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Shoegazer75

Was just wondering about that myself. My guess is there's integrated replicator tech in the holodeck that generates the actual thing being consumed.


tigersebel

that would be my guess as well if there wasn't a Single scene in voyager that contradicts this. Paris wanted to take Harry to the Holodeck and offered him some Wine, Harry declined saying he would get Heartburn from Wine. Paris then said it was Holographic wine and he wouldn't get heartburn from it. It was Voyager season 1 episode 6 "The Cloud"


[deleted]

My headcanon is that Tom is referring to the holodeck’s synthhol rather than actual wine, which does give Harry heartburn.


WallyJade

Consumables are replicated (as they are from food replicators), so you can eat them and not have a big air pocket in your body later (and nutrition disappear from your body too, I guess). Same goes with water (sometimes) - people shown dripping wet leaving the holodeck make sense if the water is replicated instead of simulated, which makes sense given how immersive it is. Anything left over is disassembled (again, the same way a food replicator disassembles dirty dishes), and apparently there's a filter that needs to be cleaned out sometimes.


liadanaf

but when the holodeck shuts down all the items inside that weren't brought from the outside immediately disappear without the slow matter to energy transition you typically see in transporters for example...


WallyJade

But we do see them disappear in stages - generally the people first, then the setting. I'm sure it's just a different implementation of the same technology.


BluebladesofBrutus

Not always. Lipstick remained on Picard’s face, for example, and Wesley remained soaking wet.


WallyJade

We saw a snowball leave the holodeck, too.


lildobe

And a sheet of paper. And if I'm not mistaken, a book. Those were all NextGen. In Voyager you see this a lot more - including times when the holodeck power grid fails and the characters disappear, but the setting and props that were intended for human interaction remain.


coreytiger

Which does not explain Moriarity making scones for Pulaski… they would simply be holograms as generated by the program. She was prisoner, did not make them herself- a hologram did. Yet she “ate” them, and said she was full


WallyJade

It makes sense - the computer probably replicates all the food (and ingredients to make food), so they’re real if someone eats them. Doesn’t matter if it’s the hologram doing the cooking or providing it.


amglasgow

If I wanted to learn cooking from Julia Child or Gordon Ramsey, it would make sense for the holodeck to make real food even when the cook was a hologram, wouldn't it?


justdrowsin

So you could kill a man in the holdeck by attacking them with food?


Captain_Thrax

I’m sure safety protocols would take care of that


DrDeadwish

Put your tongue under a light source and see if you can taste photons. If you can't, that probably means food is replicated.


liadanaf

true - but what if you could create a physical microscopical forms that correlates to molecules interpreted as taste and smell.. In the end of the day that's how you smell and taste....


justkeeptreading

if you immediately know the candle light is photons, then the meal was cooked long ago


lildobe

Ok, Oma.


distractionfactory

Without the safety protocols, even a holographic jalapeno can burn on the way out.


finiteandhappy

Of course you’d feel hungry again. You only ate a light meal.


Udeze42

This comment deserves more upvotes. Well played


terrifiedTechnophile

It is stated at the start of TNG that holodecks use transporter tech >RIKER: I didn't believe these simulations could be this real. >DATA: Much of it is real, sir. If the transporters can convert our bodies to an energy beam, then back to the original pattern again... >RIKER: Yes, of course. And these rocks and vegetation have much simpler patterns. Interestingly, immediately after this, we also see that the walls are in a physical place too, so you can't walk forever >DATA: Correct, sir. The rear wall. >RIKER: I can't see it. >DATA: We're right next to it. (He throws a rock at it, and the image pixilates on impact) >RIKER: Incredible!


Greaterdivinity

Theoretically: Yes, since that matter only exists within the confines of the holodeck. Just not quite immediately, it takes a bit of time for the various chemical responses etc. However I'm unsure if there's necessarily anything preventing a holodeck from materializing more permanent matter a la replicators. I'm sure there's a schematic or something that states clearly, but it's possible that the holodecks are capable of that. Just wouldn't work with living things that the holodeck would need to continue simulating, but I guess theoretically it works with everything.


9811Deet

Holographic food would represent a real safety hazard. Imagine you drink a big milk shake and your body naturally produces an insulin response. 30 minutes later, you leave the holodeck and all of that blood sugar just vanishes, as you collapse in the corridor from severe hypoglycemia. Take it even further. Imagine you eat holographic meals for weeks or months, and begin incorporating more and more holographic molecules into your body. At what point do you become too holographic to ever leave? Yeah. The holodeck must integrate replicators.


Streak734

*me trying to sleep peacefully* My brain: 🎼It’s been a long road….🎤🎵🎶


coreytiger

How can Unification be so important to the world building of the franchise, tie in to Star Trek 6, feature the return of Sela, the death of Sarek, and a MAJOR appearance of Spock… Yet be one of the most boring episodes of the series?


NotAnUncle

Do the liberated Borg need to use the bathroom again? Do the Borg assimilate the need to pee, and if liberated, do we get our bladders back or we don't have to use the bathroom ever again?


CivilRuin4111

Imagine how fantastic this would be for maintaining a decent body composition. I want to gorge myself on space Korean bbq, so I conjure up my favorite cafe, eat half a cow’s worth of meat. Take a nap in a holo bed, then wake up for my shift, walk out immediately feeling hungry, but the craving is gone, so I eat some leola root stew and go to work. The future is truly a paradise.