Most Misused Word in Science Fiction

[Tolen Mar]

Does anyone remember the old King short story Granting?

That was a King story? I read it years ago...thought it was by someone else.

 

[Victim]

The King story was called the Jaunt.

 

[Rel]

The King story was called the Jaunt.

I read through half this thread waiting to post that and I got beat on the last post!

I've been fascinated by the concept of Teleportation ever since I read Larry Niven's essay "The Theory and Practice of Teleportation" from his book All the Myriad Ways. But the thing that really bakes my noodle about it is that in a lot of science fiction the whole "we scan you, beam the information and reconstitute you at the other end" explantion is offered. As somebody mentioned upthread, that means they just killed you!

If we buy into the notion that the position of every subatomic particle in your body is in precisely the same position AND that this fact means that all your memories and experiences are intact AND that your soul is not an issue then we're still left with the fact that the unique being that was YOU just got melted down. Suddenly, a million miles away, this clone of you with all your memories and personality springs into being. To the viewer, since this being acts in the exact way that you did, then the story can continue because that being will act as you would have acted and remember the things that you've done. But that isn't YOU because YOU are dead!

To quote Mr. Niven, "I dunno, but I wouldn't ride in the goddam thing."

 

[WayneLigon]

As somebody mentioned upthread, that means they just killed you!

There was another great story I read once where that's exactly how they did interstellar travel; they didn't have ships that could go FTL so they braintaped you, killed your body, fired the information at a receiving station light years away, which then cloned a body based on that info, then read your mind into it. The beam would of course move at the speed of light, but the person would have to his awareness just instantly teleported. The story concerned someone's mind being read into the wrong body....

 

[mojo1701]

However, in Star Trek, they solved the ethics of the transporter by saying that it converts your constituent atoms into energy, transmits that energy, and you are reconstituted from that energy.

 

[barsoomcore]

Geez, didn't anybody read my post on the first page?

They don't HAVE to kill you. In Wall Around A Star, they didn't. There was just TWO yous once the process was done: the original you still at the original destination, and the "remote" you. So of course, you can end up with multiple yous all over the place (which is actually a fundamental problem with pretty much any teleportation methodology). Now THAT'S fun thinking.

 

[Pbartender]

Geez, didn't anybody read my post on the first page?

They don't HAVE to kill you. In Wall Around A Star, they didn't. There was just TWO yous once the process was done: the original you still at the original destination, and the "remote" you. So of course, you can end up with multiple yous all over the place (which is actually a fundamental problem with pretty much any teleportation methodology). Now THAT'S fun thinking.

Which brings up something about Star Trek that's always made me wonder...

Everybody who watches Star Trek knows that transporters take you apart, turn you into an energy singal, tranmit you somewhere else, and put you back together. Now, in many episodes, they touch on the 'transporter buffer'... A sort of temproary circular buffer that holds the energy singature of whatever was transported, that the transporter computer can reference to put you back together.

First, they sometimes use the buffer signal to 'clean' up a transported person... eliminating the signal of a disease or parasite en route. To extrapolate this, why not use the transporter to rejuvinate amputees, or instantaneously heal wounds? It should be easy enough, considering.

Second, why not use a transporter as a instant-cloning device? You need to board that Romulan starship and take it in one piece. Stuff Worf into the transporter, dial it up to "x24", and beam over two dozen heavily armed copies of the biggest, baddest, ass-kickinest Kligon Security Officer you've got. When he's finished, you beam them all back, but only reconstitute one of him.

 

[Rel]

Geez, didn't anybody read my post on the first page?

They don't HAVE to kill you. In Wall Around A Star, they didn't. There was just TWO yous once the process was done: the original you still at the original destination, and the "remote" you. So of course, you can end up with multiple yous all over the place (which is actually a fundamental problem with pretty much any teleportation methodology). Now THAT'S fun thinking.

Yes I read it. I didn't mean for you to get all weepy and stuff.

It seems pretty disappointing either way, doesn't it? You step up to the Teleportation Booth and there's a guy standing outside:

"Hi! I'd like to go to Mars! My wife is there already and I'm joining her for vacation."

"Dandy, sir. That will be ten thousand dollars."

"Ha! Cheap at twice the price considering what space travel costs. Here you go."

"Thank you sir. Now if you'll just sign this waiver and check one of the boxes at the bottom...Either the one that says "Kill Me" or "Don't Kill Me"."

"What?! I think I'll take "Don't Kill Me" thanks!"

"That's fine sir. Either way you're not going anywhere. But a new you will be walking all over Mars, having the time of his life on vacation and sleeping with your wife."

"What?! I'll KILL HIM!"

"Don't worry sir, we'll kill him before he ever leaves Mars. We'll kill your wife too! No extra charge. Either way, you're not going anywhere."


:\

In Mr. Niven's essay he goes on to ask about the moral and legal quandries that abound from this setup:

If you melt the guy into his component atoms but don't transmit him, have you committed murder (you did MELT him after all)? Or is it kidnapping? If it's murder then does it stop being murder if you renconstitute him prior to trial?

 

[mojo1701]

If you melt the guy into his component atoms but don't transmit him, have you committed murder (you did MELT him after all)? Or is it kidnapping? If it's murder then does it stop being murder if you renconstitute him prior to trial?

Simple: assuming the person is still energy, the energy has to go somewhere, and won't stay in the same spot, so the pattern degrades and it's just energy. If you yell, the sound isn't there forever, and if you shine a light, this light will not continue infinitely. Therefore, the pattern becomes lost.

 

[Desdichado]

IIRC, one of the technical manuals stated that replicators were really good at making "loose" molecular structures. So things like food, beverages, etc. were easily produced. However, things with "tight" structures (such as dense metals), or which needed extremely precise construction, were beyond the capabilities of a standard replicator and too power-intensive to do often on a transporter system. Which is why they didn't just build a giant replicator in Mars orbit and "beam" ships together on a factory line.

Except I'm not sure that makes much sense. Complex organic molecules, such as those found in food, seem like they'd be much more difficult to construct then metals.