There is a sci-fi story about aliens "softening up" a civilization by giving them replicator technology (like Star Trek) so they become lazy etc. Basically anything which can be thought of can be replicated.
I remember a part of the book where a character made a light saber.
Anyone know it?
This sounds familiar.
The only thing that is popping up in my head the dead tree "Venus Equilateral" shorts by George O. Smith. Started in 1942. No aliens though.
I'll have to think on this.
Good Hunting, limab
Try "paradise found by aubie56".
https://storiesonline.net/s/15078/paradise-found
https://storiesonline.net/a/aubie56
https://storiesonline.net/series/1351/superior-replicator
This is the one that jumped to my mind too. Aubie56 has lots of stories with replicators but this is the one where they are given malevolently.
AJ
A Log Truck Driver In Outer Space from cmsix has that kind of replicators (and AI's) but not with the intention to conquer a society. In the end it's the other way around: the MC conquers the aliens that supplied the tech in the first place :)
Basically anything which can be thought of can be replicated.
A replicator replicates, it creates a copy of an original already in existence. That is fundamentally different to creating "anything which can be thought".
Business As Usual During Alterations by, IIRC, Ralph Williams was the granddaddy of replicator stories back in the 1940s or 50s. No lightsaber though.
A light sabre implies the story was written after the first Star Wars film in the mid 70's.
Business As Usual was in 1958 Special Delivery (the first Smith story with a replicator) was 1945. Agreed that there are no lightsabers in either. I don't know of any earlier works. Although I seem to remember another author who had an attempted takedown of humans with replicators. This is going to bug me.
limab
Vaguely similar to Charlie Stross' Singularity Sky, but I don't think it was an invasion exactly, and the eschaton kept control of the replication.
A for Anything by Damon Knight. As I recall, no aliens. Where the duplicators come from is unknown. Anything can be duplicated, including people. Paperback. Interesting concept. Wikipedia says it's generally considered Knight's best novel, but I didn't like it much.
It's not the specific story/series Steven's looking for, but Kris Me's Delta series, set towards the end of the 21st century, has replicators as a new technology being placed on the early interstellar exploration vessels. Not so much for food rations, for which they have decent hydroponics, etc - but for all the other items that a space vessel would have to stock to maintain a safe and healthy environment. Items such as clothing, tools, dishes, lab equipment, could be replicated, then returned to a disposal chute to be broken down into basic elements and await to be used again ...
