Beam me up Scottie!

[griff_goodbeard]

Will teleportation be possible in the future? Check This out.

 

[Ranger REG]

It'll be a long future.

 

[Turanil]

The subject is interesting for sure. Quantum computers seem to be the most probable thing to arise from this; but Star Trek teleportation? Hum...

 

[Ranger REG]

The subject is interesting for sure. Quantum computers seem to be the most probable thing to arise from this; but Star Trek teleportation? Hum...

At least we got the personal communicators and PADD pat down (i.e., cell phones and PDAs), not to mentioned personal database terminal (i.e., wireless laptops). And I believe a couple science labs have made baby steps developing a warp speed technology by moving a molecule.

Makes me wonder what can we learn from Star Wars. Hee hee hee.

 

[Torm]

Transporters still give me a philosophical headache, so I think I'm glad they aren't real. (yet?)

If a subject steps on a transporter platform at point A, gets taken apart and has the pattern recorded, then that pattern is somehow communicated to a platform at point B, which then builds from local material using that pattern, and a person steps off the platform, is that the original subject? Or did the original subject DIE, and now this is an exact duplicate, but not the same person? And if it IS the original subject, how would it work out if you just recorded the pattern, and left an intact original, but still assembled a person on the other end? And let's not even get into what happens to the soul (souls?), if there is such a thing.

There's a book on the metaphysics of Trek that talks about the concept of the Closest Continuer - basically the idea is that whatever is closest to being what you are now in a second from now IS you. So if I cut off your arm, the you-without-arm continues to be you, while the arm is not-you. Or, applied to transporters, the person at point B IS the original person because they are the closest continuer of that person. Interesting, but I don't buy it well enough to be testing it with myself any time soon.

Sorry to ramble on, but I find this subject ... fascinating.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

The thing I'm looking forward to the most is computer gauntlets.

 

[der_kluge]

"Man's last invention will be the holo-deck"
- Scott Adams


The thing about teleportation is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. That is, you can't know both the location of an atom, and it's velocity (speed + direction). You can know one or the other, but not both.

It's sort of like using a radar gun to track the speed of a car in an instant. If you get 60 miles per hour, you still can't accurately predict will that car will be in an hour, because you don't know if the car was slowing down or speeding up.

The other aspect to teleportation is that of a "soul" for lack of a better word. Can teleportation transfer your thoughts, memories, feelings, and personality? Scientists don't even know where memory is stored in the brain. Who would want to test this thing if they thought they'd get to the other side and become a vegetable?

Lastly, there are the energy requirements. Fuggetaboudit.

I think if we see teleportation in any form in our lifetime, it'll be of base, raw materials only. Which would still be pretty damned impressive.

 

[Turanil]

I believe a couple science labs have made baby steps developing a warp speed technology by moving a molecule.

Really?

 

[Ranger REG]

Really?

Yeah, but it took a lot of energy. I doubt all the power resources on this planet is enough to move a ship at warp speed, much less a Mini.

 

[Impeesa]

I think if we see teleportation in any form in our lifetime, it'll be of base, raw materials only. Which would still be pretty damned impressive.

Hm.. I think I'd have to disagree. I only skimmed the article, but it seemed to be about quantum entanglement. That gives us a system like others are discussing here, a "disassemble and make a duplicate" sort of thing (which suffers from the continuity problem.... wee). This is useless for transporting raw materials - you'd have to have raw materials on site to construct whatever's beaming in.

If you think about it though, the only thing being teleported here is information. Quantum entanglement gives us instantaneous information transmission. This, of course, means really fast pr0n.

--Impeesa--