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Rush out and buy your own teleporter today! (1 Viewer)

Neil Joseph

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WHat happens when you deconstruct a human and then construct them, assuming that is possible. What happens to their essence? How does one reconstruct that? This could definitely be used to teleport solid matter I think (with some research of course).
 

KyleS

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Now Neil your a mod and you know religion shouldnt be brought up here ;)
Depends on your belief systems but if its just taking atoms from one place and reconstructing them in another (currently they are doing photons) in the exact same pattern then it shouldnt matter what it is your transporting right? The main limiting factor I forsee in this for a long time are computers. Computers are not near fast enough to do the calculations of every atom in our body in the time frame necessary.. Yet
KyleS
 

Ryan Wright

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The whole point is moot. You can't transport a person and probably will never be able to. They've only transported some light from a laser.

Transportation destroys the object on one end and rebuilds it on the other. This means that transporters are also replicators. If you could transport an object, then you could make unlimited copies of it as well. Just save a copy in a database somewhere and recall it whenever you like. Now we're really talking Star Trek. "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot."

It's neat and all, but think of the implications... Quite frankly, I'm not ready to say this will ever happen - let alone in my lifetime. This stuff is right up there with warp drives and light sabers.
 

Jack Briggs

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In Clifford D. Simak's classic, Hugo Award-winning novel, Weigh Station, the author posited that the teleportation technology used by a group of alien civilizations maintaining a remote monitoring post here on Earth did in fact render the original teleporter "dead"--even though the being emerging from the receiver station was identical to the original in every way. But he/she/it was a replicant of the original teleporter.

Algis Budrys posited the same notion in his outstanding novel, Rogue Moon.

And that's the deal. Though Star Trek would like for you to believe the transporter teleports its occupants seamlessly, to be reassembled wherever they are headed, in truth, the person stepping into that transporter bay is not the same one emerging from the other end. Unless, of course, the person's atomic structure is itself transported rather than replicated from existing atoms in the receiver station.

I've never liked the idea. And Trek, as you know, only resorted to it to save money on special-effects shots.
 

Ron-P

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I could beam Winona Ryder out of jail and directly to my house. I could beam beer right out of the store to my truck. I could beam.....ohhhhh the possibilities.
Peace Out~:D
 

RobertR

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I've never liked the idea either, Jack. It brings up all sorts of problems that are never dealt with, such as the fact that no one beaming down is ever in any real danger--you can simply pop out another copy of that person.

As to whether it's the same person, I would think there are two aspects. First, is the person's atomic structure truly EXACTLY the same, down to the subatomic level? It's extremely difficult to accept this idea, notwithstanding the talk in at least one episode about "Heisenberg compensators".

Second, what makes a person unique? Is it the atoms themselves, or the structure in which they are arranged? Aren't individual atoms completely interchangable? If so, I would think "different" atoms would not make it a different person, with the structure question remaining.
 

Peter McM

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from the late Douglas Adams:

I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg
Ron stole Meggie's heart away
And I got Sidney's leg.
 

Philip_G

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I could beam Winona Ryder out of jail and directly to my house
where's the drooling smiley when I need it?
htf_images_smilies_yum.gif
 

Ross Williams

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I do believe that if humans are around long enough we will perfect the teleportation process. It's all just a matter of computer power. We're nowhere near it today, but imagine in 1000 years or in 10,000. Who are we to say that it can't be done. It's starting here.

When created, it could possibly be the most important invention of all time. Imagine the money, time and space savings on everything that is devoted to travel and shipping. No need for roads, cars, trucks, airplanes, etc.

We would truely become a global community. You're in the mood for Chinese food, why not transport over to China. You want to watch the sunset, but already missed it, transport over to Hawaii. Want to visit your parents on the Moon?

Of course it brings up all kinds of ethical questions, such as are you still really you? You'd have to be trusting that the transport controllers wouldn't be printing up extra bodies. What if you died, could they just bring up the old copy? Just because they can replicate your brain perfectly, does that mean your memories are still there? Who knows what'll happen.

Did anyone ever read that, I believe it was Stephen King, short story about teleportation? You had to be knocked out before traveling, the hero of the story isn't and ends up going nuts from the "infinity" of it all, even though the trip only lasts a microsecond. Anyone? I really want to read it again, but can't remember what it was called.
 

brianacook

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Another good book on the subject is Michael Crichton's "Timeline" which, ironically, I am reading right now. I also believe it is being made into a movie, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

Brian
 

Ashley Seymour

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Hey Ron-P, fax me over a couple of Winonas, and some wine and cheese. I would enjoy having two of her over for umm conversation.

Hey, would there be some kind of copy protection, macrovision, or something? When you set up the replicant station why not burn off a few extra copies?

I think I can see my investment in companies doing working on cloning tanking.

Why would you need the full body? In a few hundred years we will distill the intellect, memory, etc. of a person down to a computer ship the size of a grain of sand. We don't even need to send that chip via tele-transportation, just send the information to a receiver and load that into a generic android.

The whole concept of transporting a whole human, animal, etc. is rather silly, but it does make a good plot for science fiction works for authors who are a little short on imagination.
 

Jack Briggs

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Probably the other best SF novel involving a form of teleporting is Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, which suggested an organic form of self-willed teleportation called jaunting.

I do believe that if humans are around long enough we will perfect the teleportation process. It's all just a matter of computer power.
Leading theoretical physicists will tell you the very concept of teleporting so fabulously complicated an object as a human being is exquisitely mind-boggling to comprehend. It's one of those things I just don't see happening. And I'm one who is open to ambitious science.
 

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