isn't that like a ticket to immortality...?

Question

So why do they even have anyone dying off at all...? Why not just have them replicated...?

Answer 1

I agree with apollo124.

Replicator technology (as it existed on Star Trek) was not advanced enough to hold all the information necessary to store life and recreate it. It could make food but that food was never alive nor did it have the same qualities as the real thing. That's why Star Trek characters always thought replicated food was of low quality.

As with the transporter, it only momentarily stores molecular information and then moves it to someplace else. The transporter buffer (place where molecular information went) was not made to store that information for long periods of time. Scotty was able to store himself in the buffer in an episode of TNG but his friend who he also tried to store didn't survive. I can't expalin why Scotty could do it other than he was a real engineering genius (and a popular character who should've been dead by TNG but the writers found a way to bring him back to create money for the show.) Anyways, the transporter only moves matter. It doesn't make someone younger.

That's why Star Trek characters had to die just like anyone else.

Answer 2

Geek answer here. The transporter works by remaking the person in real time, bit by bit, at a quantum level of resolution without having to store the information. The replicator works by recreating an item from a datafile at the molecular level of resolution. The amount of information contained in recreating a living being has to be handled in real time, because otherwise the size of the file would be completely unmanageable even with the 24th century technology. The additional level of resolution is the reason that doesn't work. It is also the key to why Latinum is so valuable in Star Trek. It can't be replicated.

Answer 3

You can replicate yourself, but only at your current age. You can't make a younger version of yourself. You still age outside of the transporter beam. You could be immortal if you lock the transporter in a diagnostic cycle and stay in there for a long time like Scotty did on TNG. But being immortal stuck in a transporter beam is pretty boring.

Answer 4

They'd replicate them and the replica would die too, i guess. not like i ever watch star trek. (no offense)

Answer 5

Might just work,I prefer time travel and regenerating,as in Dr Who.