this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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It can actually make sense under certain conditions, like if you colonize a planet specifically to fulfill some purpose an you have an interplanetary supply chain that makes it feasible to just supply it externally. In the real world this is highly unlikely to ever happen as even travel to nearby planets in the same solar system takes months, has highly limited cargo capacity and uses substantial amounts of resources in comparison.
One example of a single purpose planet that I found somewhat feasible was in TNG. There were two neighbouring planets of which one had it's entire population addicted to some drug. They mistook withdrawal symptoms for symptoms of some plague which could only be mitigated by that drug. The drug could only be produced on the other planet, which allowed them to solely produce the drug and exploit the other planet for everything they need.
That's grafting present-day thinking onto the future though. With replicators any world could create almost everything it needs. There are a few exceptions like dilithium and Romulan ale, but most planetary economies should be self-contained. Non-exportable things would mostly be genuine experiences, like surfing down a 3-mile waterfall on some world.
Presumably the prime directive prevents just handing out replicstors willy nilly?