Wow. This is an incredible story of what happens when you order “soup, no bowl” from a food replicator onboard the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek. This is a wild ride:
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“I am sluggish for want of power; my examination of the room has taken .8 seconds.” – “Combat Unit”, Keith Laumer, 1960(?)
Note to self: do not order soup no bowl.
Or….
A moment later, a serving of soup appears in a mug.
And that’s why I’m not worried about AI taking over the world.
Exactly…
**Replicator replicates Cup-‘o-Noodles.**
A cup of soup would be one of the first things discovered be a simple search of “soup no bowl”.
A year on….
A google search of soup: no bowl turns up this post.
In all of human history includes, perhaps paradoxically, this discourse.
The Replicator now knows, from the comments, that soup: no bowl is Cup o’Noodles, or soup in a mug.
Media chomp commenters have saved the Starship Enterprise.
My answer was cob loaf.
Soup Dumplings on a plate. Solved.
Indeed, “soup, no bowl” is a thing. Cook broth down to a gluey, gelatinous sheet. Cut into cakes, wrap and store. The Royal Navy issued it as food for invalids. I’m not sure what the average Federation crew would think of it though. Most naval fiction portrays it as a bit of a joke.
i immediately envisioned it plopping down a bullion cube.
User did not specify soup temperature. Frozen soup does not require a bowl. Replicates a plate of frozen soup cubes.
Soup served in a pumpkin shell, for that autumnal vibe.
Soup is adapted from sop, which is broth ladled over a slice of bread, It doesn’t require a bowl, although it would still be wiser to eat it in one. The replicators would probably just give a failure error and lack the capacity to try to fulfil the request. There was a Cardassian stowaway on DS9 who had to hack a replicator in the residential area at night to get it to combine human food ingredients into something she could eat. Replicators seem to be independent, self-contained appiances
The Enterprise is, itself, a container. One that the replicator will attempt to fill to capacity…
I think the answer is obvious. It replicates the soup, but also turns off the gravity on that deck. A blob of soup floats out of the replicator, as surprised crew members suddenly flail about, trying to find something the hold onto.
Early astronauts had soup in bulbs to deal with microgravity
I just thought it would flood the ship. Another part of the rule set should say liquids fill their container. No bowl means the ship is the container.