Did Star Trek style food replicators exist 12,000 years ago?

“That meal you found—doubtless one awoke, felt the urge of hunger, prepared the meal for himself, then forgot about it and wandered away to dream again.”

“Where do they get their food?” interrupted Conan. “I saw no fields or vineyards outside the city. Have they orchards and cattle-pens within the walls?”

She shook her head. “They manufacture their own food out of the primal elements. They are wonderful scientists, when they are not drugged with their dream-flower. Their ancestors were mental giants, who built this marvelous city in the desert, and though the race became slaves to their curious passions, some of their wonderful knowledge still remains.”

-Xuthal of the Dusk (The Slithering Shadow), 1933

It appears that they did. And given the date, may have even inspired them three decades later. And a fun fact about that one. Conan Exiles takes place between that story and A Witch Shall be Born.

There’s also the time Conan used a force field belt in The People of the Black Circle. Another example of technology that not only wouldn’t normally be in 12,000-10,000BC but exceeds are own (current) technology in some ways. Medieval castles are hardly an anachronism to the setting.

Technology has obviously had its ups and downs through the Thulian and Hyborian ages as well as before and after.

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