This reminds me of the realization that the difference between a Star Trek replicator and a microwaved can of Campbell's soup is about 30 seconds. We already have robots all around us. Microwaves cook our meals, washing machines do our laundry, dishwashers clean our dishes, etc. The time savings are immense but these devices do not resemble how humans perform the same tasks.
The can of soup had a whole factory, with robotic and human workers, management, metals, fossil fuels, storage containers, inspectors, transportation devices, highways, warehouses and retailers that it needed to get to your microwave. When any of those are bottlenecked there's a huge problem. It will likely forever be a fantasy but a Star Trek type replicator would streamline that process by a fair margin and have far fewer critical links.
A real-world example would be the difference between a old-fashioned printed newspaper with no digital distribution and an online only paper. The print version might seem superior in some respects but by the time it would get to McMurdo, the news would already be pretty old, vs up to the minute currency for a web browser. And once we start talking Shackleton or beyond, the difference only gets worse. In fact a good use case for an autonomous robotic presence is extraterrestrial exploration or labor. They could endure higher g acceleration, long periods in cold storage, don't need atmosphere, and don't experience existential terror -- as far as we know!
Would it? We're never really shown how replicators work or much else about the logistics of the Federation but I've always assumed the support machinery and network behind the replicators must be pretty enormous. Not only the manufacture and maintenance of them but just ensuring all the energy, fuel and raw elements are available and can get from A to B would be complex.
What’s the difference between storing massed of feed elements for replicators or storing canned goods? It’s really a matter of perception.
It would be very possible to live entirely isolated on a planet with nothing but a basic replicator and a way to power it. That's been explored a couple of times in the Trek universe
You could certainly make an argument that a printer is a robot, though.
So e.g. a self driving car could qualify as a robot.
Well, 30 seconds plus the entirety of the farming, production, supply, transportation, and commercial infrastructure that gets that can of soup into your cabinet.
That said, I mostly agree with your broader point.
Can a microwave make another microwave?
Self-replication is the killer feature of sci-fi replicators that people often miss.
We already to have robots everywhere, it's true, but they can't self replicate, so we still need humans in the loop. bipedal robots have the prospect of being the glue that combines all the other machines together, just like humans are.
Once that happens you'll have a novel machine that humans have as of yet never been able to make -- a Von Neumann probe.
Not only could a humanoid robot make a microwave, it could even make a copy of itself.
And if it didn't have the parts lying around it could get into a car, drive out to the mountains and start mining the raw materials to build the parts.
Can a microwave do that?
