Theoretical Question - Teleportation? Question 1

[galexcd 0]

So over the years I've thought of many strange questions related to math, science, and physics, and there are way too many and they all go way too much into depth to all be put into 1 thread so I shall make separate threads for them all when I think of them.

 

This is my first question which I have been pondering for quite some time...

 

TELEPORTATION- As humans invent and discover newer ways of doing things and new technologies that change the world, teleportation doesn't seem like it could be that far away. I have read a few articles talking about an experiment where scientists actually teleport a beam of light. Now I'm not quite sure how they know they are teleporting that beam of light or it is a new light coming out, but I'm sure they have ways of figuring that out. But I am curious... what will happen when they get to the point of teleporting matter? Will it just make a copy of the matter and destroy the original? Will it send all of the atoms across some kind of tube to the "other side"? What happens when we have the technology to teleport human beings? What if it just copied our atomic structure and "rebuilds" us on the other side, and disposes of our "original" self? For this I need to go into cloning for a moment (not too long because that is what I am planning to write about for my next theoretical question), lets say we can clone a human but not from birth, that we can physically recreate an exact copy of you. Then imagine that YOU have yourself cloned. Your clone would have the same memories and everything that you have. And you keep living your life out through the clone, while your original self is destroyed? I would be fearful of teleportation in the future. What about people, like me, who believe in God? Are we just really animals and flesh and nothing more or do we have a soul? If we have a soul, is it left behind when we teleport?

 

So this brings me to my ultimate question for this thread....

When, and if, technology becomes so advanced that we could possibly have portable teleportation machines, what exactly would happened if we put one of the "teleporters" through the one it is connected with?

[silver_wolves 0]

well, from what i have read in Discover, they have teleported things before. it may have just been light buy i think it was actually atoms too. so that is getting somewhere. i find it depressing that there could be a chance that it would just be a clone and the original destroyed, because that would just seem to take away from the meaning of life. i think that all of us will pretty much be dead by the time teleportation comes commercially (if it every does) so im pretty sure we wont have to worry about it. but our kids might, so copies, i would have to say, wont do. but the article in Discover said it was the same so....maybe it will be us, just moved. that would be pretty darn cool.

[galexcd 0]

Yes you do make a good point, but even if people say it uses the same atoms and doesn't just kill our original, I still would be too scared to go through one of those things... One because I don't like myself being broken down into atoms and being rebuilt by a machine, and two... If you ever saw the movie "The Fly" you would be pretty freaked out too

[csp4.0 1]

What is we could create an artificial wormhole just for a few milli/micro seconds, we compress something (for now lets just say a milligram of iron)and change it to an electrical signal (so we disintegrate it, store the individual atoms/molecules and data) then put it in the wormhole, on the other side the signals containing data will be recognized and reintegrated into the original thing. So this would go well with the stargate thing.But consider this alternative. It would not require an artificial wormhole so it would be more possible.A thing lets just say 1 milligram of iron is kept in a clean chamber with 100% vacuum, some wierd ray separates each atom/molecule and turns it into data. We store that data (for example in a RAM chip) and then transfer the data into radio signals, laser signal, infrared etc and it is received on the other side. Extra data stored will allow the receiving unit to change the signals and then store the data temporarily and change the data into the required molecules. The 1 milligram of iron will be copied exactly at th other end, and the original data is destroyed (also possible for a 'stargate' or similar thing).Before we can start teleporting things, we'll need to create some sort of 'disintegration ray' so that the subject can be disintegrated into individual atoms/molecules and then be transported and/or cloned.The atoms/molecules will also need to be contained so they don't go 'flying away'.The cloning process must be perfect or else continued use will result in deformation. The teleportation process must also be perfect to insure that no atoms/molecules are lost during transportation/cloning.I reckon that teleportation won't be possible for atleast 300 years, and the energy needed will be too much for Earth's current energy generation to handle.

[Galahad 0]

Ah, the good old Star Trek transporter dilema... "If I'm transported with a transporter beam, is it still me?"That's a hell of a good question... And here's my 2 cents about it...In order for it to work, we need to have several processes:1. Scan the life form that needs to be transported2. Break down the life form, down to the tiniest atoms3. Store the information of atomic and molecular bonds in some sort of a buffer4. Send the contents of the buffer to another transporter device5. Destination device stores incoming data in another buffer6. Recreate atomic and molecular bonds from a buffer7. Materialize a life formSeems pretty simple, but in fact, the hardest part would be storing all that information, and keeping it enough to be sent... Let's face it, atoms are small, and there are I guess googol of atoms inside a human body, and I suppose googolplex bonds between the atoms... And I'm no medical expert, but I'm sure there's something else that needs to be done.And, let's say we do somehow manage to get around all those technical obstacles, it leaves us with the question: "Is it really me?"Person materialised with the destination device would be assembled from completely new set of atoms, because, let's face it, sending atoms across some distance would be tricky, so it'd have to be new ones, probably from some storage tank of a sort. So, technically, it wouldn't be you that's materialised, only a copy of you... And then, another question pops-up: "Who prevents operators of the devices, to create multiple copies of me?" Now that would be a tricky one, running into yourself in a trasnporter room...This certainly is a subject that has many, many questions, and yet, very little answers, or at least, little practical, it's still all pretty theoretical... And I'm more of a practical person ;)But, if they do invent the transporter in my lifetime, I'll sure as hell use it, because I'm too lazy to go somewhere with my own feet

[devin_love3 0]

I have heard that in the Bermuda Triangle, there is a strange cloud that may actually be a wormhole. There is a man who flew a plane through it. He claimed that it opened up, and he could see the other side. The inner tube of the cloud was spiraling around the plane. While inside, the exit of the cloud seemed to be a mile away, then he suddenly felt much lighter and felt a sense of acceleration, then the exit was only a few feet away. Maybe we could use the technology of the cloud to make some sort of device.

[acratings 0]

This all comes down to the simple question, what is intelligence. Is our ability to think based on certain reactions between atoms in our brains, or is there something else (a soul) that actually makes decisions. If all of our actions are predetermined, then what gives the feeling that we are controlling ourselves? If everything is just based on chemical bonds, then I guess simply moving someone from one location to another instantly would keep the person's previous thoughts, even if it was not 'the same person'. In fact, how do we know that we are living at all? For all you know, you mind could be fabricated to make you think that you have already lived that many years of your life, but you could have in reality been born only seconds ago.

[tricky77puzzle 0]

So, your question is, if there are two teleportation terminals, 1 and 2, what would happen if we put terminal 1 into terminal 2?First of all, this has to be possible (i.e. terminal 1 has to be smaller than terminal 2). Second, if we do turn it on, whatever is in terminal 1 will fall into terminal 2. Therefore, you have to put something into terminal 1 before it will appear in terminal 2. So, I'm guessing the answer is: nothing.Now, if you're talking about portal holes, like the ones in Portal, that's a different question. After the game, let's name the two portals Blue and Yellow.You're asking what will happen if we put Yellow into Blue. Well, First that has to be possible. Let's say Blue is on one tablet (tablet 1), and Yellow is on another (tablet 2). You're asking what would happen should we insert tablet 1 into Yellow.So, if we insert tablet 1 into Yellow, it would have to come out of blue, the portal that the tablet is situated on. So, the tablet basically comes out of itself. But it's still in the portal, so I'm guessing that if you looked into the portal, you'd see an infinite number of regressively smaller tablets protruding out of an infinite number of regressively smaller Blue portals.What do you think?

[galexcd 0]

I have heard that in the Bermuda Triangle, there is a strange cloud that may actually be a wormhole. There is a man who flew a plane through it. He claimed that it opened up, and he could see the other side. The inner tube of the cloud was spiraling around the plane. While inside, the exit of the cloud seemed to be a mile away, then he suddenly felt much lighter and felt a sense of acceleration, then the exit was only a few feet away. Maybe we could use the technology of the cloud to make some sort of device.

Ah yes the good old Bermuda Triangle. I have heard many theories that there is a miniature black hole in that area, which is what I assume you are talking about. I'm not sure if I fully believe it, but that doesn't mean we should rule it out. Who says black holes have to be massive anyway? They could be the size of a dime. Now isn't that an interesting thought?

This all comes down to the simple question, what is intelligence. Is our ability to think based on certain reactions between atoms in our brains, or is there something else (a soul) that actually makes decisions. If all of our actions are predetermined, then what gives the feeling that we are controlling ourselves? If everything is just based on chemical bonds, then I guess simply moving someone from one location to another instantly would keep the person's previous thoughts, even if it was not 'the same person'. In fact, how do we know that we are living at all? For all you know, you mind could be fabricated to make you think that you have already lived that many years of your life, but you could have in reality been born only seconds ago.

Ahhhhh This is the exact type of thinking I like. This is basically theory I was trying to get across in this other thread.

[tricky77puzzle 0]

Of course, my answer was much more a technical one rather than a spiritual one... if you wanted an esoteric answer, you could have specified.I don't really think about esoteric or existential questions. I like to practical-ize them and answer them that way.I think it you teleported an actual human being, the chemical bonds that held the person together wouldn't exist anymore, since you really can't just put two atoms together and expect them to bond. There are a lot of things to take into consideration.

[Reekun 0]

Of course, my answer was much more a technical one rather than a spiritual one... if you wanted an esoteric answer, you could have specified.
I don't really think about esoteric or existential questions. I like to practical-ize them and answer them that way.

I think it you teleported an actual human being, the chemical bonds that held the person together wouldn't exist anymore, since you really can't just put two atoms together and expect them to bond. There are a lot of things to take into consideration.

I don't think that there can be instant-transmission going on ALA DBZ style, the gift would have to be genetic like the jumper clan from the movie. For example, teleportation would make someone much too powerful, like instant transmission allowed Goku to completely WTFPWN Metal Cooler in the movie, too bad there were thousands upon thousands of metal coolers.

The DBZ gang are one of the strongest ever. Another strong character would be Ichigo from Bleach. The reason the DBZ gang are the strongest is because not only can someone instant transmission teleport, but they're fast enough to be like teleporting!

Goku can also teleport which I believe is faster than anything the Flash and the Silver Surfer can muster. Anyway he duplicates Goku's power but as we all know Goku can powerup to astronomical proportions and then he'd have to deal with a suped up Goku.

If a person were to be able to teleport they would be unstoppable. Unless like Nightcrawler from x-men they could teleport themselves inside a wall and be lost forever.
I do think it's possible for people to move fast enough to be like teleporting, like what Jumpers do, but they don't actually teleport, their body just moves past the time-continuum mainframe.

Teleportation is the movement of objects or elementary particles from one place to another, more or less instantaneously, without traveling through space.

I think we should leave teleportation to imagination, maybe time traveling?

[Forbez 0]

Hmm, intresting thought. Many factors may happen. One being that, the teleporters simple disappear from human sight. They'd simple be within each other, which isn't possible now, but with teleporters it would. Perhaps it causes a rip in space and time? As the teleporter would be coming out of it's self whilst inside the other teleporter, wouldn't this move or rip time? To be honest, I don't know. Anything could happen. Very intresting point to point out.

[minimcmonkey 0]

I recenty have given teleportation a lot of thought.And i think that really, it is impossible.Think of the amount of enerygy you would need, to actually, instantly, destroy, then recreat mater in a different place (one way of doing it) it would soon destroy the earth (maybe).And surely, this mode of travel wont be without side-effects, whats to say that being transported through time and space wont destroy our brains. and what if only half of us gets telported, you end up with legs at one end....Surely the process of perfecting it would be very dangerous (if it were actually possible)And it would probably be banned.

[Tran-Gate 0]

This is possible BUT is not probably not going to happen......
"Teleporting an electron or an atom is one thing. A human body is made up about 7,000 trillion trillion (no typo, there are two) atoms. Then you would have to worry about if ALL the parts get transported correctly and in the right place."

From http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ :

One of the features of quantum teleportation the only form of teleportation that allows the creation of a perfect copy of the original someplace else is that the original is destroyed. Does this matter? One argument says it doesn't because a perfect copy is as good as the original. At the atomic level, all particles are identical. Also, the stuff in our bodies is constantly being replaced anyway. Even without teleportation, atoms and molecules are continually streaming into and out of your body, so that over time every bit of matter of which you're made is exchanged. According to one estimate, you're completely replaced at the cellular level about every seven years. So teleportation wouldn't do anything qualitatively different from what happens in the normal course of events. It just happens to replace all of your particles in one fell swoop rather than over a period of time. Another argument insists that teleportation, far from being an efficient form of travel, is equivalent to death. A person who believes in the soul may also believe that, whereas the physical body can be teleported, the soul cannot. But even leaving the soul out of it, it's possible to argue that becoming a perfect clone means becoming someone else.

I believe in souls and if you get teleported. You would be dead and you wouldn't be able to live in the afterlife properly. The soul needs time to depart from your body.

I thought of just using a teleporter as an item teleporter but then that would be extremely dangerous too.