"Enterprise" tech question

In article <hag9c.16$N2.5@newsfe1-win>, ntl: Victim
<ntl.victim.RemoveThis@ntlworld.com> wrote:

 > I agree that you might expect something like the hydroponics bay that Kes
 > created on Voyager so fresh vegetables & the like could be grown but can you
 > imagine the space required to cultivate these to the proportions needed to
 > feed the whole crew on a daily or even weekly basis. Given this is Earth
 > 1st serious attempt at exploration I would imagine that space on the ship
 > would be at a premium and any technology that can create food & other items
 > on demand would be preferable.

I would agree with pretty much all of that, but my problem with the
poop machine (which is what I think I'll call it) is that it's just
Harry Potter magic. In Star Trek, if you want something to happen and
you don't want to spend too much time worrying about how it happens,
you just make up a device that does the thing for you, and then you
move on. That's really no different from casting a spell.

As you say, it's important that this is Earth's first serious attempt
at interstellar exploration. That's pretty much why, for the sake of
credibility if nothing else, we should be seeing a more primitive level
of technology than we do. There's no reason to suggest that Enterprise
must grow *all* its own crops, but we should be seeing attempts to grow
things they are not likely to find on alien planets -- common spices,
for one thing. I think they would be likely to find a sugar crop
pretty much anywhere plant life is supported, and if you have sugar you
can manufacture any number of other foods and goods.

 > And why not make ice cream out of poop? Given that this technology is
 > supposed to break everything down into the same material in which to
 > re-sequence, what's the difference what you start with? This is after all
 > the hope that nanotechnology brings with it isn't it, to be able to
 > manipulate single atoms in order to create something completely different
 > from what you started with.

If they had nanotechnology at the level you suggest, the ship would be
repairing itself constantly, supplies would be renewing themselves, and
there would be little need for the crew to do anything but sit back and
enjoy the ride. Since we're sort of stuck here with a complex Trekkish
history, it's an unfortunate fact that there is no evidence of such
nanotech in Trek Classic, so the possibilities in Enterprise are (or
should be) rather limited. In Trek Classic, they hauled along their
own supplies and traded for what they needed as they went. The ship
could pay in gold and trade goods. This is the kind of thing you'd
expect to see in an expansionist frontier culture. I would not expect
to see better than this in a show set well before Trek Classic.

 > Oh and when technology had progressed to the Voyager era Miss Toress did
 > mention to certain aliens that every waste by-product on the ship was
 > completely recycled.

Recycling is one thing and remanufacturing is another. However,
Voyager is far enough ahead of Enterprise that such "magic" is more
excusable. I admit that's more of a feeling than a finding of fact.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->