Would you use a transporter beam?

Morrus · Jul 7, 2015

Assume the technology dematerializes you, sends information to another location, and then you are reconstructed exactly the same - to the last atom - including all memories. Would you be happy to transport?

Is your answer the same if there is a slight delay between the copy being created and you being dematerialized. So you see your copy appear on the other side of the room, and then you are dematerialized?

For me, I can't help but view it as death. I've been disintegrated, and a clone of me is walking around in my place. It thinks it's me, but it's mistaken; it's a clone of me. And it's so good that nobody else can distinguish. Except I got disintegrated, and that's a copy of me.

That clone, though, in scenario #2 where a slight delay means it sees me in the original transporter booth just before I dematerialize, would know it's the copy. It would know that because it is standing in the destination booth and it's looking at me in the origin booth. In that case, the copy must feel weird knowing that it's a 5-second old copy of me, and that I'm dead.

What about you? It's an old debate, but I always enjoy it!

[video=youtube;pdxucpPq6Lc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdxucpPq6Lc[/video]

amerigoV · Jul 7, 2015

At work I am changing roles that will require more travel. Just about anything has to be better than the airlines. So count me in as an early adopter!

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 7, 2015

I honestly don't know.

On the one hand, as a Catholic, I'm essentially a dualist. A dualist believes the self is seperate from the material body.

But...do I believe it in my bones?

Morrus · Jul 7, 2015

Dannyalcatraz said:
A dualist believes the self is seperate from the material body.

I don't believe that. But operating on an assumption that it is true - does that necessarily mean that a machine can teleport the self?

What about Scenario #2, where there's a slight delay built in? Are you happy to be disintegrated while your copy waves at you (assuming your self either resides now in the copy, or has been duplicated)?

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 7, 2015

Like I said, I really don't know.

Umbran · Jul 7, 2015

Morrus said:
Assume the technology dematerializes you, sends information to another location, and then you are reconstructed exactly the same - to the last atom - including all memories. Would you be happy to transport?

Is your answer the same if there is a slight delay between the copy being created and you being dematerialized. So you see your copy appear on the other side of the room, and then you are dematerialized?

As we understand it today, quantum mechanics answers the question for us, through Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. You *cannot* be copied *exactly*, as the information about your original body cannot be known *exactly*. There *will* be differences. So, yes, you got disintegrated, and there's a very close copy of you walking around. Star Trek had to invoke gobbledigook (the "Heisenberg Compensators") to get around this

In some cases, a person may feel that if the copy is close enough, that's good enough for them. If, for example, this was the only way to get a human to colonize a planet around another star... I might well feel that's a good enough death for me.

But, to get across the room, where I'd see my replacement, and he would see me (and largely feel he was me, even though he'd remember that I said all this, so that we'd both know he wasn't really me)? Isn't using a transporter for that kind of overkill anyway?

trappedslider · Jul 7, 2015

I'm not full sure either..i mean it owuld cut down on travle time so that's a plus but i am reminded of this funny bit from Star Trek II The wrath of Khan

McCoy: Where are we going?
Kirk: Where they went.
McCoy: Suppose they went *nowhere*?
Kirk: Then this will be your big chance to get away from it all.

Morrus · Jul 7, 2015

Umbran said:
As we understand it today, quantum mechanics answers the question for us, through Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. You *cannot* be copied *exactly*, as the information about your original body cannot be known *exactly*. There *will* be differences. So, yes, you got disintegrated, and there's a very close copy of you walking around. Star Trek had to invoke gobbledigook (the "Heisenberg Compensators") to get around this

In some cases, a person may feel that if the copy is close enough, that's good enough for them. If, for example, this was the only way to get a human to colonize a planet around another star... I might well feel that's a good enough death for me.

But, to get across the room, where I'd see my replacement, and he would see me (and largely feel he was me, even though he'd remember that I said all this, so that we'd both know he wasn't really me)? Isn't using a transporter for that kind of overkill anyway?

Yes, assume Heisenberg Compensators or whatever other fictional tech is needed to make the fictional teleporter work. It's a thought experiment predicated on the assumption that it works.

And maybe it's a big room. Or it's some where else and you're using a viewscreen.

Tonguez · Jul 7, 2015

Umbran said:
As we understand it today, quantum mechanics answers the question for us, through Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. You *cannot* be copied *exactly*, as the information about your original body cannot be known *exactly*. There *will* be differences. So, yes, you got disintegrated, and there's a very close copy of you walking around. Star Trek had to invoke gobbledigook (the "Heisenberg Compensators") to get around this

does Quantum Entanglement compensate for Uncertainty?

If it works then I'd be happy to do it, on the belief that our physical bodies are composed of quantum wavicles anyway

my only issue would be not turning in to Jeff Goldblum

heeeeelp me

delericho · Jul 7, 2015

I'm pretty sure Star Trek style transporters will remain impossible for the rest of my life. In addition to the Uncertainty problem Umbran raised there's also a computational one - teleporting a single subatomic particle is one thing, but teleporting many billions and then putting them back together in the right order is quite another.

But if one were to become available, I would potentially use them... once the technology was properly mature and gone through three or four generations. Basically, once RyanAir start offering transporter services, it's probably safe to start using the non-budget providers.

Would you use a transporter beam?

Morrus

Well, that was fun

amerigoV

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Dannyalcatraz

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Morrus

Well, that was fun

Dannyalcatraz

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Umbran

Mod Squad

trappedslider

Legend

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow

delericho

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