Genies
Instantiates objects (often food) from energy. Expensive, energy-wise.
History
Look through the canon to see where these are mentioned and what you say about them (like you did with the Pad entry). The early Guidebook says that genies and Pads were forks off the Well Drive tech, so they have to have shown up after 2460-2472 (1 BA). Early genies were probably extremely clunky. Your notes also suggest a "Cervelle" associated with their development.
Technology
"As distance grows greater, Cervelle's equation shows that faults in wormhole production and power consumption grows."[1]
There is some evidence that genies use raw material to create items[2]; older notes suggest that the earliest versions of genies required raw material to synthesize items, and only newer versions can use pure power-conversion (at a significant loss of efficiency). Although, on Starbasa Ana, we hear that restaurant food waste is "put it in the bin that supplies materials for the genie"[3] as late as Sediryl's first experience of the Alliance. It's implied that access to a data stream is required (probably for the library of patterns).[4]
Common objects may be represented by very, very large numbers of possible examples in the genie. For example, Alysha Forrest's search for chocolate chip cookies turned up 3,429 "basic" recipes. [5]
Objects can be scanned to create a genie pattern. Scanning different examples of them multiple times can be used to create some variation in the result. Patterns that a person has created can be mailed to others.[6]
See also: Food and Genies
(Pray you don't get an Intermittently Malfunctioning Genie.)
Genies need special adapters to be connected to low power gem grids.[7]
Phantasies has a genie in the wall of the backroom Brighthaven uses, which implies that (in the capital, at least), genie use is ubiquitous.[8] We also see them in fancy hotel rooms on colony worlds (but that might be a function of the 'fancy hotel' part).[9] Both times they're used for alcohol. The genies offered by hotel services on Tsera Nova are not operational on emergency power.[10]
Genies and rogue D-per protocol: genies are locked down during rogue D-per protocols because they can be used to synthesize anything, not just food. The exceptions are in the medplex. [11]
Genies can be locked down (as on starships, when the captain of the SolarBlade prevented the shipboard genie from dispensing "unhealthy foodstuffs.")[12]
Some patterns aren't available via genie for legal/cultural reasons (example: milk tea bases from Stonylinn, a town on Hinichitii).[12]
Examples of other uses in the Alliance: furniture can be machine-assembled or "genie-created."[13] Starships are also assembled, probably because their size makes genie-creation prohibitive.[14]
If there's a joke that you can report a Fleet officer for using genies for "self-indulgent purposes", there's probably a regulation about it.[6] Fleet shipboard genies are not necessarily used for food (see Flitzbe Fang's plastic fangs.[15])
On smaller Fleet vessels without a pharmacy, the C-med or healer-assist are responsible for requesting medication from the genie on an as-needed basis. The captain also has access to those patterns (which suggests that they are ordinarily restricted to normal crewmembers).[16]
Genies are also used by the engineer department of Fleet warships: "Engineering scanned the part number, checked Stores for a spare, and had a genie create it from the pattern database when no physical part was located onboard."[17]
Economics
For now, information on genies and economics is on the Commerce page, but that might change.
Common Use
Genies can refresh drinks, rather than synthesizing new mugs.[18]
Picking the same pattern from a genie is a habit that can express personal or aesthetic choices.[16] Individuals can also have private genie pattern lists, which might have saved patterns from the general database and private patterns not shared with the public.[19]
There are customs involved with when you decide to get a genie-made alternative of something you can get handmade (as in Beringwaite's feeling it a betrayal to order a beer from the genie instead of acquiring one from the crew beer-makers.[15])
They can be locked to a dietary requirement, which they can assemble dynamically from a list of requirements.[20]
Genies are often used for clothes.[21] The ones in locker rooms are often limited to the production of "clothing, accessories, towels, the materials one might need in a gymnasium." Using one: "He selected one, watched the flash that evaluated his body’s size and dimensions, and changed into the result."[21]
There is some indication that genies are sized to their facilities, so one in a private, one-person dwelling might be in the kitchenette, and "tiny."[21]
Payment
Genies charge to a person's account, and can be instructed to do so even if those genies are in a private home.[22] This is typically referred to as an "energy budget."[20] The genie can be convinced to produce raw materials, "At three times the cost."[23]
References
- ↑ Author's Notes
- ↑ To Discover and Preserve, "Dark Lighthouse"
- ↑ Girl on Fire, Chapter 13
- ↑ Claws and Starships, "Butterfly"
- ↑ Who is Willing, chapter 2
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dark Lighthouse
- ↑ A Rose Point Holiday, Chapter 5
- ↑ Alysha's Fall, "Steel"
- ↑ Faith in the Service, Chapter 5
- ↑ Dreamstorm, Chapter 14
- ↑ In Good Company, Chapter 12
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 To Discover and Preserve, "Constellations"
- ↑ Dreamhearth, Chapter 11
- ↑ Dreamhearth, Chapter 18
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 To Discover and Preserve, "Every Man, Woman, and Idiot"
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 To Discover and Preserve, "The Mayer Directive"
- ↑ Who is Willing, Chapter 6
- ↑ In Good Company, Chapter 5
- ↑ Major Pieces, "Cookies and Tea"
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Mindline, Chapter 7
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Mindline, Chapter 3
- ↑ Girl on Fire, Chapter 35
- ↑ Mindline, Chapter 24