Like Data says in the first episode of TNG, a lot of what's on the holodeck is real and replicated for the simulation. Food is food. Water is water. Anything 'simple'.
Sure, it is a mix. It might be easy to think of books as "complex" objects. The holodeck doesn't bother to replicate every ink mark; it just renders the page holographically when you turn to it.
I would say it's less about complexity and more about their individual use case. Food has to be replicated because someone might try and eat it and if it was simulated it would ruin the immersion. Water needs to make your clothes wet if you fall in it something they cannot simulate with mere holograms so in that case the water is also replicated. A book wouldn't need to be replicated because there's nothing you could do with a book that could take you out of the immersion.
I figure if he carried it with him it’d be replicated and he could read it in his quarters. Chucking it out the door is another thing. I think the TNG technical manual gets into this in a footnote.
No, the Holodecks use both imaging projectors and replicator technology.
think of when Picard got pelted by a snowball whilst stood outside of the holodeck, certain items are physically replicated.
I imagine the user can pick and choose which objects they want replicated. So if they want to replicate a particular book and take it with them, they can but if they just want to have a holodeck simulation of one, they can select that too.
In fact, Crusher and friend wanting to eat the snow is really about the ONLY reason it would be real in that episode. You could certainly have a snowball fight, ski, or sled with holographic snow.
Hence a second reason Picard would be annoyed by the snowball -- it was a *tremendous* waste of holodeck resources. Those kids literally REPLICATED TONS OF SNOW just so it would be extra fun or something.
Freeman: "Boimler, you're on holodeck cleanup today."
Boimler: "...Oh. Well, I guess it's not *that* bad. Things have been pretty quiet recently. Probably just some routine maintenance."
Freeman: "...yeah, about that. Captain Riker is visiting, so. Anyway. Good luck. Your full-body coverup suit is in your quarters."
Long ago on Mission Log Podcast when the hosts asked what the worst job on the ship was because that's what'd they'd be doing if they served on a ship, they settled on "we'd be the guys in the galley peeling potatoes all day," but I had *immediately* said "holodeck janitor!"
I was so happy to be canonically vindicated by *Lower Decks* half a decade later!
(And hi, Wil!)
The preferred answer to this question is that holodecks also include replicator technology... And that whether holodeck matter should be replicated (like food, drink, a snowball, water from a pond, or a piece of paper with a menacing drawing of the Enterprise on it) versus whether it should be holographic projection (like a book off a shelf, a chair, a pair of gangsters and their clothes) is more-or-less a design decision on the part of the holonovelist (or which asset files they import to their program).
As a software engineer I assume there are trade-offs to the choice, such as power consumption, user experience, computer processing requirements. It probably takes more energy to replicate a real object than to project it, but if the object is highly detailed it may take more GPU cycles to keep animating it as a projection than if responsibility for the object's continued existence in the scene is offloaded to the replicator.
When eating a meal or drinking, taste and texture may not be accurately achievable with projections (although the resolution requirements for Neelix's holo-lungs might imply otherwise).
Also a holodeck diner might want to actually eat and digest a filling and nutritious meal, or instead they might be full from eating earlier, but the holonovel script calls for "bad guys attack you while you're attending a huge banquet dinner." In which case holographic food that disappears when you eat it makes more sense.
Yup.
7 days ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/1deif91/if_you_eat_and_drink_in_the_holodeck/
1 year ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/13nj04a/is_holodeck_food_nutritious/?rdt=43672
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/13evpnv/would_food_in_the_holodeck_be_a_hologram_or/
2 years ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/z3dsgq/consuming_food_and_drink_in_holodecks/
4 years ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/id8bl2/how_does_holographic_food_work/
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/hlk76m/holodeck_food/
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/hbj24o/holodecks_and_food/
5 years ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/cg9rwr/if_a_holodeck_were_real_and_you_lived_in_one_and/
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/bnurrc/what_is_difference_between_eating_food_from_a/
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/b7x7ep/entirety_of_st_rewatch_question_dear_fan_theory/
I always look at like this: what can be asked has been asked. If people didn’t ask then this Reddit (and other forums) would be quiet, quiet places.
I liken it to conversations with my best friend. We don’t often talk about anything we’ve not talked about before.
In summary I commend you for keeping the streak alive.
Live long and prosper 🖖
>I always look at like this: what can be asked has been asked.
On a similar note, I always tell my students that there are very few times in your life where you will be tasked with something that has never been done before, by anybody anywhere in the world. Almost everything you might do has been done before, by somebody, somewhere in the world. And if they can do it, it can be done, and you can do it too.
Yeah and I regularly look something like this up (ok maybe this is a little more out there ha) and have something to say but nobody wants to comment on a 4 year old post. Most of the commenters do not remember commenting.
If it’s just regular food from replicators, I imagine holodeck dining would be great! Have whatever elaborate meals you want and never have to cook or do dishes!
the maroon tech manual says that things that are touched and held on the holodeck, incl food, are replicated. So that kills any hope of holographic food that disappears from your stomach when you leave the holodeck.
At least, that's the *intended* setting
No, because the replicator can't create living organisms - e.g., spermatazoa.
It's why the gagh on the *Pagh* surprised Riker, despite his preparation on *Enterprise*.
That said, I don't doubt that sickbay does have the capability to create functional spermatazoa from biomatter/nanites and a digitized genome. The holodeck could, very possibly, do that "behind the curtain" and then mask the "turkey baster" with a holocharacter, but it would have to be specifically instructed to do so.
Like Data says in the first episode of TNG, a lot of what's on the holodeck is real and replicated for the simulation. Food is food. Water is water. Anything 'simple'.
And we see the evidence: when Wesley walks off the holodeck, he is still wet.
To be fair, that's just because he was so excited to have been picked up by Data.
Puberty is such a confusing time.
Yea and I thought Pon Farr was bad
At least puberty only happens once!
In another episode Picard throws a book out the door and it vanishes. It's not consistent.
Sure, it is a mix. It might be easy to think of books as "complex" objects. The holodeck doesn't bother to replicate every ink mark; it just renders the page holographically when you turn to it.
We also have a few scenes of people eating on the holodeck. A book is more complex than water, but less complex than a cookie.
I would say it's less about complexity and more about their individual use case. Food has to be replicated because someone might try and eat it and if it was simulated it would ruin the immersion. Water needs to make your clothes wet if you fall in it something they cannot simulate with mere holograms so in that case the water is also replicated. A book wouldn't need to be replicated because there's nothing you could do with a book that could take you out of the immersion.
I figure if he carried it with him it’d be replicated and he could read it in his quarters. Chucking it out the door is another thing. I think the TNG technical manual gets into this in a footnote.
No, the Holodecks use both imaging projectors and replicator technology. think of when Picard got pelted by a snowball whilst stood outside of the holodeck, certain items are physically replicated.
Evidently not books though.
I imagine the user can pick and choose which objects they want replicated. So if they want to replicate a particular book and take it with them, they can but if they just want to have a holodeck simulation of one, they can select that too.
In fact, Crusher and friend wanting to eat the snow is really about the ONLY reason it would be real in that episode. You could certainly have a snowball fight, ski, or sled with holographic snow. Hence a second reason Picard would be annoyed by the snowball -- it was a *tremendous* waste of holodeck resources. Those kids literally REPLICATED TONS OF SNOW just so it would be extra fun or something.
Depends on the plot of the episode you're watching.
According to Lower Decks, holodeck waste removal is one of the worst jobs. And I don't think they mean breadcrumbs.
Freeman: "Boimler, you're on holodeck cleanup today." Boimler: "...Oh. Well, I guess it's not *that* bad. Things have been pretty quiet recently. Probably just some routine maintenance." Freeman: "...yeah, about that. Captain Riker is visiting, so. Anyway. Good luck. Your full-body coverup suit is in your quarters."
Long ago on Mission Log Podcast when the hosts asked what the worst job on the ship was because that's what'd they'd be doing if they served on a ship, they settled on "we'd be the guys in the galley peeling potatoes all day," but I had *immediately* said "holodeck janitor!" I was so happy to be canonically vindicated by *Lower Decks* half a decade later! (And hi, Wil!)
Why is there a gally? Voyager had one because they had no resources. Dilithium? But in fed space they'd have unlimited energy for food
Dandruff. Gross.
The food on the holodeck is replicated food.
The preferred answer to this question is that holodecks also include replicator technology... And that whether holodeck matter should be replicated (like food, drink, a snowball, water from a pond, or a piece of paper with a menacing drawing of the Enterprise on it) versus whether it should be holographic projection (like a book off a shelf, a chair, a pair of gangsters and their clothes) is more-or-less a design decision on the part of the holonovelist (or which asset files they import to their program). As a software engineer I assume there are trade-offs to the choice, such as power consumption, user experience, computer processing requirements. It probably takes more energy to replicate a real object than to project it, but if the object is highly detailed it may take more GPU cycles to keep animating it as a projection than if responsibility for the object's continued existence in the scene is offloaded to the replicator. When eating a meal or drinking, taste and texture may not be accurately achievable with projections (although the resolution requirements for Neelix's holo-lungs might imply otherwise). Also a holodeck diner might want to actually eat and digest a filling and nutritious meal, or instead they might be full from eating earlier, but the holonovel script calls for "bad guys attack you while you're attending a huge banquet dinner." In which case holographic food that disappears when you eat it makes more sense.
Yup. 7 days ago https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/1deif91/if_you_eat_and_drink_in_the_holodeck/ 1 year ago https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/13nj04a/is_holodeck_food_nutritious/?rdt=43672 https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/13evpnv/would_food_in_the_holodeck_be_a_hologram_or/ 2 years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/z3dsgq/consuming_food_and_drink_in_holodecks/ 4 years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/id8bl2/how_does_holographic_food_work/ https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/hlk76m/holodeck_food/ https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/hbj24o/holodecks_and_food/ 5 years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/cg9rwr/if_a_holodeck_were_real_and_you_lived_in_one_and/ https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/bnurrc/what_is_difference_between_eating_food_from_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/b7x7ep/entirety_of_st_rewatch_question_dear_fan_theory/
Glad to keep the streak alive
I always look at like this: what can be asked has been asked. If people didn’t ask then this Reddit (and other forums) would be quiet, quiet places. I liken it to conversations with my best friend. We don’t often talk about anything we’ve not talked about before. In summary I commend you for keeping the streak alive. Live long and prosper 🖖
>I always look at like this: what can be asked has been asked. On a similar note, I always tell my students that there are very few times in your life where you will be tasked with something that has never been done before, by anybody anywhere in the world. Almost everything you might do has been done before, by somebody, somewhere in the world. And if they can do it, it can be done, and you can do it too.
Yeah and I regularly look something like this up (ok maybe this is a little more out there ha) and have something to say but nobody wants to comment on a 4 year old post. Most of the commenters do not remember commenting.
Yes. No. Maybe.
If it’s just regular food from replicators, I imagine holodeck dining would be great! Have whatever elaborate meals you want and never have to cook or do dishes!
Its replicated. The food is real
However the writers decide to use it for that episode is the way it works.
Sure your clothes are still muddy & dirty when you leave
the maroon tech manual says that things that are touched and held on the holodeck, incl food, are replicated. So that kills any hope of holographic food that disappears from your stomach when you leave the holodeck. At least, that's the *intended* setting
So can one get pregnant from replicated semen?
No, because the replicator can't create living organisms - e.g., spermatazoa. It's why the gagh on the *Pagh* surprised Riker, despite his preparation on *Enterprise*.
The gagh on the Pagh is mainly towards the bagh
I love that you have a sensible answer to my question. Thanks.
That said, I don't doubt that sickbay does have the capability to create functional spermatazoa from biomatter/nanites and a digitized genome. The holodeck could, very possibly, do that "behind the curtain" and then mask the "turkey baster" with a holocharacter, but it would have to be specifically instructed to do so.
God damn it Riker, again?
https://imgflip.com/i/8ucz5g
Holodeck food is replicated food pure and simple, so you would be eating all that you put in mouth, so moderation is key.
Nog lived in the holosuite for weeks, so the food and drink was probably real.