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103 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+96I'm pissed, we were supposed to have flying cars, entire meals in a pill, and civilian space travel by now.
But all we get is a small robot vacuum cleaner that gets stuck on the cat. - masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25This isn't teleportation. It's beaming information into light and storing it there, allowing other things to replicate that data. At best, they'd be able to clone us instantaneously.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -11/+31Are people truly this stupid? Think about it, what IS a transporter?
It's a device that kills you.
Not only that, but it completely and utterly vaporizes your entire body. After you're dead and your corpse has been destroyed in a brilliant flash of light, a computer analyzes each atom that made up your body, builds a sort of detailed blue-print, and transmits the information to another location. That other location receives the data and uses some form of technique of changing information into matter and rebuilds your physical body atom by atom.
Your entire body is re-created. It's just too bad that YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD.
So, who is your other self that was just built from your molecular blueprints? It's your CLONE! It's not you. It'll never be you. You're long gone, and there's nothing left of you to bury.
This is a clever little device of science fiction, and it might someday (possibly many many centuries from now) be used to replicate certain physical objects or construct things that are designed inside a computer. But it'll never, EVER be used to "transport" humans, and if it will, the operators of these transporter machines will be nothing short of mass murderers. - TheSaladMan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+26The replicator aspect is useful, but obviously if you bought food using your Mac and iFood it wouldn't work with your friend's Microsoft cuttlery!
- fenixconnektion, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Tea, Earl Grey, HOT.
- zirtbow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17If you had a replicator to create stuff on your own imagine the RIAA type lawsuits that would stem from that!
- wstrucke, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20Beam me up, Scotty.
(Kirk never actually said that exact phrase)
But really... if this sort of technology somehow actually came into being, I think the sci-fi "replicator" aspect of it would be MUCH more useful to than "transporting." If you could actually create hundreds of usable objects from nothing but energy... well, that would be a huge paradigm shift in how we all live. - ScottJG, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17While this may be good for most things, I wonder about transporting humans. Even if we can be transported, is the person on the other side us, or just a clone of us with all our memories?
- datastorageguy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Good question. It has to do with whether or not you believe that the seat of consciousness is a physical phenomenon or something that is non algorithmic, and non physical.
If it is algorithmic in nature, that would mean that our consciousness can be re ordered atom by atom and put back together again. If it is not, than consciousness is a result of some as of yet unseen and unexplained phenomenon.
Read Roger Penrose's "The Emperor's New Mind" it talks about this. Very good read. - afex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13just make sure there's not a housefly in there when you do it...
- quickgold192, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Good question. Am I really the same person I was two years ago? Most of those atoms have already been replaced with new ones leaving me as a mere copy of myself. If you know what I mean.
- datastorageguy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Too bad the amount of information contained within one gram of matter would require a computer the size (or computing power) of the universe in order to calculate. Teleporting humans won't be happening anytime soon...
- greenvortex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9There's probably a lot of room for lossless compression of the information contained in matter. Make sure you have plenty of PAR files on hand, anyway. ;)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11My kids and grandkids will be doing the same thing I am today, they'll just be paying more for it.
Scientists wont make any progress on REAL teleportation for awhile, and when they do, lawyers will tie it up in courts so they can still get kickbacks from oil companies. - therernospoons, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I prefer a Stargate ;)
- malkir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9"I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Meggie's heart away
And I got Sidney's leg." - derkaas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@datastorageguy
To "calculate?" If by that you mean accurately read the quantum state of all that matter, then regardless of how big a computer we have, Heisenberg tells us that doing so is not even within the realm of possibility (see his Uncertainty Principle). Turns out perfect accuracy doesn't really matter all that much (see Brownian motion). People subject themselves to massive disruptions of the quantum states of their consituent particles all the time as the subjects of nuclear magnetic and/or electron spin resonance spectroscopy and are seemingly still human and still "themselves." And no one is really trying to "read" that state anyway. What they're really doing is much spookier and is a bit like "copying" the state to some other particle that will then be forced to behave the same way as the original (see Quantum entanglement and EPR paradox).
You're right that this probably won't happen anytime soon though. Creating entanglement involving every particle in a human being is a bit of a challenge to say the least. "Grandkids" is a bit optimistic. - stevieB, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Not going to happen.
All they're doing is making one thing act like another. A quantuum Xerox.
In Star Trek, you get disassembled atomically, then matter somewhere else is arranged in the same pattern. Raise your hand if you're willing to test that. Your clone will thank you. - perkonis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7If we do someday manage to perfect teleportation, it will be about 20 minutes before the spammers take over. I don't even want to think about what would wind up in my "inbox".
- nandes, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12datastorageguy knows what's up.
Terrible, sensationalist title BTW. - Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"I'm pissed, we were supposed to have flying cars, entire meals in a pill, and civilian space travel by now."
The key problem isn't really technology, but profitability and our current form of economy.
Flying cars? No problem; there's been decent prototypes already, and same at least for civilian space flight, but you need to be a multimillionare... - Fafnir43, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7True, but teleportation would still be extremely useful for delivery of goods (and services, when we get the robots). Your pizza arrives in thirty seconds or it's free!
- mojoel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Probably requires a bit more bandwidth than standard DSL/Cable too. So by the time the data is completely transmitted to the other end. You could have flown there by plane & back like 500 times or something. What if we sent a device to I don't know... Alpha Centauri. And we could send the atoms as data on bursts of light. It might take a week to complete the transmission but as long as an asteroid or planet doesn't get in the way it would be fine. Then we could 'travel' at the speed of light. Man, I sohould patent that idea.
- awm4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I find it interesting that they can predict this sort of technological advance down to the closest generation.
My great grandkids. Hmmmmm that's between 70 and 150 years from now. Good to know.
(\sarcasm) - trejrco, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9And, of course, there are security / military problems with this ... how to stop someone from "teleporting" you into space, your jewelry into their pocket, a bomb into your house, etc. etc. It is one of those "exciting but scary" things.
As for creation of stuff - again, exciting but scary.
Make food & water = solves many of the world's problems ... make enriched uranium = cause new ones.
(or, if energy is cheap enough - just make diamonds/gold/whatever to destabilize/devalue them) ... weeee!) - HP844182, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Literally spam?
- awm4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Trillions
- droversoul, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Waterdragon,
What are we then? - missflibbles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Who cares? I think I can speak for everyone when I ask: if you have sex with your clone, is it gay or masturbation?
- noodlez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5my point is that to simply record the information (properties, position, etc.) of every atom in our bodies would require massive amounts of storage. we'd then need to transmit that data elsewhere, store it there, and then have something to duplicate every atom.
the spiritual and mental consequences are totally unknown.
anyone ever see the movie "event horizon"? who knows, teleporting might be like that - Felucca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Quantum teleportation between two mesoscopic objects: a photonic pulse and an atomic ensemble
http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0605095 - jarek91, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@trejrco
what value? The creation of a fully functioning replicator could very well be the advent of a moneyless society like they portrayed in Star Trek... - albinoMithos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Now let's say that eventually we do get the technology to teleport humans around. I ask you who among us is gonna be brave enough to test it in the alpha/beta stages of development? Or are we all gonna wuss out on trying to teleport like a Dr. McCoy?
- noodlez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4don't know why the parent is modded down.
there's been a discussion on this type of technology before, and it essentially is just a long-distance cloner. something that records the information for every atom in your body and then recreates it exactly, somewhere else, and kills the original.
the ammount of info they'd have to learn to transmit would be massive, let alone storing it. we have quite a while before this type of thing works, let alone become accepted by the masses. - 4ooFdvr, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Too bad we spend about 2/3 of GDP on making war. If not we could have this ready by Christmas.
- TritonX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Nice, I will be able to have a backup of myself on a usb key ;)
- haelios, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Honds, I think he meant quantum entaglement, which is a little different. Also, you can create matter from energy.
- rkenward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I wonder when we will have wireless electricity? Can you imagine a world without wires? Finally no more tangled mess! Oh yeah, cool concept - lame digg because of misleading title.
- zaqintosh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6ilyag , I'm suprised it took this long for someone to complain about transportation = killing
I've been thinking that all along!
I mean, it not only has to reproduce you, but it has to scan you first.
If it justed scanned you without destroying the original copy, and re-created you on the other side... now they are two of you. Are they both you? well .. no.. one is a copy. So teleportation effectively kills you the first time, after that... if you continue using the teleporter its just killing clones, so no biggie :) - missflibbles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4none of us will test in alpha and beta stages. First it'll be rats, followed by cats, dogs, and non-human primates. People won't test it until it's almost ready to go public.
- AnotherBrian, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Re: ilyag
Well that all depends on how you define "you". Are you an incredibly complex group of atoms or does that grouping of atoms have some other properties that are separate from the atoms and only exist when there is a certain collection kind of collection of them.
The theory of a 'Star Trek' is kind of like stopping the clock cycles on your computer,, then recording the state of every memory cell and transistor and other components. Then replicating those states in another piece of exactly the same hardware and resuming the clock. If you where a program running on the first computer, would you be the same, could you tell the difference? (Other that the time that has passed while you where 'offline').
The whole point is moot anyways because one would have to record the position and velocity of every single atom in your body instantly and without affecting any others in the scanning process. These are extremely impossible with our current understanding of physics.
To give you an idea of the difficulty. If we could stop time for you and only you, we would only be 1/3 the way there. - Modulo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I look forward to the day when I can download Jessica Alba over the intarweb. Oh what a wonderful day that will be.
- Daiken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Buried for being inaccurate. You can't transport someone. Maybe you could kill them, and recreate them, but guess what you'd have at the other end? A corpse. This device cannot and will not be able to replicate the electrical signals and impulses that are constantly flowing through our brains and bodies.
Secondly, before you can transport something, you have to create a "replicator" which can basically create anything and all elements. Also if you want this to be a transporter, your particles would have to be "transported" and received at another end. Guess what, there is matter all around us. The chances of being able to move an atom from one place to another and be picked up and put into a place in space (magically) is near impossible. - wozley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well this will be a pain in the ass. Last thing I want is my grandkids literally popping in to see me while I'm trying to die.
- rafaelcapanema, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I am definitely no physics expert, but I think it is never wise to say "men will never be able to [insert a dream here]".
Maybe teleportation is just as impossible as flying was 500 years ago. - decipherd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3More importantly what happens to the original 'you' - how is it destroyed? and where are you in the time between being destroyed and recreated at the other side, are you dead?
- sokz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Magic and pixie dust, drover.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3...If you kill a clone does it really count as murder?
- haelios, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8"Since there is an astral body also"
Oh that's a fact now is it? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Right now according to the article their method uses light as a carrier... Light is too slow to go anywhere useful (beyond our solar system.)
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