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Australian Physicists Develop Teleportation Scheme

engadget.com — Although the idea of teleporting individuals from one place to another in order to sidestep the headache of rush hour traffic has been around for quite some time, a team of Australian physicists are busy making it work (on a smaller scale, of course).

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  • resplence, on 10/11/2007, -3/+38Direct link: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22048954-2,00.html

    EXTREME PHYSICS WARNING: Their solution employs both "the coldest thing in the universe and the fastest speed in the universe”.

    Too bad this pretty much rules out it being used on humans.
    • sockpuppets, on 10/11/2007, -1/+66Their solution employs both "the coldest thing in the universe and the fastest speed in the universe”.

      Hey it looks like they hired my ex wife.
    • tehpwnrate, on 10/11/2007, -4/+12Even if they do use it on people, I wouldn't want to. If it involves speeding my atoms through a tube, how do I know that while I'm reconstructed, my consciousness didn't end when they broke me up, only to be replaced by a copy that isn't my continued consciousness?

      As you can see, I've wasted far too much time thinking about this...
      • Bega, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7think of it this way; contrary to battlestar galactica, where the consciousness is 'transferred' to a new body (new matter, therefore new brain connections, however identical) and the cylon is identical to the old one, here, (assuming it works properly), it will be all of your original matter, but transported, and reassembled. On that assumption, it will still be you.

        Yeah, I've thought about it before too.
        • Zenithan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Yeah, but really, you're dead for a few moments there. So is it still you in your entirety, or is it transferred without your 'awareness', as some kind of clone that acts just like you did but still isn't you?
          • Randinn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2With that information they have 'you' stored and they can make more, now tell me, with of those is 'you'....
          • Seph7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Even If human teleportation existed, this could still go unanswered, due to the fact the reconstructed you would have all your memories, personality e.t.c and would probably have no idea this had happened, while you consciousness is destroyed forever.

            Scary huh.
          • Bega, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3to answer that, you have to define what consciousness is. Do you take the basic biological view, where it is just the neural connections in the brain, or do you take the gestalt view where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts? Like seph7 said, this is something that can be debated endlessly without finding an answer; it's delving more into philosophical terms than scientific.

            edit: as soon as I posted this, I read TLAKABM's post. amused.
          • rizla420, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I'd say start small. Teleport someones dog that the person is very close to and knows the dogs temperament. If the dog after teleportation is the same Sparky you once new and loved. Consciousness is biological. If it looks like Sparky but is clueless to who you are. Then we somehow seperated the mind from the body. Which leads to the question of where the essence of Sparky went.

            Personally, i think there's a duality when it comes to consciousness. There must be a linking layer somewhere that we haven't been able to observe with our tools and methodologies that connects your wetware with your essence. i guess i'm a romantic in my views in that I like to think of myself having an etheral essence. Not that I believe in heaven or anything, but just an altered state of existence thats not bound to a physical dimension.
        • alf86, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1What happens when the tube gets clogged? I won't trust this until they start using trucks.
      • TLAKABM, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7A moot point, considering we have no fundamental definition consciousness. How do you know that when you get knocked unconscious or fall asleep that your consciousness is 'continued'? The same physical neurons are there, but via this method (if I understand it correctly), the same physical neurons will still be there too. They'll just be deconstructed and reconstructed. So what, precisely, is the difference?

        Consciousness is an illusion that arises from the physical brain. It is not, itself, a physical thing that is 'continued'.
        • fwedwic, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3excellent, i think the same ;)
        • there, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"The same physical neurons are there, but via this method (if I understand it correctly), the same physical neurons will still be there too. They'll just be deconstructed and reconstructed. So what, precisely, is the difference?"

          The information about your atoms is transfered to another set of atoms not the atoms themselves. You could use this information to produce one or more copies of yourself. Your clones would go on to exist but "you" would be dead.
        • TLAKABM, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@there
          It's not really clear in the article, but it doesn't matter. 'You' is just an illusion. A manifestation of your physical brain. If the copies are identical right down to every single atom, then as far as the universe is concerned, there is no difference. Consciousness is a concept. Not an entity that exists in one copy or the other.
      • theshiz892, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!!!!!!

        lol j/k even i go through long theories on teleportation and cryogenics :P
      • rizla420, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0If you think consciousness is a side effect of consciousness. Why have we evolved to become aware of ourselves. It doesnt seem like any other sentient being on earth other than man has a sense of I. So it leads me to think that we have some extra something that makes us aware of who we are. You might say its because there is some biological need that had to be filled, but I would counter with why dont animals need this function to live. Why are we aware of our thoughts? What is the point if you look at it from a biological ecosystem perspective. if we're just little ants on a big blue sphere why do the ants need to know A.) they're ants b.) we're on a big blue sphere c.) this big blue sphere is part of a bigger cosmic system.

        Its a rhetoric question, the why cant be answered. There is no need for humans to be aware in order to eat, *****, sleep yet we do..

        Man this hangover is killing me. Hopefully that diatribe made some sort of point.
    • NerdyNinja, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4What if the power were to go out in the middle of you being on your way to Tahiti? Also, how could this EVER work on humans? Wouldn't subjecting living cells to that kind of cold just kill everything? This isn't exactly a carbonite teleporter, guys.
    • TjLAXattack, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Forget humans, this would work great to 'port me some Dippin Dots as fast as possible.
    • Tanishh, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Even if it can't be used on humans it'd still be the best invention in decades at the least. Unless it's insanely expensive or energy consuming once in its finished form, so long as it worked properly there'd be literally thousands and thousands of uses for something like this, from transporting supplies to an area hit by a natural disaster to transporting troops instantly to a combat zone to allowing medical or law enforcement personel to reach a scene much faster. Of course, we'd have to figure out how to make it work long range rather than just across a room first.
  • curios, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Here's their ArXiv journal paper http://arxiv.org/abs/0706.0062
    Here's the newscientist article with animations http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19426085.800-teleportation-but-not-as-we-know-it.html
    • tetsuwan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Awesome! I was looking for the paper itself. Too bad I dugg down your comment. My error rate is 33% and no error correction scheme has worked so far to compensate for the Digg UI.
  • jsd8cc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+37Let's just hope they have a copious supply of flypaper in the lab.
    • deadowl, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1But if that movie were true, what would happen if I was making out with someone in it?
  • GirthAgain, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11Two to beam up.
  • Platinumwolf, on 10/11/2007, -1/+19Forget human use, if this could work on a large scale, we could side step the whole space-elevator idea and begin mass transportation of materials into orbit, only using the space shuttles and new space planes for people. If this works on a large scale it could usher in an explosion in space exploration.
    • phrantakle, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Yeah, apart from the bit where they send them all along fiber optic cables into space. Whoops.
      • toescs, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2It would run along the giant space tether that keeps the moon from floating away.
    • ricree, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Because running a data line into space is more difficult than building a lift?
    • hitmonval, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1The energy crisis would be over, and the price of travel would plummet.
    • barc0de, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Nope Nope Nope. Teleportation as we currently understand it involves the replacement of one particles properties with another. To teleport something into space, you would need a bunch of "raw" atoms up there to begin with.

      Otherwise you could build a large tower with a chain loop all the way to the top attached to a generator at the bottom. Teleport a heavy weight to the top of the tower, attach it to the chain and drop it off. Repeat procedure ad infinitum and you have yourself a free energy machine.
      • dezmo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1the point is that if you can move materials atom by atom and still use them you can do it a lot faster and easier that moving big chunks of matter.
        • barc0de, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0No. You cannot move atoms through fiber optic cable. You just cant. Just as you need blank paper at the recieving end of a fax machine - you will need blank atoms at the receiving end of a teleporter. And if thats in space, then you will need to ship up a bunch of blank atoms into space.
    • rizla420, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0You can use wirless communication or line of sight. Doesnt have to be a cable. There are different mediums you could use.
  • SmackMyMac, on 10/11/2007, -10/+5I'm on finding the cure for the common cold.

    Wow, this is easy. All I need are stem cells, 3 dead babies, and dark matter.

    Let's get this project underway!
  • secretwhistle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9When it absolutely, positively has to be there now.
  • flanigan, on 10/11/2007, -10/+1I don't think the world's governments would ever allow teleportation to be developed, unless the world was just about out of oil. SOOO much revenue would be lost if teleportation replaced driving, that they would destroy any research to prevent it. Scratch that; they'd actually buy it and use teleportation in war.
    • joshcxa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1nah they would just heavily tax teleportation. they'll think of a way
    • ricree, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I don' t think that the government would ever allow automobiles to be developed, unless the world was just about to run out of hay. SOOO much revenue would be lost if driving cars replaced horseback riding, that they would destroy any research to prevent it.
  • andrewcsayer, on 10/11/2007, -1/+21But will it teleport?
    • rejoined, on 10/11/2007, -1/+23Yes it will, but you'll get blended on the way.
      • Narwaffle, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18"Mutilated ***** sapien smoke. Don't breathe this"
  • aussiecarlos, on 10/11/2007, -3/+26Go Australia!
  • Shenanigans, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5People shouldn't be concerning this with humans in my opinion. I imagine this technology could be used for sending objects to friends and things of the sort. Sure it could be a step toward human teleportation, but humans being as delicate as we are will take many more years of research and discoveries.
    • missflibbles, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Nah, it's fine, really. Just as long as we're asleep when we make the Jaunt we'll be fine.
  • jmpeagle, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2this solves global warming....we attach a fiber optic cable to the ISS or a sattellite and then pump carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and make sure we attach it to a sattellite in geosynchronous orbit. PROBLEM SOLVED. Do I get a Nobel Prize fore this?
    • KlayBorg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Problem is that we would need to be able to single out just CO2 molecules, which will be much more difficult to achieve, however with more research it could be possible.
    • NightBlade40, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3How do you know that the machine doesn't produce more carbon dioxide than it sends into geosynchronous orbit, eh?
    • maabus, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1No, because you're an idiot.
  • UCFartstudntJON, on 10/11/2007, -5/+26I, for one, welcome our new Ausie teleporting overlords.
  • cryemoxkidcry, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Who hasn't made a teleportation scheme?
    • ozroy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2This one is different. It does not use entanglement to teleport the atom. I don't really understand how, but they are able to suspend the atom and somehow recreate an exact duplicate of it using optical fibers.
  • Rabbittt, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2This isn't actual teleportation, it's virtual.. The atoms still must move along a vector and occupy all points along the line.. In other words, it moves atoms through space, which is transportation.. Ok, so maybe hypertransport, but NOT teleportation.. Buried!
    • ozroy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Physicist are you? They are not transporting the original atom. They are making an exact copy of it ie, they teleport it.
    • GoldYoshi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Since it's copying it over, anyone remember that Outer Limits where the person has to kill this woman who didn't get "erased" on on end, in order to complete the process?
  • Cathartik, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9We have some of the best scientists in the world and yet the government hardly gives any funding to research. What's the use of a having a 10 billion surplus if you don't use it?
    • KlayBorg, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2Thats Howard for you...
      BTW to all Americans who plan to digg him down, HE IS NOT TALKING ABOUT AMERICA!!!!
      I just needed to point that out as there are a huge amount of Americans who think everything revolves around American and all people on digg are Americans.
    • aussiecarlos, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5We also have the ***** ADSL in the western developed world, some of that $10bil could go to good use on that too. But yeah I have to agree, Australian scientists don't nearly get the credit they are due, after all some of the world's best inventions have come out of Australia.
      • KlayBorg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Vote labour then, they are going to build a new broadband network.
      • McFrosty, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Like the didgeridoo.
    • asdfrewq, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Because $10 billion, in an election year, looks far better as a surplus then it does being spent on things the majority of the population doesn't even understand and will probably never use in their lifetime. On the other hand, $10billion could be well spent on health care, education, transport or one of the many other services we use daily (sorry, ADSL, as important as it is for business, it's not crucial nor economically viable to have ultra high speed broadband to each and every household. You'll just have to wait a little bit longer for that torrent to finish ;) )
      • Logikos, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Or we could just use it to harrass people in the northern states.
      • KlayBorg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Pity he is ignoring those sections too, now he plans to waste more money with continuing with the Iraq war...
    • lodwar, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"mmm....surplus"

      -USA
  • joshcxa, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1You can bash invisibility up your arse, teleporting is where it's at!
  • KlayBorg, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Those guys are such myspace posers :P
  • krebcycle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Aspect experiments. Google it. It ain't happening folks. Action at a distance? Yes. That's it so far.
  • aydoubleyou, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Teleportation will give you cancer.
  • max1574, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3ozzy! ozzy! ozzy!
  • TheHighPrivate, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Ye cannae change the laws of physics
  • mikesty, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Did anyone else think of Young Einstein after reading the headline?
    • sabach, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Putting the bubbles in beer was a truly great achievement though.
  • kije, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4I'm pretty sure the first thing they'll try to teleport will be beer.
    • Digitalwingx, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Aussies got some decent beers down here actually
  • XISUPERMANIX, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2Do we really want something like this built by austrailians?
    • Narwaffle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I don't see the problem.
      • t4k3n, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5translated ... " she'll be right mate! "
    • sathias, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5You might not want it but we definately do... then we can teleport beers straight from the fridge to the couch without getting up :)
    • WestDC, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Yeah, that'd be right. A guy whose username is all in caps, with an American flag avatar, bagging "Austrailians". Please grow up, don't be so ignorant.
    • Ph0N37Ic5, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2FLAME BAIT: Rather an Aussie build something like this than a Yankee. From what I've seen from Americans around here they could do with a few more braincells to go around. (and this coming from one who is neither, digg me down boys)
      • bubba9999, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Thank goodness you're here as a shining example of what we all could be.
    • cutsomeat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0If you are going to insult. Spell your words properly.
  • sockpuppets, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7I'm eagerly awaiting the youtube video of someone tricked into downloading tubgirl- literally.
  • cantignie, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Beam me up, Scottie!
  • zhouyang, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0i success.
  • dming, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Assuming that they eventually figure out how to teleport much larger objects, would this technology ever be useful for beaming humans around? I mean, doesn't that mean the original "copy" of you get destroyed and a copy of you is reconstructed on the other side? I'd imagine the process of breaking down a human body at an atomic level to be quite painful, and the reconstructed version on the other side wouldn't really be the same person... Please enlighten me if this is not the case.
    • pjsk8, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Well, that all depends on your view of consciousness and/or of the "soul" (however you may wish to describe it). One person might argue that your consciousness has nothing to do with your physical being, but in fact, takes on a whole different dimension, which cannot be replicated through this for of "teleportation". I could then, of course, argue that your consciousness is nothing more than the interactions between electrical impulses within your brain combined with other certain chemicals which would, in fact, by "teleported" to the final destination.

      My point: How exactly would you, dming, describe "consciousness"?
      • pjsk8, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1*My edit timed out*

        It is clear because our basic understanding of conscience differs, we obtain two different outcomes, both of which have the potential for being correct. Therefore, a more thorough grasp of the conscience is needed in order to fully understand the consequences of the teleportation of human beings (Well, if you don't want to risk any human beings in the process first, lol)

        Got that?
    • miskaone, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1imagine this, Colonies on moon or Mars. With the need for raw materials and the risk of human flight, would it not make this more feasible if you could teleport materials such as water, air, basic materials for making proteins.
  • Ph0N37Ic5, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1imagine: ehm, sorry, wrong number 8)
  • joker1972, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2just had to dugg this just for been Australian
  • Pushkin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I'll just fax you this hand grenade
  • fwedwic, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1cant wait until we get a president that is all for science research and space exploration. it'd be interesting to see all that (generally wasted) money spent on something awesome.
  • bubba9999, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I hope they can beam me over for a visit. It's really expensive to get there from here, and I would love to go there before I get run over by a bus or something.
  • nurceyiz, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0When it absolutely, positively has to be there now.
    http://www.nurceyizevtekstili.com
  • MarkOfTheDead, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1did you just feel that rumble? that was all the heads of FedEx getting a raging hardon.
  • anarchytv, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Forget the stupid star trek ideas of teleportation. Something like this would be more useful for accelerating communication.
  • WarBeast, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1If they do ever figure out a way to test it on humans they should let Jeff Goldblum be the first one to try it out.
  • caponumen, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Buried, wrong application.....
  • HPSauce, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Wonder what military applications they could use if developed. They'd probably be threatening the entire Far East region with their powers, a scary thought indeed. :(
  • Computer_Kid, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I want an FTL drive in my car!

    "oh no, I need to be at work in 3 minuets" (BSG FTL sound)
  • swordedge, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Brings to atom to absolute zero... Too cold for me!!!!
  •  

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