[AndrewOMartin]

We're playing at sci-fi here, so don't take my response too seriously, but allow me to engage.

We know that e=mc^2, and so it's going to take a hell of a lot of energy to make enough mass for another copy of you. The only 'efficient' way to use a transporter therefore is to turn your 'original' body into energy, and use that energy to make the copy at the other end.

[gabrielblack]

I don't think it's a problem in Start Trek universe: they use REPLICATORS to generate meals for the crew (to cook ?). So what's the problem there ? If Einstein is dead in the kitchen, he is dead everywhere. As you tell us, it's fiction, so the whole discussion can't be taken seriously, IMHO ;-)

[AndrewOMartin]

Maybe the food replicators work by transporting the appropriate meals from elsewhere in the galaxy :)